Mayan Calendar Terms and Definitions
Mayan Calendar and 2012
The Mayan calendar is a vigesimal or 20-based counting system that some say was inspired by counting fingers and toes or the 260 days from human conception to birth. The Maya system uses only three symbols to count from 0 to 19: zero (a shell-shaped glyph), one (a dot), and five (a bar). The Meso-American concept of zero pre-dates the Mayan civilization and is attributed to the Olmec civilization. The Hindu-Arabic numeral system (base 10) reached Europe in the 11th century.
k'in: one day
winal or uinal: twenty k'ins (20 days)
tun: eighteen winal or uinal (18 x 20 = 360 days)
Wayeb': five days that are nameless and considered unlucky
Haab': 365-day agricultural calendar
The whole cycle would repeat itself every 52 solar years roughly once a lifetime. Calendar round, has 18,980 days or 73 sacred years or 52 solar years. Tzolkin: 260-day sacred year consists of 13 months of 20 days
Long-Count Calendar day: round date in the form, e.g., 9.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumku, where the first five numbers designate the baktuns, katuns, tuns, uinals and kins in order. The next is the sacred day of the calendar round and the last is the solar day.
Dates from the Mayan Calendar
August 13, 3114 BC: Beginning date of the Mayan Calendar, August 13, 3114 BC, day “zero” of the Maya calendar. This reads, “13 Baktun, 0 Katun, 0 Tun, 0 Uinal, 0 Kin, 4-Ahau 8-Cumku”
250 AD to 900 AD: The Classic Maya civilization of southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize (the time when the Mayan Calendar was fully developed).
February 28, 747 BC: The date of the creation of the Long-Count Calendar.
August 16 to 1,7 1987: The Harmonic Convergence. José Argüelles selected this date to mark the end of 22 cycles of 52 years each, or 1,144 years in all. The 22 cycles were divided into 13 “heaven” cycles, which began in AD 843 and ended in 1519, when the nine “hell” cycles began, ending 468 years later in 1987.
December 12, 2012: (13.0.0.0.0.0): The End Date of the Mayan Calendar