About Mayan Calendar
February 25th, 2012
Mayans are American Indian people of Yucatan and Belize and Guatemala who had a culture (which reached its peak between AD 300 and 900). They are characterized by excellent arts such as architecture, pottery and an accurate calendar which predicts the future happenings. They were experts in astronomy, mathematics and calendric systems. The mayan calendar is one of the sources through which todays archeologists, scholars and scientists study the ancient civilization and the evolution of various concepts and theories. It is said that most of the predictions by the mayan calendar have come true and is believed to be one of the most accurate ways to predict future.
It is a forgotten method to count days and seasons in the ancient time. It is an ancient, accurate and mathematically advanced calendar which was then used to determine the changes in the seasons by calculating the movements of the sun and the moon. Later, many calendars have followed the mayan calendar. But scientists have found out that this calendar is more accurate than the calendars which have followed it. And this mathematical accuracy in calculating the movements of sun and moon and counting of days and seasons is one of the main reasons why this calendar has become quite popular across the world and people started believing its predictions.
The calendar consists of three periods of time. This can be considered as one single watch with three different dials in it. Each dial has a different time scale. These three time periods in the calendar can be related to the time periods from thousands of years. The standard periods i.e., 365 days in a year is called as Haab and the shortest period, a fortnight is called as Tzolkin. Each dial in the calendar is a finite system. It can be used to determine the end or start of a month, year or even a millennium. It is more like a modern calendar where you can find out the starting and ending of months and years.
But what make the Mayan colander famous is its accurate mathematical calculations and the ancient techniques used for counting of days and months which are so advanced during that ancient period of time. The Mayans, with the help of this calendar mark the end of each cycle after every fifty two years. They call is the Calendar Round. And this period is considered as unlucky time.
Author: Alfred Woo-Ming
