How the Mayan Calendar Works

Although it has been considered as a forgotten method and reference in counting seasons and days during the ancient period, the Mayan Calendar has started to be the focus of attention for doomsday conspiracy and theorists for the past decade. This is because of the mayan calendar end of the world prophecies that is said to unfold on December, 2012, causing worldwide fear, curiosity and fascination. The ancient Mayans are an indigenous civilization from Central America and had lived thousands of years ago around Mexico's Yucatan peninsula; a race of people that are far advanced in their studies of astronomy and mathematics as well as being highly spiritual. Their advanced knowledge for astronomy and their creativity are evident in the few surviving pictorial alphabet and drawings which is also proof that the Mayans existed long before the Spanish conquistadors had reached the Central Americas.

The Mayan Calendar is among the several systems that today's archaeologists, scholars and scientists study ancient civilization with. The ancient calendar is a very advanced and mathematically accurate system that calculates the movements of the sun and the moon and the changes in the seasons. Modern scientists had attested to the accuracy of the Mayan Calendar and had even found out that it is far more accurate than the calendars that had followed it. And this mathematically accurate capability of calculating days and months and years is one of the reasons why people from all over the world believe in the end of the world 2012 predictions. So now that we are all aware of just how accurate the ancient Mayan Calendar is, the next question we should be asking is how does the mayan calendar work?

The Mayan Calendar features three periods of time and can be viewed as three different dials on a single watch, each of these dials have a specified time scale. The three time periods in the calendar is the Long Count period that relates to time periods stretching for thousands of years; the standard 365 day period called the Haab and the shortest time period, covering only a fortnight is the Tzolkin. Each dial is a finite system that covers certain times of starting and finishing points that enable its users to determine the specific start and end time of a month, year or even a millennium which is very much like the modern day calendars that we use.

The Mayans, a superstitious civilization, marks the end of each cycles which are called the Calendar Round, every fifty two years, and is seen as an unlucky time. December 21st 2012 is a date that has become synonymous with Mayan and Aztec end of the world prophecies, because the longest time cycle in the Mayan Calendar, the Long Count Calendar, which is the only calendar in the history of the world that dates back more than five thousand years, will return to zero. The mayan astrology is known for its mathematical and scientific accuracy, have they really determined when life here on earth will finally come to an end?

If you want to read more about the Mayan Calendar, visit our 2012 Official Countdown website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jimmy_Barlow

Halloween Among the Stars: The Seven Sisters - Pleiades

Have you ever heard of The Seven Sisters, also known as the Pleiades? It is a small constellation made up of seven stars that is shaped like a cluster of grapes. While this constellation is small, many people believe that the Pleiades has witnessed and foretells of many big things. Some people believe that a cataclysmic event, one that may have killed thousands maybe millions of people, happened while The Seven Sisters were in the sky. A few even believe that the world will end while The Seven Sisters shine overhead.

So what does this all have to do with Halloween? Well, if for some reason you found yourself on a deserted island without a calendar, you could still celebrate Halloween because the Pleiades is always right overhead during Halloween.

But what truly makes The Seven Sisters a sinister set of stars is the fact that not only is Halloween celebrated at this time, but so was an ancient Aztec ceremony involving a human sacrifice and the end of the world, a Celtic ceremony called Samhain when evil spirits would invade the earth and a Mexican holiday called Days of the Dead (día de los muertos). Ancient temples in Greece were built to be lined up with Pleiades. And so was a major Aztec temple. The Pleiades is even mentioned in the bible, in the book of Job and has a place in Brahman faith as the sparks from a god of fire. The set of stars is so widely mentioned and so often associated with death and destruction, that there are some who suspect that the Pleiades were overhead when a terrible event happened on Earth.

No one is quite sure what this event was, though some suspect that it may have been the great flood that is talked about in the Bible or perhaps the cataclysmic event that lead to the sinking of Atlantis. The Aztecs believed that the world had not been destroyed just once when the Pleiades were overhead, but rather four times. And that if a human sacrifice was not made once every 52 years (when their two calendars coincided), that the world would be once again destroyed while those seven stars looked down.

So this Halloween, when you are taking your kids out trick-or-treating or on your way to a costume party, make sure you stop for a moment and look up at the stars. See if you can locate the Seven Sisters overhead in the night sky. You might also want to stop and wonder what horrors that little cluster of stars has witnessed, and if they might witness a few more sometime in the future.

This article was written by Heather A Rhoades and was sponsored by DareToScare.com and the DareToScare Costume Search Engine [http://www.daretoscare.com]. The article is available for reprint as long as a link is provided back to [http://www.daretoscare.com]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Heather_Rhoades

Aztec vs. Mayan Calendar

The Aztec calendar was the calendar of the Aztec people of Pre-Columbian Mexico. It is one of the Mesoamerican calendars, sharing the basic structure of calendars from throughout ancient Mesoamerica. This calendar is recorded as a carving on the Aztec Calendar Stone currently found in the National Museum of Anthropology and History located within Chapultepec Park, Mexico City.

The calendar consisted of a 365 day calendar cycle and a 260 day ritual cycle. These two cycles together formed a 52 year "century", sometimes called the "Calendar Round".The calendric year began with the first appearance of the Pleiades asterism in the east immediately before the dawn light.

Every month had its name, and the days of the month were numbered from one to twenty. The days of the last month, Nemontemi, were numbered from one to five.The box at the top of the stone contains the stone's year of creation, in this case 1479 CE.

The solar calendar of 365 days was inseparable from the Sacred Round, or Sacred Almanac. The priests used this ritual calendar of 260 days called Tonalpohualli primarily for divinatory purposes. The method of naming the individual days consisted in the combination of twenty pictorial signs with the numbers one to thirteen. Each of the day signs also bears an association with one of the four cardinal directions.The 20 day signs are depicted in the calendar image to the right. They are arrayed in a circle surrounding the central face.

The original Aztec Calendar is a 12', massive stone slab, carved in the middle of the 15th century. Many renditions of it exist and have existed through the years and throughout Mexico.

Historically, the Aztec name for the huge basaltic monolith is Cuauhxicalli Eagle Bowl, but it is universally known as the Aztec Calendar or Sun Stone. It was during the reign of the 6th Aztec monarch in 1479 that this stone was carved and dedicated to the principal Aztec deity: the sun. The stone has both mythological and astronomical significance. It weighs almost 25 tons, has a diameter of just under 12 feet, and a thickness of 3 feet.

On December 17th, 1790 the stone was discovered, buried in the "Zocalo" (the main square) of Mexico City. The viceroy of New Spain at the time was don Joaquin de Monserrat, Marquis of Cruillas. Afterwards it was embedded in the wall of the Western tower of the metropolitan Cathedral, where it remained until 1885. At that time it was transferred to the national Museum of Archaeology and History by order of the then President of the Republic, General Porfirio Diaz.


Xiuhmolpilli commemorative sculpture marking the completion of the fifty-two-year cycle. Every 52 years the tonalpohualli and the xiuhpohualli calendars would align. This marked what was known as a Mesoamerican "century." Every one of these centuries was marked by xiuhmolpilli - Binding Up of the Years or the New Fire Ceremony. This was a festival that lasted 12 days and included fasting as a symbol of penitence. At the beginning of this festival all the lights in the city were extinguished - people let their hearth fires go out. Then on midnight of the 12th day of the festival, a prisoner was taken to the priest. The priest would watch in the night sky for the star of fire to reach the zenith. Once it did, the priest would remove the heart of this man, and replace it with a piece of wood, that was laid on a piece of turquoise. This is where the priest would start the new fire that would once again light the city.




Name of Month


Patron Gods and Rituals
I. Atlacacauallo (ceasing of water)

Tlaloc, Chachihutlicue

Children sacrificed to water gods
II. Tlacaxipehualiztli (flaying of men)

Xipe-Totec

Gladiatorial sacrifice; dances by priest wearing the flayed skin of victims
III. Tozoztontli (little vigil)

Coatlicue, Tlaloc

Flayed skins buried, child sacrifices
IV. Hueytozoztli (great vigil)

Centeotl, Chicomecacoatl

Blessing of new corn; maiden sacrificed
V. Toxcatl (dryness)

Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli

Impersonators of these major gods sacrificed
VI. Etzalcualiztli (meal of maize & beans)

Tlaloques

Impersonators of water deities sacrificed by drowning; ritual bathing and dances
VII. Tecuilhuitontli (small feast of the lords)

Huixtocihuatl, Xochipilli

Impersonators of the gods sacrificed; ceremony of salt workers
VIII. Hueytecuihutli (great feast of the lords)

Xilonen

Feast for goddess of young corn, lords offer gifts and feast for commoners
IX. Tlaxochimaco (birth of flowers)

Huizilopochtli

All the gods festooned with garlands; feasting on corn-meal cakes and turkey
X.

Xocotlhuetzin (fall of fruit)

Hueymiccaihuitl (great feast of the dead)


Xiuhtecuhtli

Ceremonial pole climbing competition

Sacrifice to fire gods by roasting victims alive
XI. Ochpaniztli (sweeping of the roads)

Tlazolteotl

Sweeping of house and roads; mock combat
XII. Teoleco (return of the gods)

Tezcatlipoca

Ceremonies welcoming gods returning to earth; ceremonial drunkenness, sacrifices by fire
XIII. Tepeihuitl (feast of the hills)

Tlaloc

Ceremonies for mountain rain gods; human sacrifices and ceremonial cannibalism
XIV. Quecholli (precious feather)

Mixcoatl-Camaxtli

Ritualistic hunt following fast; sacrifice of game and ceremonial feasting
XV. Panquetzaliztli (raising of the banner)

Huitzilopochtli

Homes and fruit trees decorated with paper banners; race-procession; massive sacrifices
XVI. Atemoztli (water decends)

Tlaloc

Festival honoring water gods; children and slaves sacrificed
XVII. Tititl (stretching)

Llamatecuhtli

Sympathetic magic to bring rain; women beaten with straw-filled bags to make them cry
XVIII. Izcalli (resuscitation)

Xiuhtecuhtli

Image of god made from amaranth dough; feasting on tamales stuffed with greens
Nemontemi (empty days) Five unlucky days; no rituals, general fasting

The tonalpohualli (count of days) was the sacred almanac of the Mexicas. This ritual calendar was registered in the tonalamatl (book of days), a green-fold bark paper or deerskin codex from which a priest (called tonalpouque) cast horoscopes and predicated favorable and unfavorable days of the cycle. The almanac year comprised of 260 days, each of which was assigned a date by intermeshing one of 20 day-signs, represented graphically with a glyph, and a number from 1 to13, represented by dots so that no two days in the cycle could be confused. The almanac year was thus made up of 20 13-day weeks, with the first week beginning on 1-Crocodile and ending on 13-Reed, the second week running from 1-Ocelot to 13-Deaths' Head and so on. A god or goddess was believed to preside over each day-sign, as shown in the following chart.

The Center of the Disc - Tonatiuh

Tonatiuh's Face is the face of the sun, Lord of Heaven, around which takes place all daily and periodic phenomena. The crown, nose-pendant, ear-rings and necklace are magnificent, as must be the ornaments characteristic of this deity. The hair is blond, due to the golden appearance of the sun. The wrinkles on the face show age and maturity. And the tongue, stuck out is the form of an obsidian knife, indicates that the diety demands to be fed with blood and human hearts.

First Ring - from Center. Four Olin representing the Earthquake Epoch or Sun. The four epochs represented inside the square portions of this symbol correspond to the four previous epochs also called suns.

Second Ring - The second ring from the center is composed of 20 named days contained in one month, also used for naming years. Each year starts on one of four of these 20 days.

Twenty Days of the Aztec Month

Snake - Coatl
Lizard - Cuetzpallin
House - Calli
Wind - Ehecatl
Crocodile - Cipactli
Flower - Xochitl
Rain - Quiahuitl
Flint - Tecpatl
Movement - Ollin
Vulture - Cozcacuauhtli
Eagle - Cuauhtle
Jaguar - Ocelotl
Cane - Acatl
Herb - Malinalli
Monkey - Ozomatli
Hairless Dog - Itzquintli
Water - Atl
Rabbit - Tochtli
Deer - Mazatl
Skull - Miquiztli

Third Ring - Sun Rays - Chalchihuite Ornaments - Splashed Blood Symbols

Outer Ring - Dedication Plate - Herbs with Buds - White Scrolls - Flame Sign - Xiucoatl's Tail

Aztec vs. Mayan Calendar

The two calendars were was basically similar. The ritual day cycle was called Tonalpohualli and was formed, as was the Mayan Tzolkin, by the concurrence of a cycle of numerals 1 through 13 with a cycle of 20 day names, many of them similar to the day names of the Maya.

Where the Aztec differed most significantly from the Maya was in their more primitive number system and in their less precise way of recording dates. Normally, they noted only the day on which an event occurred and the name of the current year. This is ambiguous, since the same day, as designated in the way mentioned above, can occur twice in a year. Moreover, years of the same name recur at 52-year intervals, and Spanish colonial annals often disagree as to the length of time between two events.

Other discrepancies in the records are only partially explained by the fact that different towns started their year with different months. The most widely accepted correlation of the calendar of Tenochtitlan with the Christian Julian calendar is based on the entrance of Cortes into that city on November 8, 1519, and on the surrender of Cuauhtemoc on August 13, 1521. According to this correlation, the first date was a day 8 Wind, the ninth day of the month Quecholli, in a year 1 Reed, the 13th year of a cycle.

The Mexicans, as all other Meso-Americans, believed in the periodic destruction and re-creation of the world. The "Calendar Stone" in the Museo Nacional de Antropologia (National Museum of Anthropology) in Mexico City depicts in its central panel the date 4 Ollin (movement), on which they anticipated that their current world would be destroyed by earthquake, and within it the dates of previous holocausts: 4 Tiger, 4 Wind, 4 Rain, and 4 Water.

The Aztec calendar kept two different aspects of time; tonalpohualli and xiuhpohualli. Each of these systems had a different purpose. The tonalpohualliwas the 'counting of days.' It originated by ancient peoples observing that the sun, crossed a certain zenith point near the Mayan city of Copan, every 260 days. So this first system is arranged in a 260-day cycle. These 260 days were then broken up into 20 periods, with each period containing 13 days, called trecenas. Each period was given the name of something that was then shown by a hieroglyphic sign, and each trecena was given a number 1-13. Each trecena is also thought to have a god or deity presiding over each of the trecena. They kept these counts in tonalamatls, screenfold books made from bark paper. The Aztecs used this as a religious calendar. Priests used the calendar to determine luck days for such activities as sowing crops, building houses, and going to war.

The xiuhpohualli was the 'counting of the years.' This calendar was kept on a 365-day solar count. This was also the agricultural and ceremonial calendar of the Aztec state. It was divided into 18 periods, with each period containing 20 days, called veintenas. This left five days that were not represented. These were called "nemontemi." These were the five transition days between the old and the new year, and were considered days of nothing. This was a time of festivals. People came to the festivals with their best clothes on, and took part in singing and dancing. This is also when the priest would perform sacrifices, most of these sacrifices were human, but others were preformed on animals and fruit.

The solar year was the basis for the civil calendar by which the Mexicas (Aztecs) determined the myriad ceremonies and rituals linked to agricultural cycles. The calendar was made up of 18 months, each lasting 20 days. The months were divided into four five-day weeks. The year was rounded out to 365 days by the addition of the five-day nemontemi (empty days), an ominous period marked by the cessation of normal activities and general abstinence. The correlation of dates in the Gregorian calendar is uncertain, although most authors on the subject affix the beginning of the Aztec year to early February. A variety of sources were consulted in developing the following chart of some of the ritualistic activities associated with each month.

Many of the Aztecs' religious ceremonies, including frequent human sacrifices, were performed at the Great Temple, located in the center of their capital city of Tenochtitlan.