Comparing The Gregorian Calendar And The Mayan Calendar

“In the Western Hemisphere, no early culture was more remarkable than the Mayans” (Background Essay). The Mayans were an adept civilization and accomplished many exceptional things during their time. Their deeds include things such as a number system, immense cities, and a vast trade network but there is no Mayan achievement more remarkable than their calendars. The Mayans created three calendars: a sacred calendar called tzolkin, a solar calendar called haab, and a long cycle calendar.

| The development of the calendar was based on their observations and studies of the stars, moon, and sky. They also established a number system; a year was cut into 12 months, a month into 30 days, a day into 12 hours, an hour into 60 minutes, and a minute into 60 seconds. They also divided a circle into 360 degrees of the 60 arc minutes. Settlement patterns were based on the environment of the area and the need for a stable water supply.

Celestial bodies - the sun, moon, planets, and stars - have provided us a reference for measuring the passage of time throughout human existence. Ancient civilizations like: China, India, Babylon, and Greece relied upon the apparent motion of these bodies through the sky to record and determine seasons, months, and years. We know little about the details of timekeeping in prehistoric eras. However, records and artifacts usually uncover that in every culture, people were preoccupied with measuring and recording the passage of time. Stonehenge, built over 4000 years ago in England has no written records, but its alignments show its purposes apparently included the determination of seasonal or celestial events, such as lunar

Astrological calendars have been in existence since ancient times where time was measured according to the number of Moons that had passed in a certain period, or in consonance with the shadows that were cast by either the Sun or Moon. Solar years are calculated based on the sun’s motions, whereas lunar years are mutually based on the moons motions. A lunar year consists of approximately 354 days, whereas there are 365 days in solar year. By virtue of the eleven day disparity between a solar and lunar year, an additional month is added to the lunar calendar every three years, and as for the solar calendar, every fourth year, a leap day is added to the month of February. A lunar year is comprised of twelve lunar months, which corresponds to the time that elapses as the moon carries out each of its phases and proceeds to its position of origin. In contrast, a solar month is one twelfth of a solar year, given that a solar year is span of time that elapses as the Earth completes a single revolution around the sun.

That need for structure is probably the reason that the Mayans developed such an amazingly accurate calendar. They also developed a complex style of hieroglyphic writing that we have not fully deciphered. Through their knowledge of astronomy and mathematics they calculated the lunar cycle, predicted eclipses, and formulated a unique calendar system was very accurate. Their calendar was only one day off every 6000 years. That makes it more accurate than our calendar today (Hooker 6). Two fundamental

doing exactly the opposite of what was intended to happen. This document is highly anti

The calendar was based on the sun it tracked the 365 day year and would tell when seasonal events would likely occur. The mayans also created a ritual calendar which was a calendar that was a cycle of 260 days, and it marked the ceremonial life of the people.This two

Abbe Sieyes believed that the time wasn't right to make any changes to the Gregorian calendar. For it would only create, not only a division between the Catholic Church, but their country neighbors and might result in a wall between them that they won't be able to solve(Document 2). When the Gregorian calendar made its return in 1806 it was appreciated and hated(Document 7). For Napoleon, the French Republican calendar was a sad and weak decade in which festivals weren't even dedicated to the to the charity. In Doc 4, it shows how the peasants were unhappy about the new calendar for it increase their labor days to nine days. This was hard on them because they had to work for nine days straight and even the best of them couldn't handle it. Jacobins have damaged the church made the first Pope of deism and now the calendar was just an act of absolutism. For Pierre Joseph Denis, it was clear that the Jacobins have gone to far as to making a new calendar, such act was an exercise of absolute power(Doc 5). As for Document, it points out how the festivals were offensive and had nothing but images of crucifixes and such and no sign of liberty or

People used the new calendar to make peace, equality, simplicity and detachment from previous ideas. “The Instruction concerning the era of the Republic and the Division Of the Year” claimed that The new calendar would make trading easier, simple and exact.(Doc 2) The new calendar is “freed from all errors that credulity and superstitious routines that had been handed down from centuries of

The Aztecs believe they felt justified in believing in this calendar because of numerous events that changed the course of history for them. Because Aztec Indians were fervent astronomers, they tracked the stars and correlated that between the days to create this sun calendar. Examples of events happening within the timeline of the calendar stone being built are these: Between 1452 and 1454, their capital city Tenochtitlan suffered from flood and famine, the following year on 4/16/1445 (Julian calendar) there was an eclipse of the sun. From 1473-1479, there were 4 more solar eclipses within a five year time frame (Aveni, Calnek). During this time the Aztec nation conquered and

Pope Gregory invented an amazing invention during the middle ages. I would not know what day it is if Pope gregory did not make this outstanding invention. When Pope Gregory was making the calendar he had to change it because it was out of sync with the seasons. Julius Caesar was also trying to make a calendar called the Julian calendar. Pope Gregory just changed the Julian calendar a little and then he had the Gregorian calendar. That is how our daily calendar that we check everyday was

When most people think of the Mayans, they think end of the world prediction in 2012. Everyone knows the movie 2012 which portrayed the end of the world predicted by the Mayan calendar. What many do not know is that the Mayans developed three separate calendars; the Long Count, the Tzolk’in, and the Haab, which were represented by glyphs or pictures that were used in their daily lives in many different ways. The Mayans kept time in a very different way than we do today. The Mayans may not have invented the calendar, but they certainly developed it further, and still use their version today.

The Mayan calendar has a starting date of 3113BC that is given the year 0. It used their base 20 numbering system to represent periods of time. There

It is really amazing to think that as the Julian calendar took effect for the very first time in history New Year’s Day was celebrated on January 1 in 45 B.C. Once Roman dictator Julius Caesar came into power he decided that the Roman calendar needed reforming. Around the seventh century B.C. the calendar followed the lunar cycle but at certain times it fell out of phase as the seasons changed and needed to be corrected. Another problem was that the pontifices, the Roman body who was in charge of the calendar would try to abuse its authority and even went so far as to add days just to extend political terms or to interfere with elections. You can imagine how troublesome this could be today if people had the power to play around with the calendar.

One completely arbitrary thing that seems to be universal is the idea of a year. What makes a certain point in the Earth’s elliptical orbit the beginning and why can’t everybody agree on one day? What makes January first the first day of the year? Why can’t the first day be September twenty-third or June twenty-first? What makes January so special? In fact, different cultures and religions have different days for when the year begins. For example, the Jews celebrate New Years (or Rosh Hashanah) on the first of the month of Tishrei (which, this year, is on October second). Why can’t there be an agreed upon date for this absolutely arbitrary idea of the beginning of the year. In addition, there isn’t even an agreed upon number of days in a year. Most years, in the solar calendar, have 365 days but every four years, there are 366 days. In the lunar calendar, there are 354 days. As well, who is to say that there are twelve months in a year and about 30 days in each. Why not four months or 20 months? This idea is only one thing that nobody can find a