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 The Maya kept time with a combination of several cycles that meshed together to mark the movement of the sun, moon and Venus. Their ritual calendar, known as the Tzolkin, was composed of 260 days. It pairs the numbers from 1 through 13 with a sequence of the 20 day-names shown below. It works something like our days of the week pairing with the numbers of the month. Thus you might have 1-Imix (similar to Sunday the 1st) followed by 2-Ik (just as you would have Monday the 2nd). When you get to 13-Ben, the next day would start the numbers over again, thus 1-Ix, 2-Men etc. It will take 260 days before the cycle gets back to 1-Imix again (13 x 20).
THE 20 DAY CYCLE
The symbols shown below represent the 20 day-names and are identified with their Yucatec names, pronunciation and approximate translation. The name, meaning and symbol can vary in different Maya languages. Also, each day can be represented with more elaborate glyphs known as "Head Variants" - a formal writing system which can be loosely compared to our script alphabet versus our print alphabet.
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IMIX
ee mesh
waterlily, world |
IK'
eek'
wind |
AK'BAL
ok bol
night-house |
K'AN
k' on
maize |
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CHIKCHAN
cheek chon
snake |
KIMI
kee me
death |
MANIK'
ma neek'
hand |
LAMAT
la mot
Venus |
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MULUK'
mul ok'
water |
OK
ak
dog |
CHUEN
chew in
monkey |
EB
eb
tooth |
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BEN
ben
reed |
IX
eesh
jaguar |
MEN
men
eagle |
KIB
keeb
soul |
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KABAN
kah bon
earth |
ETZ'NAB
ehts' nob
flint, knife |
KAWAK
kah wok
storm |
AHAW
ah how
Lord |
The Tzolkin calendar was meshed with a 365-day solar cycle called the "Haab". The calendar consisted of 18 months with 20 days (numbered 0-19) and a short "month" of only 5 days that was called the Wayeb and was considered to be a dangerous time. It took 52 years for the Tzolkin and Haab calendars to move through a complete cycle.
These are the Mayan words for periods of time:
Day = Kin (keen)
Month of 20 days = Uinal (wee nal)
Year of 360 days = Tun (toon)
20 Tuns = K'atun (k' ah toon)
20 K'atuns = Baktun (bock toon)
 If you would like to convert a date to the Maya calendar, go to the Mayan Calendar Tools website at http://www.pauahtun.org/tools.html
Here is my birthday in Maya glyphs.
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