Mayan Calendars

The Mayan calendars were also very significant and even have a lasting impact today. The haab, “... had eighteen months of twenty days each, adding up to 360 days in all. To this were added [five days] to make a total of 365 days…” (Document D). Our current calendar might not be divided the same day the Mayans was but the total number of days is the same which shows the impact their calendar has on the present

| 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.

Luckily, our neighbors to the East, the Arabs, found the documents to be of great interest and kept old Greek astrological records. In the Renisannce period of Christianity the church officials decided to re-examine the ancient records, and actually found some validity in some of the scientific data. Amazingly enough the Christian church decided to implement data from ancient pagan cultures to help create the most widely used calendar to date, the Gregorian calendar.

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.

The Maya were a people from Middle America, which includes modern Guatemala, Southern Mexico, and Northern Belize (Editors). The Maya civilization was considered to be “one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica,” (Maya). “The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making, and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork,” (Maya). They also gave mankind the modern calendar (Jarus, Maya). The Mayans were a very advanced people, but one of the most important things in the Mayan culture was their religion/god worshipping rituals.

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

The Mayan priests studied their measurement of time. The Maya had a calendar with 18 months each containing 20 days, plus 5 unlucky days that made up the Mayan year. They also had a religious calendar that had 260 days in it. Each day was given a name and a number. They believed that each day was a god that carried the weight of the day on its back.

Maya calendars, mythology and astrology were integrated into a single system of belief. The Maya observed the sky and calendars to predict solar and lunar eclipses, the cycles of the planet Venus, and the movements of the constellations(a group of stars forming a recognizable pattern

The Mayans were also were technologically advanced. They used their own math system. One dot stood for one, a bar symbolized five, and a shell figure was zero. The numbers were expressed vertically with the highest on top. The also created a very precise calendars. Two different calendars were calculated 260-day and a 365-day. They were able to calculate the dates because at noon time there was no shadow. This was important for them to use in predicting eclipses, scheduling religious ceremonies, and when to plant and harvest.

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

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

The society had two main calendars. One calendar was called tzolkin, the sacred or ritual calendar. It predicted the "...ceremonial life of the people."(Doc D) The other was called haab, the civil/solar calendar. The civil/ solar predicted the weather, and unlucky days for the year. Both of these calendar cycles were used together. "They were like two cogged wheels, revolving alongside each other, with the cogs (days) meshing as the wheels turned." (Doc D) The Mayan calendars were far more accurate and more advanced than any other New World people. Document D also informs us that "Observatories were built, at Chicen Itza and other cities, to use in studying the movements of the sun and the moon, planets such as Venus and Mars, and the

The Classical Maya was lost to the archaeological records until the last 200 years due to it’s abandonment. When the Mayans left there great cities, thick vines and jungles overtook the great monuments they once built. But in the last 200 years, in depth research has lead to breakthroughs into what the Classic Maya was like. The earliest Mayans were agriculturalist, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and cassava. The Mayans also invented a very accurate calendar, a math code using 0’s, constructed buildings still intact today, and a writing system that took decades to decode. The Mayans were situated in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), modern-day Guatemala, Belize, parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas, and the western part of Honduras and El Salvador. Due to their location on the

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 Chinese use the lunar calendar. “Although China has adopted the Gregorian calendar in common with most other countries in the world for official and business purposes, the traditional Chinese calendar continues to define