How We Source This: Our Approach to Tzolk'in Information

What This Site Is and Is Not

Atitlan Vida is a cultural guide for travelers and curious people drawn to Lake Atitlan. We present information about the Tzolk'in (Cholq'ij) sacred calendar because it is a living part of the culture of this region, and we believe understanding it helps visitors engage more thoughtfully with the communities around the lake.

We are not a source of day-keeper authority. We are not ajq'ijab' (Maya day-keepers). We have not received the knowledge of the calendar through community lineage or ceremonial formation. We present documented scholarship, and we are careful to say so.

What We Draw On

The information on this site comes from several categories of source, held to different degrees of confidence.

Academic ethnographies and published scholarship form the strongest tier. Works such as those by Frauke Sachse, Simon Martin, and colleagues who have documented Maya calendar practice through field research and rigorous historical analysis carry substantial weight. These researchers worked in community, consulted with practitioners, and subjected their findings to peer review. When we draw on this tier, our confidence is relatively high.

Archaeological and epigraphic research provides the historical foundation. Classic-period inscriptions and iconography, studied by generations of scholars including those working with corpus-based methods, give us insight into how Maya calendar concepts developed over time. This tier is strong on historical questions and weaker on living practice.

Synthesis documents and research briefs compiled specifically for this project draw on the above sources and help us maintain consistency. They do not constitute independent authority; they help us organize what the primary sources say.

Modern teacher material and popular educational sources occupy the lowest tier of confidence in our framework. These include workshop transcripts, YouTube explanations, and calendar apps produced by contemporary practitioners and enthusiasts. Such material is sometimes valuable and is always labeled as such; it does not define Traditional practice in our presentation without corroboration from higher-tier sources.

What Confidence Levels Mean

Each section of our Tzolk'in content carries a confidence label, either "solid" or "emerging."

Solid means the claim is supported by multiple high-tier sources (academic ethnography, archaeological scholarship, Indigenous-community-endorsed publications) and that those sources agree with one another on the point in question. We are not claiming certainty; we are saying the documentation is robust.

Emerging means the claim appears in fewer sources or in sources of lower authority (a single teacher's account, a popular calculator, an unverified synthesis). We still find the information worth sharing, but we hold it more loosely and label it accordingly.

We resist the temptation to present everything with equal confidence just to sound more authoritative. The Tzolk'in is a rich and complex system, and the scholarly understanding of it continues to develop. Honest uncertainty is more useful to readers than false assurance.

What We Do Not Claim

We do not claim to speak for any Maya community. We do not represent our content as endorsed by ajq'ijab' or any daykeeper organization. We do not assert that our presentation of any day sign's nawal meaning is the authoritative or complete interpretation; day-keepers and their communities hold knowledge that goes well beyond what published scholarship captures.

We also do not claim that any particular teacher, author, or online source is the single correct voice on the Cholq'ij. The tradition has regional and lineage-based variations; different K'iche', Kaqchikel, and Tz'utujil communities may emphasize different aspects. Our sources reflect that diversity where they can and note where they cannot.

If You Want to Go Deeper

The most direct path to authoritative Cholq'ij knowledge is through the communities themselves: day-keepers offering ceremonies, community organizations in towns like Santiago Atitlan, San Marcos, or Chichicastenango, or published works by and in collaboration with Maya scholars. This site can point you toward the tradition; it cannot replace engagement with it.

If you find an error, an overstatement, or a conflation in our content, we want to know. Contact us through the site and we will review it.

Why This Matters

The Cholq'ij belongs to living communities who have carried it through five centuries of profound disruption. Representing it with integrity, being honest about what we know, what we do not know, and where our information comes from, is a form of respect. We take that seriously.

Sources and further reading

This page synthesizes published academic and ethnographic scholarship. It presents the living K’iche’ tradition through documented sources, not as insider authority.

• K'iche' Mayan tradition keepers and contemporary practitioners, (traditional), Working Authority: K'iche' Daykeeper and Tzolk'in Interpretation
• K'iche' Mayan tradition keepers, (traditional), Traditional K'iche' Daykeeper Source Stack
• John M. Weeks, Sachse, Prager, (2009), Maya Daykeeping: Three Calendars from Highland Guatemala
• Unknown, Contemporary Cholq'ij Practice, OpenEdition