Chicomaca (MH559r)

This day sign comes from the tonalpohualli, the 260-day divinatory calendar. Calendrics figure importantly in Nahuas' religious views of the cosmos.

The gloss may be in error, or the scribe made an error in the number of circles he drew, considering that the number of counters shown differs from the number indicated in the gloss. This may be indicative of the fading ability to produce calendrical glyph names that have both the glyph and the notation drawn with precision. The numbers were dropping away, as can be seen with the Ce-Acatl name, below, and the Calli names without even a glossed number. The colonial clergy may have tried to suppress calendrical names, given their association with divinatory codices and the Indigenous religious beliefs. Or, there could have been some self-censorship in the colonial context. But calendrical naming did continue, even as it evolved.

If not specifically referring to the calendar, the name can also refer to a medicinal herb called chicomacatl, which probably still also has associations with the calendar.