THE MAYAN CALENDAR
Well, it's going to take me a while to do this
justice.
The Mayans had several calendars based on different astronomical cycles:
- 365 day solar year with 13 months of 28 days each and one "day out of time"
- 260 day with 20 wavespells of 13 days each
- 11.3 year sunspot cycle
- 584 day Venusian year (actually 583.92)
- 173.3 day eclipse calendar
- Great Cycle of 5125.36 years, or one Mayan Long Count
- 26,000 year (our solar system's orbit of the Pleiades star cluster)
This is only the beginning, and the inter-relation of these calenders goes deeper.
The 260 day cycle is constructed by interlocking 13 numbered days with 20
named days.
Days:
- Imix [crocodile]
- Ik [night]
- Akbal [snake]
- Kan [deer]
- Chicchan [jade]
- Cimi [monkey]
- Manik [reed]
- Lamat [eagle]
- Muluc [thought]
- Oc [storm]
- Chuen [wind]
- Eb [net]
- Ben [death]
- Ix [rabbit]
- Men [dog]
- Cib [tooth]
- Caban [jaguar]
- Etz'nab [wax]
- Cauac [knife]
- Ahah [hunter]
Thus, we start with:
1 Imix, 2 Ik, 3 Akbal,...
1 Ix, 2 Men, 3 Cib,..
1 Manik, 2 Lamat, 3 Muluc,...
Etc.
Until we complete the 260 day cycle (with 13 Ahah).
Every 52 years, the 260 day and 365 day cycle together again.
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