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K'an (K'at): The Ripe Maize Day, Fourth Sign of the Maya Calendar

Prepared by the Mayan Astrology Calculator editors · Sources below · Reviewed 10 October 2026 · Calculation: gmt584283-proleptic-gregorian-v1

Quick answer. K'an is the fourth of the 20 day signs in the 260-day Maya calendar. In K'iche' the same day is K'at. The Yucatec word k'an means "yellow" and "ripe", and the day has long been tied to ripe maize; David Stuart describes the glyph as "a maize tamale in its origin". The K'iche' name K'at means "net". The label "Seed" is the Dreamspell name ("Yellow Seed"), not a translation of the Maya day. [1][4][5][6]

Is K'an your day sign? Enter your birth date

K'an at a glance
Position in the 20-day cycle 4 of 20 [1]
How often it returns Every 20 days; a pairing such as 4 K'an returns every 260 days [2]
Yucatec name K'an (16th-century spelling Kan) [1]
Possible Classic-period reading Ohl? (tentative) [1]
Highland Guatemala (K'iche') K'at; Kat, 4at, Cat in colonial calendars [3]
Meaning of the Yucatec word "Yellow; ripe" [1][4]
Meaning of the K'iche' word k'at, "net; cord; bag made of cords" [5]
What the glyph depicts In origin, a maize tamale (Stuart); grains of maize (Thompson) [4][6]
Central Mexican counterpart Cuetzpalin, "lizard"; at Meztitlan, Xilotl, "green ear of corn" [4]
Haab' days it can share Only day 2, 7, 12 or 17 of a Haab' month [1]
How we calculate it GMT correlation 584283, proleptic Gregorian dates [8]
Dreamspell alias (modern, José & Lloydine Argüelles, from 1987) "Yellow Seed", seal 4; a separate system with a different count [9][10]

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Where K'an sits in the 260-day count

K'an follows Ak'bal and precedes Chikchan, so 3 Ak'bal is followed by 4 K'an. [1] Over 260 days K'an meets every number from 1 to 13 once. [2] In the 365-day Haab' it can only fall on positions 2, 7, 12 or 17 of a month, which it shares with Muluk, Ix and Kawak. [1]

What the name means

In Yucatec, k'an is an everyday word. Kettunen and Helmke gloss the Classic adjective K'AN as "yellow" and "ripe", and note it as a color term used, for example, to describe cacao drinks. [1] Thompson listed further senses in 1950: Yucatec kan also means "cord" and "any netted cord", and related words for "ripe" occur in Q'eqchi' and Ch'ol. [4]

The K'iche' name points the same way from a different angle. Christenson's dictionary glosses k'at as "net; cord; bag made of cords". [5] So the lowland "cord" sense and the highland "net" sense overlap, even though the two names are different words.

K'iche' daykeepers also play on the sound of the name. Christenson, citing Barbara Tedlock, notes that in divination "the meaning of the day C'at may be derived from c'atic (to burn), pa c'at (in nets), or c'asaj c'olic (to be in debt)", each valid in its context. [7] This is a good reminder that a day name in living practice is a cluster of associations, not a single keyword.

The glyph: from tamale to maize grain

Thompson saw the K'an sign as grains of maize. Young maize plants grow out of K'an signs in the codices, and a maize plant growing from a K'an sign forms the headdress of the maize god and other deities. He added that K'an signs often accompany food offerings, so the word could stand for food in general, "our daily bread". [4] He pointed to the Kaua augury, which links K'an with yumil ixim, "the lord of the maize grain". [4]

David Stuart's recent work refines this. In discussing the day Ben, he describes K'an as "a maize tamale in its origin". [6] He also groups K'an with day signs that were abbreviated from a feature on a deity's forehead, the same visual shorthand that turned Imix into a waterlily. [11] In other words, the abstract cross-shaped sign is a shorthand for a food made of maize, linked to the young maize god.

K'an in ancient texts

Thompson's 1950 count of Classic monument dates (excluding major period endings) found K'an among the most frequent days, with 35 occurrences, after Ajaw, Imix, Kaban and Lamat. [4] Thompson himself cautioned that monument dates were chosen for astronomical and ritual reasons, so frequency says little about whether a day was considered lucky.

K'at in highland tradition

The 260-day count is still kept in highland Guatemala by Ajq'ijab' (daykeepers). [2] Published records of K'at differ from the lowland "ripe maize" picture:

  • 1854 manuscript. Vicente Hernández Spina's calendar lists K'at as a "bad day", like the day before it. [3]
  • 20th-century fieldwork. Weeks, Sachse and Prager, summarizing Bunzel (1952) and Tedlock (1992), describe K'at as "symbolic of evil in general"; 7 Aq'ab'al and 8 K'at were days to pray for protection against the envy of others. [3]
  • Rank among the Mam. Christenson's dictionary calls K'at the "Secretary/Treasurer Mam", a role among the day lords. [5]
  • Personal names. Colonial sources quoted by Weeks and colleagues report that K'iche' and Kaqchikel children took the name of their birth day; K'at is among the day names recorded as personal names. [3]

These records describe practice in particular places and times. They are not forecasts for anyone born on K'an. We are not daykeepers. Our reports use the image of ripening maize as modern reflective writing: what in your life is ready to be gathered?

Traditional K'an vs Dreamspell "Yellow Seed"

"Yellow Seed" is seal 4 in the Dreamspell, a modern system begun by José and Lloydine Argüelles in 1987 and published as a kit in 1990. [10] Dreamspell gives it the keywords Flowering, Targets and Awareness. [9] Many websites, including earlier versions of this one, label K'an "Seed" for this reason. The Maya day is about ripe maize and the color yellow, which is close, but "Seed" is Dreamspell's word.

The two systems also count differently. Dreamspell fixes 26 July 1987 as "Kin 34, White Galactic Wizard" and skips 29 February. [10][12] 13 Oct 2026 is 4 K'an in the traditional count; Dreamspell calls it Kin 48, Yellow Solar Star. The next Dreamspell "Yellow Seed" day, 29 Oct 2026 (Kin 64, Yellow Crystal Seed), is 7 Ajaw in the traditional count. [Link: Dreamspell vs traditional converter → /dreamspell-vs-traditional-maya-calendar]

Colors, directions and "elements"

  • Direction. Prehispanic calendars assigned the days to east, north, west and south in turn, which places the fourth day in the south. [13] Contemporary K'iche' practice ties the south to Q'anil (Lamat) instead, not to K'at. [13]
  • Color. The south is yellow in colonial Yucatec texts, and k'an itself means yellow. [1][11] Dreamspell also colors this seal yellow. [9]
  • Element. Some charts, including earlier versions of this site, give K'an the element "fire". We found no traditional source assigning Greek-style elements to day signs. It appears on this site only as a labeled modern convention.

Upcoming K'an days

Calculated with the GMT 584283 correlation, the same method as our calculator, as of 10 October 2026: [8]

Gregorian date Tzolk'in (traditional) Haab' Dreamspell, for comparison only
13 Oct 2026 4 K'an 17 Yax Kin 48, Yellow Solar Star
2 Nov 2026 11 K'an 17 Sak' Kin 68, Yellow Electric Star
22 Nov 2026 5 K'an 17 Keh Kin 88, Yellow Planetary Star
12 Dec 2026 12 K'an 17 Mak Kin 108, Yellow Self-Existing Star
1 Jan 2027 6 K'an 17 K'ank'in Kin 128, Yellow Spectral Star
21 Jan 2027 13 K'an 17 Muwan Kin 148, Yellow Overtone Star
10 Feb 2027 7 K'an 17 Pax Kin 168, Yellow Crystal Star

The date tables use your local date when JavaScript is available. Without it, they stay at the 10 October 2026 snapshot.

Each falls on day 17 of its Haab' month, one of the four positions (2, 7, 12, 17) open to K'an. [1]

K'an with each of the 13 numbers

Each number links to its page; the anchors let number pages link back here.

K'an and relationships

Our compatibility tool compares two full birth signatures with a modern reflective method, not a documented historical Maya formula. [Compare two birth dates → /compatibility]

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FAQ

Are K'an and K'at the same day? Yes. K'an (older spelling Kan) is the Yucatec name and K'at the K'iche' name for the fourth day. [1][3]

Is K'an the "Seed" sign? "Seed" is the Dreamspell label ("Yellow Seed"). The Maya word means "yellow, ripe", and the glyph is linked to maize. [1][4][9]

What does K'an mean? In Yucatec, "yellow" and "ripe", and also "cord"; in K'iche', K'at means "net". [1][4][5]

Is "Yellow Seed" the same as K'an? It fills the same slot in Dreamspell's list, but Dreamspell's count differs, so a "Yellow Seed" birthday is usually not a K'an day. [9][10]

Why does another calculator give me a different day sign? It may use the Dreamspell count, or a correlation constant other than 584283, which shifts results by a day or two. [8][14]

Is K'an a zodiac sign? No. It names a day that recurs every 20 days. → How we calculate

Sources

  1. Kettunen, Harri, and Christophe Helmke. Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs, 17th rev. ed. Wayeb, 2020, pp. 36, 49, 51, 56, 84. https://www.mesoweb.org/resources/handbook/IMH2020.pdf
  2. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. "The Calendar System." Living Maya Time. https://maya.nmai.si.edu/calendar/calendar-system
  3. Weeks, John M., Frauke Sachse, and Christian M. Prager. Maya Daykeeping: Three Calendars from Highland Guatemala. University Press of Colorado, 2009, pp. 3 (Table 1.1), 12–13. https://www.upcolorado.com/media/acfupload/9780870819969.pdf
  4. Thompson, J. Eric S. Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1950, pp. 75, 92 (Table 7).
  5. Christenson, Allen J. K'iche'–English Dictionary. FAMSI, s.v. "K'at", "k'at". https://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/christenson/quidic_complete.pdf
  6. Stuart, David. "Day Sign Notes: Ben / Aj." Maya Decipherment, 16 Oct 2025. https://mayadecipherment.com/2025/10/16/day-sign-notes-ben-aj/
  7. Christenson, Allen J. Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People. Electronic edition, Mesoweb, 2007, p. 52, n. (citing B. Tedlock 1982:110). https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf
  8. Mayan Astrology Calculator. "Calculation Methodology and Cultural Scope." https://mayanastrologycalculator.com/methodology
  9. Foundation for the Law of Time. "Learning the 13 Galactic Tones and 20 Solar Seals." https://lawoftime.org/infobooth/sealsandtones.html
  10. "Dreamspell." Wikipedia (citing Argüelles & Argüelles, Dreamspell kit, 1990). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamspell
  11. Stuart, David. "Day Sign Notes: Muluc / Toj." Maya Decipherment, 6 Sep 2026; and "Day Sign Notes: Imix / Imox," 14 Aug 2025. https://mayadecipherment.com/2026/09/06/day-sign-notes-muluc-toj/ · https://mayadecipherment.com/2025/08/14/day-sign-notes-imix-imox/
  12. Argüelles, José. Rinri Project Newsletter II.2.1. Foundation for the Law of Time. https://www.lawoftime.org/pdfs/Rinri-II-2.1.pdf
  13. Estrada Peña, Canek. "Anima' ri cho, anima' ri plo: Imox y el agua entre los k'iche'." Estudios de Cultura Maya 45 (2015): 191–224, pp. 202–203. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/2813/281336894007.pdf
  14. Van Stone, Mark. "2012 FAQ." FAMSI. https://www.famsi.org/research/vanstone/2012/faq.html

Reviewed: 10 October 2026 · Calculation: gmt584283-proleptic-gregorian-v1 · Corrections: contact us