Mayan New Year in Guatemala: Waqxaqib' B'atz', next on Tuesday March 9, 2027

Guatemala has two Mayan New Years, and the one called Waqxaqib’ B’atz’ never falls on the same date twice in a row. Waqxaqib’ B’atz’, or 8 B’atz’, marks the start of the 260-day sacred calendar, the Cholq’ij. Because 260 days is shorter than a year, it moves: January 18, 2025, June 22, 2026, and next Tuesday March 9, 2027, according to the calendars of the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG). The other new year, of the 365-day solar calendar, falls on February 18.

Quick summary: Next Waqxaqib’ B’atz’: Tuesday March 9, 2027 (ALMG Akateko Maya calendar 2027-2028). Most recent: Monday June 22, 2026 (ALMG Sakapulteko calendar 2026). Before that: Saturday January 18, 2025 (AGN). Why it moves: it starts the 260-day Cholq’ij. The other Mayan New Year: February 18, the start of the solar year (AGN 2025; ALMG 2026 calendars). Where: ceremonies reported at Kaminal Juyú, Guatemala City (2025) and San José, Petén (2026). Public holiday? No. 2027 programme: not published as of October 7, 2026.

Quick facts

The dates: recent and next

How we read the 2027 date. The ALMG publishes a calendar for each Maya linguistic community on its website. The Akateko calendar for 2027-2028 gives every Gregorian day with its Maya day name and its number written in Maya bar-and-dot numerals, where a bar is five and a dot is one. On the page for March 6 to 25, 2027, the cell for Tuesday the 9th is B’aatz’ (the Akateko spelling of B’atz’) with three dots over one bar: 8. The day before, Monday the 8th, is 7 Elab’; the day after, Wednesday the 10th, is 9 Ewub’. As a check of our own: June 22, 2026 plus 260 days is March 9, 2027, and January 18, 2025 plus 520 days is June 22, 2026.

What Waqxaqib’ B’atz’ means

AGN, the state news agency, calls it the date that marks “el inicio del Año Nuevo del Calendario Sagrado Maya” (the start of the new year of the Maya sacred calendar), the Cholq’ij. Its 2025 explainer adds:

• The name. Waqxaqib’ “es el número ocho, el cual se vincula con el infinito en la cosmovisión maya” (is the number eight, which is linked to the infinite in the Maya worldview). B’atz’ refers to the thread of life, associated with the umbilical cord and the weaving of existence.
• The calendar. The day is based on the end and the beginning of the cholq’ij, the 260-day Maya calendar, and it is the day of the birth of the 20 sacred nahuales. AGN notes the cholq’ij is also related to human gestation, around nine cycles of the moon.
• The ceremony. It starts at dusk on the last day of the cholq’ij and ends the following night, the first of the new cycle.
• Its partner calendar. The cholq’ij complements the hab’, the solar calendar of 18 months of 20 days and one of five, 365 days in all.

At the 2025 ceremony, spiritual guide Ángel Zapeta told AGN it is a day when the cosmos is thanked so as to renew energy and commitment.

The other Mayan New Year: February 18

When people in Guatemala say Año Nuevo Maya, they may mean the solar year instead. On February 18, 2025, AGN reported that the Maya community was celebrating the new year Ab’ (360 days) and the Wayeb’ (five days), with a ritual at Kaminal Juyú and celebrations in Momostenango, the cabecera of Quiché, Chichicastenango and other places. The Ministry of Culture described the Wayeb’ as a five-day period in the Maya solar calendar, held in February each year, a period of transition to keep to oneself (guardarse), purify and receive the new year. Two ALMG calendars for 2026, the Sakapulteko and the Tz’utujil, say the 2026 year began on February 18.

So a search for Mayan New Year can point to two different days:

Where ceremonies were reported

• Kaminal Juyú, Guatemala City (zona 7). AGN calls it one of the main sacred sites for the Maya peoples of Guatemala. Guides held the Waqxaqib’ B’atz’ ritual there on January 18, 2025, with fire as part of the ritual, and the Ministry of Culture shared it on social media. See our Kaminaljuyú page.
• San José, Petén (June 2026). The Casa de Desarrollo Cultural of San José, part of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, organised a ceremony with the Ajaw B’atz’ spiritual guides at the altar maya 8 Iq’, in barrio Nueva San José. AGN counted 15 participants, children and adults, from the Itza’, Mopan and Q’eqchi’ communities.

AGN quotes no visitor rules and no schedule for 2027, and when we checked on October 7, 2026 we had found no 2027 programme from the Ministry of Culture or the ALMG, so this page gives no times or venues for March 9, 2027.

Is it a holiday?

No. Article 127 of the Labour Code lists Guatemala’s paid days off, and neither Waqxaqib’ B’atz’ nor February 18 is among them. See Guatemala’s holidays.

Related

• Rabin Ajaw, Cobán, the Q’eqchi’ Maya cultural festival.
• Santo Tomás festival, Chichicastenango.
• Momostenango and the Iximché ruins.
• Every event on the calendar.

Sources: AGN, January 19, 2025, February 18, 2025 and June 28, 2026; Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala, Calendario Maya Akateko 2027-2028, Calendario Maya 2026 (Sakapulteko) and Calendario Maya 2026-2027 (Tz’utujil), from almg.org.gt/calendario; Código de Trabajo, Decreto 1441, Art. 127 (CENADOJ edition updated to April 30, 2014). Read on October 7, 2026. Spanish quotations are left in the original with an English gloss outside the quotation marks.