Calendar & Religion

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The Maya developed an elaborate and sophisticated system of timekeeping that is still very much in place.

The Mayan Calendar

The ancient Maya used 17 different calendars based on the cosmos. These calendars were, and still are, calculated by the traditional Mayan priests, and are used to time the planting of crops, and to schedule sacred celebrations and ceremonies.

The two most important calendars are the Haab, based on the earth's rotation around the sun, and the sacred calendar, Tzolk'in, based on the cycles of the Pleiades constellation. The Tzolkin consisted of 13 months each 20 days long, and the Haab of 18 months each 20 days long, and five rest days, thus making 365 days. The Maya concatenate the Tzolkin and the Haab, meshing the 260-day Tzolkin with the 365-day Haab; this results in a set of combinations which will not repeat for about 52 years and is known as the Calendar Round.

Altough the Mayan calendar was extremely complex, it was the most precise calendar of the world at that time until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century.

Nature is religion

The worship of a large number of natural deities was the centre of Mayan religion. Especially Chac, the God of Rain played an important role in the rituals of the people. Besides that, Kukulkan the creator god, who is closely related to the Toltec and Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, and Itzamna the sky god belonged to the highest deities.

One hallmark of the Maya’s faith was their absolute trust, that the deities controlled different periods of time and that they affected the people’s activities during those periods.