MAYA
CALENDAR
The Maya calendar in its final form probably dates from about the 1st century B.C., and may originate with the Olmec civilization. It is extremely accurate. They are also complex and intricate.
They used 20-day months, and had two calendar years: the 260-day Sacred Round, or tzolkin , and the 365-day Vague
year, or haab . These two calendars coincided every 52 years. The 52-year period of time was called a "bundle" and meant the same to the Maya as our century does to us. The Sacred Round of 260
days is composed of two smaller
cycles: the numbers 1 through 13, coupled with 20 different day names. Each of the day’s name is represented by a God who carries time across the sky, thus marking the passage of night and day. In the 260-day tzolkin , time does not run along a line, but moves in a repeating circle similar to a spiral. The two cycles of 13 and 20 intermesh and are repeated without interruption.
The Vague Year or haab of 365 days is similar to our modern calendar, consisting of 18 months of 20 days each, with an unlucky five-day period at the end. The secular calendar of 365 days had to do primarily with the seasons and agriculture, and was based on the solar cycle. The Maya solar New Year is thought to have begun sometime in our present-day
month of July, with the Maya month of Pop. The Maya 20-day month always begins with the seating of the month, followed by days numbered 1 to 19, then the seating of the following month, and so on.
One of the most important roles of the calendar was not to fix dates accurately in time, however, but to correlate the actions of Maya rulers to historic and mythological events. The acts of gods performed in the days of myth were reenacted by Maya rulers, often on the anniversary of the original event - a date which was carefully calculated by Maya priests. The calendar was also used to mark the time of past and
future happenings. Some Maya monuments, for example, record the dates of events 90 million years ago, while others predict events that will take place 3,000 years into the future. The calendar also predicted the future, as our astrological zodiac does. For example, the Maya believed that a person's birthday or
day-sign determined their fate through life. The newborn child was thus connected with a particular god, and remained under that god's influence.
The ancient Maya cycle still survives in southern Mexico and the Maya highlands, under the care of calendar priests who still keep the 260-day count for divination and other shamanistic activities. These priests juggled cycles of time and calculated when several of these cycles would coincide.