Mesoamerica movements of celestial bodies and memorialize public officials. The 260-day cycle was also used for divination, and (like the Catholic calendar of saints) to name newborns. The names given to the days, months, and years in the Mesoamerican calendar came, for the most part, from animals, flowers, heavenly bodies, and cultural concepts that held symbolic significance in Mesoamerican culture. This calendar was used throughout the history of Mesoamerican by nearly every culture. Even today, several Maya groups in Guatemala, including the [[K'iche' people|K'iche']], [[Q'eqchi' people|Q'eqchi']], [[Kaqchikel people|Kaqchikel]], and the [[Mixe]] people of Oaxaca continue using modernized forms of the Mesoamerican
Mesoamerican Long Count calendar and the 365 day Haab'. The equivalent Aztec calendars are known in Nahuatl as the tonalpohualli and Xiuhpohualli. The combination of a Haab' and a Tzolk'in date identifies a day in a combination which does not occur again for 18,980 days (52 Haab' cycles of 365 days times 73 Tzolk'in cycles of 260 days, approximately 52 years), a period known as the Calendar Round. To identify days over periods longer than this, Mesoamericans used the Long Count calendar. The Long Count calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from a starting date that is generally calculated to