There are three types of calendars the Mayans used: 1) The sacred calendar, Tzolk’in, lasted 260 days; 2) The secular calendar, Haab’, lasted 365 days; and 3) The Long Count Calendar which is the cause of the doomsday fuss for December 21, 2012.
Historians and scientists say the explanation of the Maya calendars and their impending doomsday prediction is very simple. I’m not sure I see it that way so I’m going to quote an expert, Stephanie Pappas of LiveScience, who recently wrote an article for Science on NBCNews.com.
How the Long Count Calendar works
The Long Count Calendar may not predict doomsday, but it is good at covering long periods of time. Here’s how it works: Dates are written out as five numbers separated by four periods, such as 13.0.0.0.0. (The ancient Maya represented these not with numerals, of course, but with their own hieroglyphs.)The right-most position is called the k’in, which counts single days: 13.0.0.0.1, for example. The k’in counts up to 19 and then flips back to zero, with counting picked back up by the next position, the uinal. So 13.0.0.0.19 would become 13.0.0.1.0, much like a car odometer.
Each uinal is thus a block of 20 days. The k’in position then picks back up, counting up to that 20, which then gets added to the uinal. So the day after 13.0.0.1.0 would be 13.0.0.1.1 and then 13.0.0.1.2, all the way up to 13.0.0.1.19 and finally 13.0.0.2.0.
The uinals count upward as well. While the Maya generally use a base-20 counting system, Witschey said, they modify this slightly for the uinal, which only counts up to 17 before rolling over to the third position, the tun. Each tun is thus 18 blocks of 20 days, or 360 days — approximately a year by the solar calendar.
Tuns, in turn, count up to 20 before rolling over into k’atuns. As 20 blocks of 360 days, each k’atun translates into 7,200 days, or just less than 20 years. The k’atun place then counts up before rolling over into the final digit, the b’ak’tun.
If that word sounds familiar, it’s because Dec. 21, 2012, on our calendar marks the end of the 13th b’ak’tun of the Maya Long Count Calendar. In other words, it’s the day the count will read 13.0.0.0.0. On Dec. 22, it will read 13.0.0.0.1.
Shew, did you get that? Regardless of what the Mayans intended, I’m pretty sure I’ll be here on December 22nd getting ready for another fun Christmas with the family. But I would love to hear your thoughts on the Maya calendar prediction. Let me know in the comments below.
image credit: foxnews.com
