The Maya Calendrier comprises various cycles which were used either separately, or in a concomitant way.

Principal cycles of the Maya calendar

The most important cycles for the traditional Maya were registered in the initial series (dates detailed at the head many inscriptions)

• the Tzolk' in, “year” not numbered 260 days to character divinatoire and religious;
• the Haab, 365 days not numbered vague year in civil matter;
• the long Account, or deducts days over one period of approximately 5125 years (either 13 baktunob), intended for the dating of the historical events (successions, battles), which subdivided thus
• the kin , day
• the uinal , period of 20 kinob (days)
• the tun , period of 18 uinalob, or 360 days
• the katun , period of 20 tunob, or approximately 20 years
• the baktun , period of 20 katunob, or approximately 394 years
• the Cycle novénal or cycles “lords of the night”, one 9 days period;
• the cycle of the Phases of the moon (age of the moon and number of the Lunation).

Other cycles of calendar nature:

• Compte runs used in the place of the long Compte since the traditional terminal until during the colonial time.
• sidereal cycle of Venus.

Number 20 frequently appears in the calendar, because the Maya used a positional Numbering system bases 20 of them.

The tzolk' in and the haab continue to be employed by the Mayas quiches.

The correlations between these calendars are perfect and are attested by all the found Maya inscriptions. For example, one knows with certainty that the day called 6.12.11.5 .18 with the long Account (that is to say 6 baktun, 12 katun, 11 tun, 5 uinal and 18 kin since the Time of the long Account) corresponds to 11 Yax in Haab and 6 Etznab in Tzolkin (day of died of Pacal Ier, lord of Palenque), first Lord of Harms.

Correspondence with the other calendars

Eric Thompson has proposed, in 1950, on base of stepping of data varied, correlation following, which now is adopted (and which was confirmed by various other later data), between these perfectly synchronized calendars and the current Western calendar: the date 0.0.0.0 .0 of the long Compte corresponds to September 6th, 3114 before the common era of the Calendrier Julien proleptic, that is to say the Date Julienne 584283 (appreciably starting from the rising of the sun on a time zone for America). That would make for example date 6.12.11.5 .18 on Wednesday, August 26, 683 (with the Julien calendar).

Another correlation shifts this two days. Still another this 260 years shifts.

A mystical interpretation of Old New

Some esotericians of the New Age were interested in the Maya calendar under name “calendar of the thirteen moons the twenty-eight day old”, a resumption of the Tzolkin. They allot to each kin (day in yucatèque Maya) of the calendar of the cosmogonic implications.

They affirm that the calendar “finishes” the Friday December 21st 2012, indeed, in the currently accepted version of the correlation of Goodman-Martínez Hernández-Thompson, it is the date on which the long Compte carried out a cycle and starts again since 13.0.0.0 .0. Just as the Old Mayas, they even expect that this date will bring material changes, for some millenarists the End of the world. An episode ( The Truth ) of the Televised series of Science fiction X-Files, took as a starting point these ideas: one sees Extraterrestre S there colonizing the ground on this date.

See too

Internal bonds

• Maya Civilization
• Maya Numeration
• long Account
• short Account
• Haab
• Tzolk' in

External bonds

• Maya Calendar
• the Maya calendar.

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