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The Maya Calendar

60 second histories

This video covers:  A look at the two calendars; the Tzolk'in and the Haab and how important they were to the Maya people.

Do you have a calendar to keep track of birthdays, parties, holidays and the like? We have a calendar as well, you know, in fact we have two! One is called the Tzolk’in which we use for our religious festivals and is made up of two hundred and sixty days. Our other calendar is called the Haab which is used by us ordinary people and has three hundred and sixty five days in it, just the same as yours, but the Haab is different. It’s divided into eighteen months with twenty days in each and one short month of just five days. This ordinary calendar is what we call an almanac and we use it to tell us when there’s going to be a full moon or an eclipse, very useful for a Maya farmer who needs to know about the seasons. This way I can prepare for the rainy season and I know when it’s time to plant my crops as well as keep a track of things like birthdays and of course the dates of any ball games or holidays and festivals. In fact it seems my calendar is used much in the same way as you use yours.
Eras: 
Ancient Maya
Topics: 
Civilizations
Farming & Food
Character: 
Maya Woman
Key words: 
Calendar, Maya, Ancient Maya, Tzolk'in, Haab, festivals, almanac, full moon, eclipse, seasons, months, crops, birthdays, dates, farming, farmers, KS2, key stage 2, key stage 2 history, primary, KS2 videos, KS2 clips, KS2 history, KS2 videos, KS2 history film, KS2 history clip, Maya, Mayan, Ancient Maya, Ancient Mayan, Mexico, Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, Mesoamerica