Aztec and Maya Calendar
In the tonalpohualli, the sacred Aztec calendar, Monday December 18, 1978 is:
Xihuitl:
solar year
6 - Acatl (reed)
Xiuhpohualli:
365-day calendar
5 - Tozoztontli (III)
Long Count:
Mayan calendar
12.18.5.8.18
(Correlation: Alfonso Caso - Nicholson's veintena alignment [adjust])
The significance of this day
Day Tecpatl (Stone Knife, known as Etznab in Maya) is governed by Chalchihuihtotolin, the Jewelled Fowl, as its provider of tonalli (Shadow Soul) life energy. Tecpatl is a day of grave ordeals, a day of trials and tribulations. It is a good day to test one's character, a bad day to rest on one's past accomplishments or reputation. Tecpatl warns that the mind, the spirit, must be sharpened like the glass blade which cuts to the marrow of truth
The thirteen day period (trecena) that starts with day 1-Atl (Water) is ruled by Chalchihuihtotolin. These are 13 days of instability and unexpected events, of accidents and coincidences: these are good days to gamble a little on a long-shot; bad days to gamble a lot on a sure thing. Every day rollercoasters between all-good and all-bad, between rapture and terror. This trecena advises the priest-warrior to perfect the art of shapeshifting: only by mimicking the nature of water do we become an agent of change rather than a target of it. The purified heart casts no reflection in the smoking mirror.
Katie Holmes was born on day 10-Tecpatl.
Aztec facts
In the years after the conquest of Mexico, the xiuhpohualli (solar calendar) became tied to the Julian calendar as used by the Spaniards. This effectively introduced a leap year to the Aztec calendar every four years (this site provides the pre-conquest calendar).