Mayan Calendar
The Mayan Calendar Explained
The Mayan Calendar is comprised of three concepts of time, which occur simultaneously:
- Sacred Calendar (tzolkin or bucxok, 260 days long)
- Civil Calendar (haab, 365 days) and
- The Long Count
The Mayan calendar is cyclical, repeating itself every 52 Mayan years. In the Long Count calendar, the counting of time begins on the day 0.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau, or 8 Cumku (Mayan notation), which is equivalent to 13 August 3114 a. C. in the Gregorian calendar and ends on December 21, 2012.
The high Mayan priest, called ah kin, who possessed a great deal of knowledgeable about mathematics and astronomy, would utilize his understanding of the cosmos in accordance with Maya religion to make predictions about the future and man’s destiny.
According to some scholars, the Mayan calendar had already appeared in ancient cultures that preceeded the Maya, such as the Olmec. For other, howevers, the calendar is unique to the Mayan civilizaiton. like the Olmec, for others, however, this schedule is typical of the Mayan civilization. The Mayan calendar’s similarities with the Aztec calendar provides evidence that the same calendar system was used in all of Mesoamerica.