"Hola, you little researchers! Today I'm going to explain the Inca calendar to you. It's pretty tricky, but hey, I'm Peruso, the master of complicated things (and master of hiding from mom when I mess up).
So, pay attention! The Inca calendar wasn't just a plain old piece of paper with pictures on it (because paper, haha, we didn't know that). No, we had the Quipu ! That's a knotted thing that clever people used to measure time. And how? Well, I sometimes wonder that too. But here's the magic: 365 days a year. Yes, you might know that, right? But the Incas were cooler! They divided the year into 12 months - sounds normal, right? But our months were named after the seasons and festivals!
Would you like a small example?
Imagine: In the month of Apu Inti Raymi (that is the month of the festival of the sun god) we count 30 days. I count the knots: one, two, three... up to thirty. Oh, but beware if you make a wrong knot, the moon will come by at night and tie a knot in your hair, haha!Then there were months that had fewer days. And our priests looked at the stars to know when it was time to plant corn. Yep, corn was important - more important than my favorite toy. A quick example calculation: If 12 months had 30 days each, we would have 360 days. Hmm... What's missing? Exactly! 5 extra days that we had for very mysterious rituals. Creepy, right? I was never allowed to take part because I was too small. Pah!
So, remember: Everything revolved around the sun, the moon and the grain. And if you didn't understand the system, your mom wouldn't give you any corn bread for a week. Bet it worked?"
(c) by PeruMagazin