August 11 – Anniversary of the start of the Mayan Calendar

Posted August 11, 2013

Everybody was paying a lot of attention to when the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used famously by the ancient Mayans, ended: last December 20, 2012.

You know, the world was supposed to end then, or at least the next day...right?

Wrong!

As every expert in Mesoamerican cultures assured us, we humans (and our entire planet) were not doomed to a civilization-ending disaster (let alone a planet-wrecking disaster) when the calendar “ran out.” Instead of fearing the ending of a cycle, the ancient Maya thought the completion of one cycle and beginning of another was cause for a huge celebration.

Have you ever wondered when this famous calendar began? It turns out that the mythical creation date of this calendar is August 11, 3114 BCE. (We get this date from translation the base-20 calendar's dates to Gregorian calendar dates.)

Learn about the Maya base-20 number system here. 

Learn more about the Maya here and here. 

Also on this date:

Ingersoll Day 

Apple computer inventor Steve Wozniak's birthday

Independence Day in Chad

Plan ahead:

Here are my Pinterest pages on August holidays, historical anniversaries in August, and August birthdays.

And here are my Pinterest pages on September holidays, historical anniversaries in September, and September birthdays.