These ancient calendars are brilliant works of art, check them out and be amazed!

The human race has a long way from living in caves in the strong age to planning to settle on different planets in this technologically advanced age. All this has become possible because of the curiosity of few intelligent individuals in the movement of astral bodies in the sky. They observed the movements of various planets in space night and day and chartered their path, speed and locations in the sky at different times for the posterity.  Over a period of time, such individuals came together, formed an association and started publishing their results for the knowledge of general public. It was because of the royal patronage that different types of “ephemeris” ( detailed day-to-day movements of the planets in the sky) based on either the sun or moon came into existence. Over a period of time these were refined further. A variety of such calendars existed all over the world, some of which are given below.



1) Mayan-Aztec

The Mayan calendar is of remarkable accuracy and complexity.  It is an arrangement of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and in many modern communities in highland Guatemala and in Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico.  Along with those of the Aztecs, these calendars are the most completely understood.  The Mayan calendar uses three different dating systems in parallel. These are the Long Count, the Tzolkin (divine calendar) and the Haab (civil calendar). Out of these, only the Haab has a direct relationship to the length of the year.  Contrary to popular belief, the Mayan calendar did not predict “the end of the world” in 2012.

The Aztec calendar was an alteration of the Mayan calendar. It consisted of a 365 day agricultural calendar as well as a 260-day sacred calendar.  It is currently on display at the Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City, Mexico.  What’s fascinating about this calendar is that every year has a “no time” period-days “outside the calendar” to freely celebrate life. There are a total of five “nameless days” at the end of every Mayan solar year. This is supposed to be a phase of transition and prepation for the next year.