Ok, also written Oc, is the tenth of the twenty day signs of the Maya 260-day calendar. It is associated with the dog, the animal of the parallel Aztec sign Itzcuintli, and its glyph often shows the head of a dog with a ragged ear.
Dogs in the Maya world
Dogs were the Maya's oldest domestic companions, used in hunting and kept in households. Across Mesoamerica, dogs were also believed to accompany the dead on their journey to the underworld, which gave them a spiritual as well as an everyday role.
Ok today
Among K'iche' Maya daykeepers in Guatemala, the tenth day is called Tz'i', "dog". Modern interpretations sometimes attach meanings such as law or justice to the day; those are contemporary readings rather than meanings recorded for the historical sign.
Ok in jewellery
An Ok design references the dog, the Maya calendar and a birth date in the 260-day count. For the dog in other traditions, see our dog symbolism story.
