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By Root 1389 0

may have noticed that neither the Tzolk’in nor the Haab system numbers the years. So how did the Maya keep track of how old a person was or how many cycles had passed since a given date? For the average person, the answer was in the combination of the Tzolk’in/Haab date. Since a particular combination only occurs once every 52 years, the combination itself was enough to identify a time period. The average life span at the time was somewhat less than 52 years; not too many people would see a Calendar round date repeat. For more important events, like the succession of a king or the end of a successful war, the date was locked into the Long Count calendar (which we’ll be discussing in a moment).

A 52-Year Celebration

The end of the Calendar round cycle was observed with massive celebration. Fires were put out for four days across the region while people waited to see the Pleiades cross the horizon. This would ensure another 52 years. The occasion was honored with the construction of a 52-year stele. The steles were inscribed with important dates of the period, events, and the passages of kings. To stay in alignment with the new energy coming in, many buildings were terminated, some were rebuilt, and new construction was begun at this time. The Calendar round stele have been important markers for decoding the dates of the Maya.

Cosmic Caution

Among the Aztec, the end of a Calendar round was a time of public panic as it was thought the world might be coming to an end. Sound familiar?

Venus Cycle

Venus was an important icon for the Maya. The story of the Hero Twins (see Chapter 2) acts out the Venus cycle. Venus as the evening star descends into the underworlds during the time it disappears behind the sun. It re-merges as the morning star after defeating death. (The significance of Venus and the Hero Twins played itself out in the planning of wars and coronations of kings, both designed to coincide with the rising of Venus so that death would be defeated.

The Venus cycle was calculated and recorded in the Dresden Codex where six pages were devoted to its accuracy. The cycle is 584 days long, the time it takes between risings from the underworld as the morning star.

Connections

The Venus cycle is wrapped into the Calendar round where Venus and the Sun perform their continual dance through the 260 days of the Tzolk’in. Five Venus cycles equals eight Haab cycles.

The merging of the Venus cycle and the Tzolk’in happens in such a way that Venus can only emerge as the morning star on one of five possible day-signs of the Tzolk’in. Shaman/astronomers calculated the day-sign for each upcoming Venus rising. The first Venus day-sign, 1 Ahau, had special significance. It was named the Sacred Day of Venus because it marked the beginning of the next large cycle, the Venus Round.

Venus Round

The Venus Round is the time it takes for all three cycles, the Tzolk’in, the Haab, and the Venus cycle, to synchronize. It happens every 104 Haab or 2 Calendar rounds, approximately 104 years. Are you beginning to see what a remarkable accomplishment of synchronization the Maya created? No wonder they were not worried about the wandering 365 days of the solar year. They were marching to a much bigger drum.

Codex Cues

For a quick recap, here are some of the associations so far:

◆ The Tzolkin is 260 days composed of 20 day-signs combined with 13 numbers.

◆ The Haab is 360 days and is composed of 18 months of 20 days each, with a 5-day extra “month” at the end.

◆ The Calendar round is 18,980 days or 52 Haab years and is the synchronization of Tzolk’in and Haab.

◆ The Venus cycle is 584 days between each new morning star appearance.

◆ The Venus Round is 37,960 days or 104 Haab years and equals 2 Calendar rounds. It is the synchronization between the Tzolk’in, Haab, and Venus cycle.

The Long Count Calendar

All the calendars we’ve been deciphering so far come together in the Long Count calendar. The Long Count was created around 200 B.C.E. It counted backward in time about 3,000 years to a beginning