As the Maya were very good astronomers
and observers they had a complex series of calendars, including a Sacred
260-day calendar, called the Tzol'kin, a 365-day calendar called the Haab,
and a 52-Haab cycle called the
Calendar Round, which synchronised
the Tzol'kin and Haab cycles.
There was also a Long Count calendar which started at [0.0.0.0.0] (with
Maya record) on August 11, 3114 BC according to the "Goodman, Martinez-Hernandez,
and Thompson" correlation (nicknamed "GMT"), the most widely accepted correlation
between the Maya and Gregorian calendar. This cycle is 1,872,000 days in
length, terminates on the Winter Solstice of (December 21) 2012 AD and
is designated [13.0.0.0.0] or [0.0.0.0.0], since the Maya believed that
time is somehow periodical. Another widely-used correlation, that of Lounsbury,
correlates the start-day to August 13, 3114 BC and the terminal date to
December 23, 2012 CE.
The turn of the great cycle is conjectured to have been of great significance
to the Maya, but does not necessarily mark the end of the world. According
to some students of the Maya calendar the Maya chose the start date for
their long count so that the alignment of the Sun with the Galactic Center
will occur on the end date, although according to astronomers it is not
possible to specify such an "alignment" with a precision of less than a
few years.
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