The Mayan Calendar is an amazing piece of history. Even more amazing is the level of intelligence of a group of people who invented it. I will explain the origin of the calendar, basic functions of the calendar, and the usefulness of the calendar.
According to the website http://www.mayacalendar.com/f-origen.html, the Mayan people were very dependant on agricultural products, most namely corn. In fact they planted and harvested many types of corn. These different types had to be scheduled for planting at certain intervals, harvested, and then stored. With the ever-increasing population, the corn requirements increased. It became necessary to keep track of the agricultural process more closely. This process began with the people using their fingers and toes. This number system eventually blossomed into twenty 13-day periods. With some help from the cycle of the sun and stars, the first calendar was born.
Based on the website http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.html, the Mayan Calendar can be broken down into three different parts: The Long Count, Tzolkin, and the Haab. Like it’s name, The Long Count is just that…long. Even though it represents a day as we know it, the number can be several characters long (i.e: 13.0.0.0.0.). The count begins at the right and is read to the left and represents the number of days since the start of the Mayan era. Ironically the number will again be 13.0.0.0.0 around the year 2011 or 2012 (there are disagreements between experts on the actual year). The Tzolkin is equivalent to two of what we know as weeks. For every one week of our current Gregorian calendar, the Mayan Calendar uses numbers 1-13 as well as names for each week which total 20. The third part of the Calendar is called the Haab. This is similar to or present day calendar as it is comprised of 365 days. Basically this calendar consisted of 18 months, each of which had 20 days in it. To complete the 365 days, there were 5 extra days. These days were considered bad luck. Additionally the belief was that if a baby was brought into the world during these 5 days, the person would have a life filled with misery.
The usefulness of the calendar came in many important ways. In one such way, according to the website http://www.crystalinks.com/may.html, because they had created this idea called time, or at least what we now know as time, many things became regimented. Because the people looked at the priests as being able to interpret the heavens above and the calendar was based upon the movement and continued revolution of the stars, they did pretty much what the priests told them to do. This became a routine which included their farming schedules as well as the wet and dry periods.
This short essay can only scratch the surface of a topic that deserves far more explanation. However, with this limited insight, I hope the reader can get a taste of the complexity and determination the Mayans put forth to bring the people and society we know today something as important as this.
Take a look at the following website to see what today’s date would be using the Mayan Calendar: http://www.mayacalendar.com/f-estela.html.