- Mayan Calendar End Of World
- Mayan Calendar End Of Time
- Mayan Calendar End Of The World 2017 Episode
- End Of Mayan Calendar 2012
The bizarre claim is a follow on from the theory that the world was supposed to end in 2012 when the Mayan calendar finished. 2 The Mayans predicted the world would end in 2020. Author Cape Cod Curmudgeon Posted on August 13, 2017 August 11, 2017 Categories Ancient History, Odds & Ends, Popular Culture Tags 12/22/12, December 22 2012, End of the World, Mayan Calendar, Today in History. The Maya calendar consists of several cycles or counts of different lengths. The 260-day count is known to scholars as the Tzolkin, or Tzolkʼin. The Tzolkin was combined with a 365-day vague solar year known as the Haabʼ to form a synchronized cycle lasting for 52 Haabʼ, called the Calendar Round.The Calendar Round is still in use by many groups in the Guatemalan highlands.
Comparative arts and letters professor Allen Christenson discussed how Maya recorded, interpreted, and reacted to eclipse events.
PROVO, Utah (Nov. 10, 2017)—On July 12, 1562, Spanish Bishop Diego de Landa burned more than forty Maya books at a Catholic church in the Maya city of Maní, in what is now the Yucatán region of Mexico. He is quoted as saying, “We found a large number of books . . . and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which [the Maya] regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction.” What Bishop de Landa did not know was that he was burning hundreds of pages filled with the records of a civilization written in the first and only fully phonetic language system in the Americas, as well as pages of meticulous, accurate records of astronomical events, including the movements of the planets and eclipse seasons—an integral part of their religious practice.
Only four Maya codices survive today, each named after the city where they are kept. The parts written after the Spanish invasion of Mesoamerica are written on paper, but the earlier parts are written on deerskin covered with gesso, a plaster-like substance. Many of the pages were dedicated to astronomical records, with the symbol for an eclipse appearing over and over again in the tables. Allen Christenson, professor of comparative arts and letters and an expert on Mayan society, explained that although the Maya couldn’t predict the exact day of an eclipse, they could predict eclipse seasons by noting when Venus rose above the horizon just before sunrise. They believed the planets to be their gods, and consequently tracked their movements closely.
The Maya religion had a very cyclical view of the world, Christenson explained. “The last day of every year represents the death of the world, [as does] every sunset,” but they believed that each time the earth died, it would be reborn. Eclipses, more dramatic events, were signs of destruction. In the Dresden Codex, one of the four surviving codices, the sky band with two eclipses underneath is shown with water spilling out—floods were often associated with the end of the world.
The recording of these codices, as well as all other writing and drawing, was the exclusive right of the aristocracy, who were thought to carry the blood of gods. “[The Maya] consider any kind of creative act like that divine,” said Christenson. Thus, the documentation of the movement of the gods in the sky fell to the responsibility of the Maya nobility, who they believed were descended from the gods.
The Maya nobility were also heavily involved in religious rituals. During a solar eclipse, the dark moon covers more and more of the sun, creating the illusion that the sun is being eaten. Thus, the Maya depicted the cataclysmic destruction of an eclipse as a demon biting the sun. To prevent this catastrophe, the Maya would engage in religious ceremonies, sacrifice, and prayer to the gods. Because rebirth was the center of all Maya ceremonies, bloodletting was particularly common as it was thought to balance out death. Only the nobility, including the King, were allowed to perform sacrifices of bloodletting, for common blood could not appease the gods. Animals and trees were also sacred to the Maya, so their blood and sap were offered as well.
Although much of the Maya record was destroyed in the first decades after the Spanish conquest, such as in the fire at Maní, what we have tells of a highly developed society whose religion revolved around the heavenly bodies. The eclipse tables provide us valuable insight into historical record-keeping and the Maya interpretation of the end of the world—or for them, simply another destructive beginning.
—Olivia Madsen (B.A. French language, ’18)
Olivia covers news for the Comparative Arts and Letters Department of the College of Humanities. She is a senior pursuing a degree in French language with a minor in international development.
Images from Cuentos de hispanoamérica, LatinAmericanStudies.org, and Allen Christenson
Learn about how eclipses can help us recognize God in our lives here.
Read about philosophers’ experiences with eclipses here.
News
Mystics, hippies and tourists celebrated in Mexico as the world marked the end of the Mayan long count 400 year calendar. Doomsday predictions appear to be unfounded.
Maya Kalender Weltuntergang ausgefallen
Some, who believed the world would end on Friday had reached the conclusion based on the 'Long Count' of the 5,200-year Mayan calendar. The theory was that a doomsday scenario would be set into motion on December 21, 2012, which also coincides with the December solstice.
For the Mayas though, the date marked the end of a period of 400 years, and was expected to bring a regeneration of wisdom and other positive developments.
Mayan Calendar End Of World
The end of the Mayan calendar was largely ignored, with most going about business as usual. However, some gathered around archaeological remains of the Maya's ancient culture to mark the event.
Cashing in on the end of the world
Thousands gathered at Chichen Itza and other sites in Mexico, where they were on hand to greet the first sunrise of this new era. Elsewhere, people celebrated the event in bars or restaurants.
Around 3,000 people gathered at the Tikal stone pyramid in northern Guatemala, where native Maya priests lit fires as the sun emerged on Friday morning. Actors in costume also danced to celebrate the event.
French mountain aliens
Mayan Calendar End Of Time
In France, meanwhile, journalists from all over the world flocked to the southern village of Bugarach, which had been rumoured to be one of the only places where one could escape doomsday. Apart from members of the media though, few were able to reach Bugarach, as local authorities, fearing that they would be inundated by New Age enthusiasts, had taken the precaution of blocking access roads.
Mayan Calendar End Of The World 2017 Episode
The village had been regarded as a refuge by some who believed the end of the world was imminent. The theory there had been that aliens would use the Pic de Bugarach mountain, which towers above the village, as a landing strip, and then whisk nearby human beings away to safety.
End Of Mayan Calendar 2012
pfd/jm (AFP, dpa)