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The opening two glyphs of the text panel on Lintel 3, Temple IV, Tikal

These two glyphs identify a single day in a span of 52 years. Reading from left to right the day is "three Ahau three Mol". The number "three" is indicated by the column of three round bead-like elements to the left of each glyph. Each "bead" is the numeral "one"; the stack of three is the numeral "three".

The glyph "Ahau" (the one on the left), is the last of twenty day signs that always run in the same order; Imix, Ik, Akbal, Kan, Chicchan, Cimi, Manik, Lamat, Muluc, Oc, Chuen, Eb, Ben, Ix, Men, Cib, Caban, Etznab, Cauac, Ahau. To identify a single day each sign is combined with a number from 1 - 13. The day that follows 3 Ahau is 4 Imix and the day after that is 5 Ik. This process simply repeats until the twenty glyphs have all been mated with each of the thirteen numbers, and then the series starts over again. After 260 days, each sign has been linked once (and only once) with each number. The set of 260 days is known as the "Sacred Round". It is the basic unit of the calender and probably formed the key to the science of Classic Maya calendric divination. Each of these 260 days would have a specific set of animistic influences that would make it good for some things and bad for others. Both the sign and the number would carry certain good or bad luck and the day glyph (sign and number) would represent a balance of different influences which could reinforce each other or cancel each other out. A Classic Maya calendar priest would start a prediction with this knowledge and would then factor in a host of other influences, the first of which would be the position of that day in the months of the year as indicated by the second of the two glyphs above.

The glyph on the right, "mol", is the eighth in a series of 19 month signs; Pop, Uo, Zip, Zotz, Zec, Xul, Yaxkin, Mol, Chen, Yax, Zac, Ceh, Mac, Kankin, Muan, Pax, Kayab, Cumku, Uayeb (always in this order). These signs identify months of twenty days (except for Uayeb, which is a period of 5 days at the end). The number "three" attached to the Mol glyph indicates that the day "3 Ahau" is the third day of the month "Mol". Each month would carry good or bad influences which would combine with the effects associated with any particular day. For example, the Uayeb period of five days at the end of the year was considered bad enough to counteract any good influences of even the most favourable day, so that Uayeb days were regarded as not good for anything or anyone and the Maya Long Count actually omits these days.

The set of eighteen months of twenty days each is a "Tun" year, of 360 days. Only Tun years were counted in the Long Count. Uayeb periods at the end of each tun year existed to approximate the solar year. When added to the Tun year they make up the "vague year".

An account of the good and back luck of the days and months is given in Maya Hieroglyphic Writing, by J. Eric S. Thompson, university of Oklahoma Press, 1963. He notes that there is little agreement among the various sources of information on this material.

The complete calendar date written as "3 Ahau 3 Mol" occurs only once in fifty-two vague years (365 days). It takes this long for each of the 260 Sacred Round days to appear (once and only once) in each of the eighteen month positions and the five Uayeb positions. A calendar entry such as "3 Ahau 3 Mol" is known as a "Calendar Round" (CR). A priest giving a prediction would probably do so for a C R date, and would consider influences from both the Sacred Round and the Tun Year, which might reinforce each other (good-good, or bad-bad) or cancel each other out (good-bad, or bad-good). Most likely there would be partial good and bad effects from both parts of the CR. This would still be only the beginning of the divinatory calculus. Many other factors were also taken into account.

C R dates repeat at fifty-two year intervals, and from context, it is often possible to determine, or at least make a good guess at, which fifty-two year period any CR should fall into. In effect, CR dates can often generate Long Count dates. A good example of this is Tikal Stela 16.