A note about the Mayan Long Count calendar

[ironcore]

For the past few weeks I have spent some of my free time reading about the Mayan calendar system.

I was interested to know how the Mayan calendar was related to the winter solstice. I wrote a c program to tie the Mayan long count calendar to our present day calendar.

Most everyone knows that the Mayan calendar is set to end at the winter solstice on December 21 2012. But when will this happen again in the future?





After running my program I discovered that the next time it happens will be in 266519 years. This is 52 complete cycles of the Mayan long count calendar. Exactly! And then it keeps repeating over and over on or in the very close proximity of December 21.

Here are the next 4 future dates:

December 21, 2012
December 23, 268531
December 23, 535050
December 24, 801569





The Gregorian calender makes a complete cycle every 400 years. 52 cycles of the Mayan calendar makes 666.2975 cycles of the Gregorian.

266519 years is 10.25 complete precessions of the equinoxes.

Each complete cycle of the Myan long count calendar is 5125.36538 years
52 complete cycles makes 266519 years.

To me this is proof enough that the Maya calendar is tied to the wheelwork of nature.

[onthecuttingedge2005]

Mayans were bored off their Ar's, nothing else to do, plant crops, study the stars, keep track of planting seasons. have a sacrifice now and then, eat somebody when food shortages were to low to feed the king. I bet it was the highlight of their cultural ancestry to have a solar almanac hanging on their wall.

they liked killing because it brought unusual entertainment to their boring life and possibly even settled well with their unchecked mental illnesses.

they were just as bad as any other culture. Science say the only thing coming 2012 is the next solar cycle which is supposed to knock out quite a few satellites.

it's a 'solar' calender related to 'solar' events. nothing more. every species has its genius's for thousands of years, even millions. place a mathematician
in a era of the mayans and you have yourself something mysterious.

throw in a little superstition and one can freak out the world.

I guess we'll find out 2012 Dec 21, just any other day in history.
Jerry:)

[ironcore]

The Maya rulers knew that if they kept their people living in fear they could more easily be controlled.

The priests used the Mayan calendar to control almost everything the people did in their daily lives.