A Maya priest lifts a large conch shell to his lips and blasts a long, low note—the New Year ceremony has begun. Dressed in layers of traditional ceremonial clothing, he dances into the middle of the circle of villagers. They have come to watch the annual ceremony of rebirth for the gods and the entire world.
This is the actual celebration of the end of the Maya calendar. Allen Christenson, an archaeologist and Maya expert, says the Maya “don’t look at this ceremony as a reenactment. They look at it as the creation, so that time folds back on itself, and you actually return back to the moment of creation.”
The Maya used three different calendars representing both linear and cyclical systems of time: one tracked the day of the year (long count), and two tracked lunar and solar cycles. These calendars helped the people keep records of their past, present, and future in a way that, even today, we can read and understand.
The Maya doomsday myth was first inferred from an ancient Maya text mentioning December 21, 2012 (the end date of the Maya long-count calendar), in connection with the belief in a Maya destroyer god who appears to end and renew the world each year. Some archaeologists combined this visit with a belief that the world would come to an end with a bang—a prophecy from the Mexica people, who thrived hundreds of years after the Maya scene diminished. This myth grew until people around the globe began to fear the end of the world.
Christenson isn’t sure how any archaeologists could think the Maya believed that the world would end on December 21, 2012. “The Maya never said it would be the end of the world in 2012,” he says. “They like time. They calculated dates billions of years in the past, even further back than what we consider the Big Bang. But they also calculated millions of years into the future, so they obviously didn’t think things were going to end.”
Maya priests still perform the ceremony of rebirth every year for the 15 million Maya living in Mexico and Central America at harvest time. They believe that without the ceremony the world would die. Christenson says he once told a Maya priest about the 2012 hype. The priest laughed and responded, “Of course the world’s going to die in 2012. It dies every time the sun goes down, every harvest, every New Year. I don’t know why you’re worried about it—we always get it going again!”
Christenson sums it up: “Pretty much every Maya ceremony, ritual prayer, and literature has to do ultimately with rebirth—everything dies and is reborn.” This year, you can rest easy knowing that Maya priests are keeping the world turning. We only have to worry if the Maya die out.
Lauren Grange
Interesting article! I had no idea that the Mayans had three different calendars. So many things I learned from this article. Way to do great research and present it easy for us to understand!
Interesting article! I had no idea that the Mayans had three different calendars. So many things I learned from this article. Way to do great research and present it easy for us to understand!
Thank you for this insight into Mayan culture! It explains a lot.
Thank you for this insight into Mayan culture! It explains a lot.
That’s so cool! And the idea of rebirth each year is so beautiful!
That’s so cool! And the idea of rebirth each year is so beautiful!
I knew that the myth about the Maya calendar wasn’t true, but I didn’t know all of that background. That’s cool!
I knew that the myth about the Maya calendar wasn’t true, but I didn’t know all of that background. That’s cool!
Really interesting article, I’m surprised more people aren’t privy to the rebirth angle of Maya culture.
Really interesting article, I’m surprised more people aren’t privy to the rebirth angle of Maya culture.
Nice: I’ll admit, I almost didn’t read this article because of the whole 2012 thing, but I’m glad I did; it was fun to read the perspective of real Mayans.
Nice: I’ll admit, I almost didn’t read this article because of the whole 2012 thing, but I’m glad I did; it was fun to read the perspective of real Mayans.
I love the priest’s comment at the end. It seems like worrying about the end of the world on a single day is the silliest and most obvious thing in the world (hindsight is 20/20, I suppose) now that I’ve read this and understand a little bit more about the Mayan system.
I love the priest’s comment at the end. It seems like worrying about the end of the world on a single day is the silliest and most obvious thing in the world (hindsight is 20/20, I suppose) now that I’ve read this and understand a little bit more about the Mayan system.
Fascinating to read! It’s nice to know what the Maya really believe. I love the idea of continual rebirth.
Fascinating to read! It’s nice to know what the Maya really believe. I love the idea of continual rebirth.
Thanks for this article. Although I never paid too much attention to the hype about the end of the world during the end of 2012, this article satisfied a stifled curiosity.
Thanks for this article. Although I never paid too much attention to the hype about the end of the world during the end of 2012, this article satisfied a stifled curiosity.
I literally lol’d when I read what the priest said. I was curious about the hype surrounding the Maya calendar and it is good to know that they will keep the world going.
I literally lol’d when I read what the priest said. I was curious about the hype surrounding the Maya calendar and it is good to know that they will keep the world going.
A really cool article, I wish I could have read more. Is it really supposed to by a “Maya priest” instead of a “Mayan priest”? (Same with Mexica vs Mexican?) If that’s the case, then I need to rethink how I talk to people about these things.
A really cool article, I wish I could have read more. Is it really supposed to by a “Maya priest” instead of a “Mayan priest”? (Same with Mexica vs Mexican?) If that’s the case, then I need to rethink how I talk to people about these things.