What the Maya calendar says about time
The Maya are known for their calendars, and the reason is not arithmetic. In this tradition a day is not an empty container but something with a character of its own, which is why the count was consulted before planting, marrying or travelling. Ten concepts follow, starting with the counts themselves and ending with what they imply about the shape of time. Where the library names a written source it is given, and much of the day-keeping is living practice that carries none.
Tzolk'in - The Sacred Calendar
Twenty day signs turn against thirteen numbers to make a 260-day round. This is the count used for divination and for deciding when to do things.
Day-Keeper Tradition
Haab - The Solar Year
Eighteen months of twenty days, plus five left over, tracking the farming year. It runs alongside the Tzolk'in rather than replacing it.
Calendar Tradition
The Calendar Round
The two counts only return to the same pairing after fifty-two years. The end of that round was marked with ceremony, as one cycle dying and another being born.
Calendar Tradition
The Long Count
A running tally of days from a fixed starting point in 3114 BCE. It is what allowed Maya inscriptions to date events precisely across long spans.
Calendar Tradition
Birth Day Destiny
The day a person is born is read as a description of them: talents, difficulties, a spirit companion. Character is dated rather than chosen.
Day-Keeper Teaching
Living in Sacred Time
Each day favours some activities and discourages others. Working with the day, rather than against it, is the practical use of all the counting.
Day-Keeper Teaching
The Burden of Time
Periods of time are pictured as carrying a load, heavy or light, that colours everything inside them. Some years simply arrive harder than others.
Maya Philosophy
Patience and Timing
Beyond the calendar there is the plain skill of knowing when to act and when to wait. The farmer who plants at the wrong time gets nothing for being early.
Maya Wisdom
The New Fire Ceremony
At the close of a cycle the old fire was put out and a new one kindled, and household fires were relit from it. Renewal was made into something you could watch happen.
Mesoamerican Tradition
Cyclical Nature of Time
Time is described as a wheel or a spiral, where what has happened returns in a different dress. Prediction is possible because the patterns repeat.
Maya Philosophy
The 2012 date that drew so much attention was the completion of a cycle, which in this system is an ordinary thing for a cycle to do. One great age ended and another began, as had happened before. The calendar was never counting down.