2012 Calendar

So what's all this about the 2012 Mayan Calendar you ask?  The answer isn't as simple as one would want it to be.  So, I'm going to break it down here.

When we talk about the "Mayan Calendar" understand that there isn't just one calendar of concern.  Actually, there are several calendars that were used by the Maya people during pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, or prior to about 1500 AD.  One is even being used by today's Mayan descendents in Guatemala.  Included are the primary calendars known as Tzolk'in, Haab', Calendar Round, and Long Count.  These calendars were commonly used throughout Mesoamerica back to the 500's BC.  All Mayan calendars are derivatives from even earlier calendars used by the Olmec and Zapotec civilizations, and the later Aztec and Mixtec tribes.

So, it's important to understand that the Mayan were not the "inventors" of the infamous calendars we so extensively refer to today.  The Mayan did, however significantly improve upon those existing calendars, making their use sort of a widespread standard for the Mesoamerican region.  Moreover, it turns out the Mayan - and the Aztec - calendars are now the best understood of all pre-Columbian dating systems.

Michael D. Coe, author of "The Maya" describes the birth of the Mayan calendar:

"Some system of recording time is essential to all higher cultures - ti fix critical events in the lives of the persons ruling the state, to guide the agricultural and ceremonial year, and to record celestial motions.  The Calendar Round of 52 years was present among all the Mesoamericans, including the Maya, and is presumably of very great age. It consists of two permutating cycles.

One is of 260 days, representing the intermeshing of a sequence of the numbers 1 through 13 with twenty named days.  Among the Maya, the 260-day count (sometimes called by the ersatz term 'tzolkin') began with 1 Imix, followed by 2 Ik, 3 Akbal, 4 Kan, until 13 Ben had been reached; the day following was of course 1x, with the coefficient 1 again, leading to 2 Men, and so on.  The last day of the cycle would be 13 Ahau, and it would repeat once again commencing with 1 Imix.

How such a period of time every came into being remains an enigma, but the use to which it was put is clear.  Every single day had its own omens and associations, and the inexorable march of the twenty days acted as a kind of perpetual fortune-telling machine guiding the destinies of the Maya and of all the peoples of Mexico.  It still survives in unchanged form among some isolated folk in southern Mexico and the Maya highlands, under the care of the priests.

Meshing with the 260-day count is a "Vague Year" of 365 days, so called because the actual length of the solar year is about a quarter-day more, a circumstance that leads us to intercalate one day every four years to keep our calendar in march with the sun, but which was ignored by the Maya.  Within it, there were 18 named "months" of 20 days each, with a much-dreaded interval of five unlucky days added at the end.  The Maya New Year started with 1 Pop, the next day being 2 Pop, etc.  The final day of the month, however, carried not the coefficient 20, but a sign indicating the "seating" of the month to follow, in line with the Maya philosophy that the influence of any particular span of time is felt before it actually begins and persists somewhat beyond its apparent termination.

Signs for the months in the 365-day count.

From this it follows that a particular day in the 260-day count, such as 1 Kan, also had a position in the Vague Year, for instance 1 Pop.  A day designated as 1 Kan 1 Pop could not return until 52 Vague Years (18,980 days) had passed.  This is the Calendar Round, and it is the only annual time count possessed by the highland peoples of Mexico, one that obviously has its disadvantages where events taking place over a span of more than 52 years are concerned.

Schematic representation of part of the 52-year Calendar Round.

Although it is usually assumed to be "Maya", the Long Count was widely distributed in Classic and earlier times in the lowland country of Mesoamerica, but it was carried to its highest degree of refinement by the Maya of the Central Area.  This is really another kind of permutation count, but the cycles used are so large that, unlike the Calendar Round, any event within the span of historical time could be fixed without fear of ambiguity.  Instead of taking the Vague Year as the basis for the Long Count, the Maya and other peoples employed the "tun", a period of 360 days.  The Long Count cycles are:

The Sacred Round (Tzolkin) Calendar

Probably the most important (and earliest) Mayan calendar is the 260-day Sacred Round calendar.  Still used by the descendents of Mayans living in the Guatemalan highlands and the Oaxacan region, it is commonly known as the Tzolkin, the name given to it by archeologists researching Mayn ruins and the region.  There are 20 day names and 13 numbers of the trecena (group of 13) cycle.  The Tzolkin was used in determining dates for religious events and ceremonies (such as sacrifices). 

Above Image: Original page 13 of the Codex Borbonicus, showing the 13th trecena of the Aztec sacred calendar. This 13th trecena was under the auspices of the goddess Tlazolteotl, who is shown on the upper left wearing a flayed skin, giving birth to Cinteotl. The 13 day-signs of this trecena, starting with 1 Earthquake, 2 Flint/Knife, 3 Rain, etc., are shown on the bottom row and the column along the right side. From Wikipedia.

Why 260 days?  Well, there are several theories about this.  The first has to do with the number 20 and 13 - both of which were very important to the early Maya.  20 x 13 - 260.  Another comes from the early Olmec settlements in Izapa, a region in southeast Chiapas, Mexico.  The sun passes the zenith two times each year at that specific latitude, creating a 260-day cycle.  The third theory is based on the planting season, which lasts for 260 days.  And finally, some believe the 260 day cycle is relative to human pregnancy, which lasts approximately 260 days.

The Haab Calendar

Another calendar used by the Mayans was the Haab, a solar calendar consisting of 18 months and 20 days, with an additional period of 5 days called the "nameless days".  Estimated to have originated with the winter solstice of 550 BC, each day entailed a day number and the month.  Used to track the seasons, the Haab was slightly inaccurate as it consisted of 365 days, without the 1/4 day used today - an offset for Leap Year.  Since the months were named after individual seasons, the calendar became incorrect after a couple hundred years. 

The 5 nameless days at the end of the Haab calendar were considered dangerous days -  sort of superstitious "Friday the 13th" days.  Known as "Wayeb", the 5 nameless days opened the terrible underworld, where angry deities (supernatural immortal beings) could cause certain disasters.  During this time, the Maya would perform rituals and ceremonies to ward off the evil spirits.  Similar to modern day "New Years" traditions such as not washing laundry or eating certain foods on New Year's Day, staying at home, or not washing or combing one's hair are examples of Maya rituals during Wayeb. 

The Calendar Round

The Haab and Tzolkin were not meant to track years, so a calendar was needed for that purpose.  So, when used in conjunction with the Haab, the Tzolkin becomes known as the Calendar Round.  The Calendar Round is basically a cycle of 52 Haabs (years).  The 52-year cycle, incidentally was about the average lifespan of Mesoamerican peoples so the Calendar Round was sufficient for most Mayan tastes.  There were smaller cycles of days that were also important elements of the Calendar Round: the 20-day veintena, and the 13-day trecena.

As expected, the end of the 52-year Haab cycle (or Calendar Round) brought with it bad luck and nervous attention.  The Maya would wait in anxiety to determine if the gods would grant a new cycle of 52 years.  

To track longer periods of time, the Maya used the Long Count calendar.  Based on days passed since a religious (mythological) point in the past, the Long Count calendar has been translated to a starting point of August 11, 3114 BC according to the modern western calendar system.

The Long Count Calendar

To measure periods beyond the limitations of 52 years (or 18,980 days), a longer calendar was needed - especially if the Maya wanted to record historical events.  This calendar became known as the Long Count, and is usually referenced when discussing the year 2012.  I'll let Wikipedia explain:

The Maya name for a day was k'in. Twenty of these k'ins are known as a winal or uinal. Eighteen winals make one tun. Twenty tuns are known as a k'atun. Twenty k'atuns make a b'ak'tun.

The Long Count calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from the Mayan creation date 4 Ahaw, 8 Kumk'u (August 11, 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or September 6 in the Julian calendar). But instead of using a base-10 (decimal) scheme like Western numbering, the Long Count days were tallied in a modified base-20 scheme. Thus 0.0.0.1.5 is equal to 25, and 0.0.0.2.0 is equal to 40. As the winal unit resets after only counting to 18, the Long Count consistently uses base-20 only if the tun is considered the primary unit of measurement, not the k'in; with the k'in and winal units being the number of days in the tun. The Long Count 0.0.1.0.0 represents 360 days, rather than the 400 in a purely base-20 (vigesimal) count.

Here's a chart explaining the Mayan Long Count calendar:

Going even further, there are four additional (higher) cycles:

piktun, kalabtun, k'inchiltun, alautun

Why the Long Count calendar and supposed destruction on December 21, 2012?  Well, Mexican-American author Jose Arguelles helped spawn a New Age belief by predicting a cataclysmic event will occur on December 21, 2012 - a basis stemming from his interpretations of the Long Count calendar.  Arguelles, founder of the Planet Art network and the Foundation for the Law of Time, wrote the mystical book, The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology. 

Essentially, the Long Count calendar has an end date ... one that occurs every 5,125 years.  The next end date occurs, according to modern day translations of Mayan codices found by archeologists, on December 21 or December 23, 2012.  The December 21 day is the more widely accepted date.  Some believe that the last day on the Mayan Long Count is nothing more than the end of the calendar and a time for renewal of the calendar.  It is compared to December 31 ending on modern calendars, with the next day simply going to Jan 1.

Others, including Arguelles, believe December 21, 2012 will mark the initiation of a new era in mankind.  Positive physical or spiritual transitions will occur.  Others think December 21, 2012 will bring on an apocalypse, or an end of days.  Unlikely, in my opinion, but noteworthy by many.  Modern Mayan scholars call it hogwash, while the scientific community views doomsday scenarios in conjunction with the Mayan Long Count calendar as a complete misrepresentation.

What you believe doesn't matter.  But, here is a bit more insight on the Long Count calendar and how it relates to the year 2012. 

The current baktun (almost 400 years) ends on 13.0.0.0.0 or December 21, 2012.  There are 13 baktuns in a Great Cycle of 5,125 years on the Mayan calendar.  The Mayan developed the cycle of 13 baktuns (5,125 years) as a starting point for the beginning of a new world, as well as an ending point for the previous world.  Such end/start periods were of the greatest importance to the Mayan.  Just as they placed anxious worries on the end of the 52-year haab calendar, they would have done the same with the Long Count calendar - probably to an even higher level of concern since the cycle changes only once every 5,125 years.

Mayan belief is that they were (and we are now) in the fifth cycle of 5,125 years.  Here is how it is described in Wikipedia:

Unlike the 52-year calendar round still used today among the Maya, the Long Count was linear, rather than cyclical, and kept time roughly in units of 20, so 20 days made a uinal, 18 uinals, or 360 days, made a tun, 20 tuns made a katun, and 20 katuns, or 144,000 days, made up a baktun. So, for example, the Mayan date of 8.3.2.10.15 represents 8 baktuns, 3 katuns, 2 tuns, 10 uinals and 15 days since creation. Many Mayan inscriptions have the count shifting to a higher order after 13 baktuns. Today, the most widely accepted correlations of the end of the thirteenth baktun, or Mayan date 13.0.0.0.0, with the Western calendar are either December 21 or December 23, 2012. Even before the dating issue was settled, the early Mayanist and astronomer Maud Worcester Makemson had written in 1957 that "[t]he completion of a Great Period of 13 baktuns would have been of the utmost significance to the Maya". After the correct date was determined, the anthropologist Munro S. Edmonson added that "there appears to be a strong likelihood that the eral calendar, like the year calendar, was motivated by a long-range astronomical prediction, one that made a correct solsticial forecast 2,367 years into the future in 355 B.C. [sic]".

In 1966, Michael D. Coe more ambitiously claimed in The Maya that "[t]here is a suggestion . . . that Armageddon would overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all creation on the final day of the thirteenth [baktun]. Thus ... our present universe ... [would] be annihilated on December 23, 2012, when the Great Cycle of the Long Count reaches completion." These apocalyptic connotations were accepted by other scholars through the early 1990s. But more recent academic scholars have specifically disputed the apocalyptic interpretation of the Long Count calendar end-date, saying instead that it would be a cause for celebration but that the cycle would continue uninterrupted by any cataclysmic event.