Quick answer. The Haab' is the Maya 365-day civil / solar count: 18 named periods of 20 days plus a closing period of five days called Wayeb'. It runs alongside the 260-day Tzolk'in (Chol Q'ij). Together they form longer cycles such as the Calendar Round. Unlike the Gregorian year, the classic Haab' description used in educational sources has no leap-day intercalation inside the 365-day count itself. [1][2][3]
Reviewed 30 October 2026 · This page is educational. Personal readings on this site use the traditional Tzolk'in with GMT correlation 584283 (gmt584283-proleptic-gregorian-v1). See methodology.
Haab' structure: 18 × 20 + Wayeb'
The Haab' year has 365 named positions:
| Piece | Length | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 18 “months” (uinal / winal-style periods) | 20 days each | Named periods such as Pop, Wo, Sip … through Kumk'u [1][2] |
| Wayeb' | 5 days | Closing period at the end of the Haab' year [1][2] |
| Total | 365 | One Haab' year |
A full Haab' date pairs a day coefficient with a month name (for example, 14 Yax). Classic and colonial descriptions often treat the seating of a month as day 0 of that month—scholarship discusses “seating” vs numbered days carefully. [2] For this educational page, the key point is the 18 × 20 + 5 arithmetic, not a claim that every community writes coefficients the same way.
The eighteen Haab' periods (names at a glance)
Educational tables commonly list eighteen twenty-day periods with Yucatec names such as Pop, Wo, Sip, Sotz', Sek, Xul, Yaxk'in, Mol, Ch'en, Yax, Sak', Keh, Mak, K'ank'in, Muwan, Pax, K'ayab', Kumk'u, then Wayeb'. Spellings vary by orthography (colonial vs revised). [1][2] This site does not publish nineteen thin month landing pages in this content wave, and it does nottreat those names as Western-style zodiac personalities. If you need a personal reading today, stay with the Tzolk'in tools—not a guessed Haab' month from a fixed Gregorian date range (those fixed ranges drift because the classic Haab' count described here has no leap-day intercalation). [1][3]
What is Wayeb'?
Wayeb' is the five-dayclosing period of the Haab' year. Educational and ethnographic sources often describe it as a liminal or carefully observed stretch between solar years—not as a “Mayan zodiac sign” and not as a personality type in the way popular English sites sometimes misuse month names. [1] Practices and meanings vary by community and period. We are not daykeepers; we do not assign luck scores to Wayeb' births.
If you arrived here searching for “Pax,” “Sip,” “Mol,” or other month names as if they were your personal Mayan sign: those names belong to the Haab', not to the 20 day signs of the Tzolk'in that this site uses for birth readings. Your personal Nawal still comes from the 260-day count.
Haab' vs Tzolk'in vs Long Count (short)
| System | Length | What it tracks on this site |
|---|---|---|
| Tzolk'in / Chol Q'ij | 260 days (13 × 20) | Primary. Your birth Nawal + number; today; free and paid readings |
| Haab' | 365 days (18 × 20 + 5) | Educational only for now — no Haab' tool in the product UI |
| Long Count | Continuous day count | Not the focus of the consumer calculator |
| Calendar Round | ~52 vague years (18,980 days) | Tzolk'in + Haab' pairing before the same combination repeats [1][2] |
The Tzolk'in answers “which day name and number?” The Haab' answers “where are we in the solar / civil year of 365 named days?” They are complementary, not substitutes.
Year bearer (Mam / year lord) — teaser
A year bearer is the Tzolk'in day name associated with the start of a Haab' solar year—the day sign said to “carry” that year. Because 365 days shift against the 260-day count, only a small set of day names can serve as year bearers in a given tradition. Highland K'iche' practice commonly names four; later Yucatec lists often name a different four. Those systems must not be mixed as if they were identical. [4]
→ Full explainer: Maya Year Bearer Explained
Dreamspell “13 Moon” is not the Haab'
Some modern sites call a 13 × 28 (+1) “13 Moon” year a Mayan solar calendar. Dreamspell / 13 Moon is a modern system (José and Lloydine Argüelles, from 1987; kit 1990). It is notthe classic Haab' of 18 × 20 + Wayeb'. [5][6] If another site tied your “New Year” to 26 July, that is a Dreamspell / 13 Moon convention—not proof that Pop always starts on that Gregorian date.
→ Side-by-side comparison: Dreamspell vs Traditional Maya Calendar
How this site uses (and does not use) Haab'
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Free Tzolk'in birth chart | Live — birth chart calculator |
| Today’s Tzolk'in date | Live — Mayan calendar today |
| Haab' month / Wayeb' converter | Not built yet — this page is educational |
| Year bearer display | Explained on /year-bearer; not a live year-bearer widget yet |
| Paid personal PDF | Optional — $7, one-time |
| Paid pair PDF | Optional — $12, one-time |
Honest product scope matters for trust: we will not pretend a Haab' tool exists until engineering ships one.
Find your Tzolk'in signature (what this site calculates)
Your personal “Mayan sign” on this site is still the 260-day combination: one of 20 day signs plus a number 1–13. That is the chart we calculate with GMT 584283.
Trust note: The free birth-chart result is complete on its own (day sign, number, and a short reading). The optional $7 PDF adds deeper chapters on relationships, work, stress, decisions, and a seven-day practice—same calendar math, more pages.
Comparing two people? Get the pair report — $12 · See a sample pair report first →
FAQ
How is Haab' different from the Tzolk'in?
The Haab' is a 365-day civil / solar count (18 × 20 + Wayeb'). The Tzolk'in is a 260-day sacred count (13 × 20). They run together; they measure different cycles. Personal readings on this site use the Tzolk'in. [1][2]
What is Wayeb'?
Wayeb' is the five-day closing period of the Haab' year. It is part of the solar count, not one of the 20 Tzolk'in day signs and not a Western-style zodiac sign. [1]
Does this site calculate my Haab' date today?
Not yet. This page explains the Haab'. The live calculators map Gregorian dates to the Tzolk'in (Nawal + tone) with GMT 584283. Use /today or /birth-chart for those results.
Are Pax, Sip, or Mol my “Mayan zodiac sign”?
Those names are Haab' month names in popular English lists—not the 20 Nawales used for birth signatures on this site. For a personal day sign, calculate your Tzolk'in combination.
Is the Dreamspell 13 Moon calendar the same as Haab'?
No. Dreamspell / 13 Moon is a modern calendar with a different year structure and count rules. See the Dreamspell comparison page. [5][6]
What is a year bearer?
The Tzolk'in day name associated with the start of a Haab' year in a given tradition. Details and the two common sets of four names: /year-bearer.
Internal links
- Mayan calendar today
- Birth chart calculator
- Year bearer explained
- 20 day signs
- 13 Galactic Tones (numbers)
- Dreamspell vs traditional
- Methodology (GMT 584283)
- Reports — $7 / $12
- Sample personal report
- Sample pair report
- Mayan calendar calculator landing
Sources
- Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. “The Calendar System.” Living Maya Time. maya.nmai.si.edu/calendar/calendar-system
- Kettunen, Harri, and Christophe Helmke. Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs, 17th rev. ed. Wayeb, 2020, pp. 49, 58–59 (Haab' / Calendar Round overview). mesoweb.org/resources/handbook/IMH2020.pdf
- Mayan Astrology Calculator. “Calculation Methodology and Cultural Scope.” mayanastrologycalculator.com/methodology
- For year-bearer naming systems and highland vs later Yucatec sets, see /year-bearer and Tedlock, Barbara. Time and the Highland Maya. University of New Mexico Press, 1982 (rev. 1992). This page does not quote page numbers for the Mam / year bearer discussion until those anchors are checked.
- “Dreamspell.” Wikipedia (dates of the system and 13 Moon structure; cites Argüelles & Argüelles 1990). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamspell
- Foundation for the Law of Time. Rinri Project Newsletter and related materials on the modern count. lawoftime.org/pdfs/Rinri-II-2.1.pdf
Prepared by the Mayan Astrology Calculator editors · Corrections: contact page · No 260-kin factory pages