The Mayan calendars were very sophisticated for their day. Although they did not develop the calendar originally, they did make significant improvements to it and these included adding in some of their knowledge of astronomical phenomena and their use of mathematics, which was quite extensive as well. There were also specific numbers that were important to the Mayan civilization, including the numbers 13 and 20.
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20 was an important number because there are 20 toes and fingers on the human body. It is also noteworthy that the number 20 was used in mathematical figures in Mayan culture, much the same as the number 10 and factors of 10 are used in our own numerical system. The number 13 was important because of the number of joints in the human body, which adds up to 13.
Because of the fact that they considered the numbers 13 and 20 to be significant, the calendar was based on those numbers to a large extent. One of the primary calendars, which were the first in existence with the Mayans, was 260 days long, which is 20 months of 13 days. This ended up being an important calendar for the Mayan civilization because it helped keep track of many of the ceremonial aspects and their religious practices. It was also used for astrological reasons to determine the outcome of an individual when they were born.
The original calendar did not contain enough information because it lacked the ability to count for an entire calendar year. For that purpose, they developed another calendar that was known as the Haab and a combination of the original calendar and the Haab came together in the Calendar Round. This consisted of a period of 52 years, more or less, but it still did not give the Mayans enough room to calculate very long amounts time, which is why the Long Count calendar was formed.
The Long Count calendar contains a much longer span of time and it covers over 5125 years. This amount of time is referred to in the Mayan culture is the great cycle, with each cycle being made of five units. Those five units contain one day, 20 days, 360 days, 7200 days and 144,000 days collectively. When the five units continue to accumulate for a total of 13 times, you would start again at the beginning of the cycle.
What is interesting to note is the fact that there was an end to this calendar, which caused quite a bit of stir back in 2012. According to the Long Count calendar, the end date would be 13.0.0.0.0, which is the equivalent of December 21, 2012.
Many people look to the end of the Long Count calendar as being an end to everything, as if it had an apocalyptic meaning attached to it. They felt as if the fact that the calendar was ending would point to the fact that time was ending and that we would enter into a new cycle, in which the old would be destroyed and the new would began. Is this really the way that it should be considered?
First of all, it's obvious that the end of the world did not occur on December 21, 2012. In fact, we are still alive and kicking years after that date occurred. For that reason alone, it's important to understand that the predictions that people associate with the Mayan calendars are not always going to come true. That doesn't mean, however, that there was no significance that was associated with that date.
If the ancient Mayan civilization were still in existence today, they would have considered the date of 13.0.0.0.0 to be very significant. In line with the fact that they celebrated the beginning of any cycle, regardless of whether it is large or small, would show that they would also place a significant amount of weight on that day. It would be a time of great celebration and more than likely, there would be ritualistic practices associated with that day, including human sacrifice, ritualistic games and bloodletting.
Where Did the Misconception Come from?
It is interesting to note that, although many people have the misconception that the world was coming to an end in December 2012, it really does not have any basis in Mayan belief. What happened, however, is that a planet, which was supposedly a Samaritan discovery, was headed for Earth and would cause a cataclysmic end in May 2003. Of course, that doomsday date did not pan out but it was conveniently moved ahead till December 2012. When people started to make the connection between the impact of Nibiru, which does not exist, and the end of the Mayan calendar and the prediction of doomsday thanks to the Mayan Long Count calendar was born.
There were even new factors that were added into the mix as the date began to approach. For example, there was a notion that the sky would go dark for three days before December 21 occurred. There's no real logic to this theory and nobody really knows where it got its start, but it did gain some momentum until it obviously did not occur.
Will the World Continue?
There have always been notions of doomsday and various doomsday deadlines have been set throughout the eons, all of which seem to fall quiet. That is due to the fact that those previous predictions are not based on any sound judgment or fact, which would include the belief that the Mayan calendar ending had anything to do with the end of time.
In reality, the Mayans did not believe that time is going to end on that date and this was further recognized when additional information came to light. The ancient Long Count calendar did have an end, which was on the date of December 21, 2012. There were additional numbers that were found painted in one of the Mayan complexes in Guatemala that actually showed that the end of time extended much further than what was included on the Long Count calendar. According to the numbers that were included in that complex, the known world and the calendar would exist for at least another 7000 years.
There have been rumors that the Mayan calendars made many predictions, some of which have come true. The fact of the matter is, however, the December 21, 2012 is the only real prediction of significance for our day and it is one that is not of Mayan origin.
The Mayan calendars were used for recording the passing of time, for astrological reasons and to determine when it was time to perform various ritualistic practices. They had a very complex way of coming up with these calendars, which allowed them to record the span of time that was much longer than a human lifespan. As a result, it is still somewhat of a mystery, because they were such an advanced culture and were able to take part in these complex mathematical procedures. As far as their predictions, however, they did not exist.