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The Maya calendar consists of several cycles or counts of different lengths. The 260-day count is known to scholars as the Tzolkin, or Tzolkʼin. [5] The Tzolkin was combined with a 365-day vague solar year known as the Haabʼ to form a synchronized cycle lasting for 52 Haabʼ called the Calendar Round. The Calendar Round is still in use by ...
Mayan calendar, dating system of the ancient Mayan civilization and the basis for all other calendars used by Mesoamerican civilizations. The calendar was based on a ritual cycle of 260 named days and a year of 365 days. Taken together, they form a longer cycle of 18,980 days, or 52 years of 365.
Like Maya mathematics, the Long Count calendar system counts by 20s. The exception is in the third cycle, because 18 x 20, which equals 360, more closely approximates a Haab cycle or solar cycle of 365 days, rather than multiplying 20 x 20, which equals 400.
The Maya used what is now known as the calendar round which is made up of 3 interlocking cycles. A cycle of 20 names, a cycle of 13 numbers (which forms the 260-day sacred calendar) and a 365 days solar year. 52 years will pass until the three cycles line up again.
The Mayan Calendar consists of three separate corresponding calendars: the Long Count, the Tzolkin (divine calendar), and the Haab (civil calendar). Each of them is cyclical, meaning that a certain number of days must occur before a new cycle can begin.
The Maya agricultural 365-day calendar is a reflection of the yearly solar cycle. The Maya ceremonial 260-day calendar is connected to the relationships between the agricultural calendar, the zenith passage of the Sun, and the time it takes corn to mature.
Like other Mesoamerican cultures, the Maya used several independent but overlapping calendars to track time. The first, which is based on a 260-day repeating cycle known as the tzolk'in, functioned primarily as a mechanism for divination and prophecy. A second calendar, the haab', is 365 days in length and is based on the solar year. The two ...
