The Mayan Calendar Essay - 1360 Words

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. Each of the Mayan calendars work together. In in the Mayan calendars time is cyclical, a set number of days has to occur before beginning a new†¦show more content†¦The number, or glyph, farthest to the right is the single day counter, called a Kin. It counts upward to 19 then goes to the next place to the left, a Uinal, which means once the long count reached 13.0.0.0.19, the nex t count would be 13.0.0.1.0 [Image of the Mayan Long Count Calendar, from Stepanie Pappas’ Live Science article on how the Mayan Calendar works, credit to Hannah Gleghorn (Shutterstock).] Next is the Tzolk’in. The Tzolk’in calendar is also known as the sacred calendar. It was primarily used for scheduling religious ceremonies. The word Tzolk’in translates into â€Å"distribution of the days†. The Tzolk’in calendar lasted 260 days, using 20 periods of 13 days which were numbered 1-13, then repeated. The Tzolk’in contains two seperate lengths of weeks. The first of which is a numbered week containing 13 days, numbering the days from 1 to 13. The second is a named week of 20 days. The names of the days were as follows: 0. Ahau, 1. Imix, 2. Ik, 3. Akbal, 4. Kan, 5.Chicchan, 6.Cimi, 7. Manik, 8. Lamat, 9. Muluc, 10. Oc, 11. Chuen, 12. Eb, 13. Ben, 14. Ix, 15. Men, 16. Cib, 17. Caban, 18. Etznab, 19. Caunac. The days were named using glyphs from a variation of 20 glyphs. The named week is 20 days. The far right Long Count digit goes up to 19 days, clicking over to the next digit at 20 days, showing that there is synchronizationShow MoreRelatedThe Mayan Calendar and Number System3402 Words   |  14 Pagesï » ¿The Mayan Calendar and Number System The ancient Mayan civilization existed in present-day Belize, Honduras and parts of Mexico. Much work has been done with regards to the Mayan Civilization in the 20th century, and the civilization has been the topic of interest for the public at large today due to various movies depicting an apocalypse in line with their interpretation of the Mayan Calendar Prophecy. 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