Mayan Calendar

Mayan Calendar The Mayan calendar had three calendars and almanacs which were used by several cultures in Central America such as Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The calendars date was at least in 5th century before the Common Era and some communities still use Mayan calendar today. The Mayan did not invent calendars they expanded further because it was used by most cultures in pre-Columbian, such as Central America around 200BCE to the 16th century. Therefore, the Mayan expanded farther calendars for Mayan civilization to use it and some Mayan communities’ still use calendars today. The Mayan calendar consists of three calendars, the Long Count, the Tzolkin means divine calendar, and the Haab knows as vague.
That is why the Mayan called this calendar named the universal cycle because they calculated each cycle by the solar years. “Each such cycle is calculated to be 2,880,000 days about 7885 solar years” (Aveni). In fact, the Mayan believed that the universe destroys when is recreated at the start of each universal cycle. Also, the Long Count calendar identifies a day by counting the number of days because of the mythical creation date corresponds to 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar. Later on, the Long Count calendar was widely used on monuments and was modified in base of 20 scheme. For example, the base 20 scheme if Mayan wanted to equal twenty-five they would write 0.0.0.15 and it meant equal twenty-five. So, for if they wanted to know more numbers they would use this method. Thus 0.0.1.0.0 does not represent four hundred days, but rather only 360 days. Mayan helped had a lunar data
The Haab is a 365 day calendar which is divided in into eighteenth months and of twenty days. For example, the eighteenth months of period of 365 days was named a Tun. The second is an ending period of five nameless days was named wayeb. Each of the eighteen months of this calendar was known as winal. The first eighteenth months of twenty day period of this calendar named Tun was considered to be normal and productive days while the five nameless days named Wayeb was a period of traditional ritualistic practice for Mayan communities. Also, the five ending days named Wayeb were considered to be unlucky by the ancient Mayan because it was an observation of fasting and sacrificing for the Mayan gods. This calendar is considered to be the equivalent to our modern 365 day Gregorian calendar. It was common to use this calendar in Central American culture such as the Aztec because it was known as the solar calendar. It was used by the ancient Mayans. The ancient Mayan calculated the Haab calendar by the solar year to be more accurate 365 days .One month in this calendar is only five days long. “Each day of the Haab calendar is represented by a number in the month followed by the name of the month” (Coe). Each character of this calendar represents a personality associated with the month. The Haab consists of 365 days because is based on solar observation based on the year and it was called the vague year because it does not have leap year.