with the finest brush
Oswaldo paints the Maya lord
of the wheel of time
At the Maya Village in Xcaret, a big Yucatan theme park, I watch Oswaldo applying brilliant color to a square of soft leather with the finest of brushes, the same type of brush I use for miniature gouache paintings. His attention is totally focused on making careful, tiny strokes, undisturbed by all the activity around him. His wife, Ascuncion, wearing a traditional white dress with floral embroidery, stands protectively behind him.
The painting Oswaldo is working on depicts the Haab', the solar Maya calendar of 365 days, divided into 18 counts of 20 days with a count of 5 days at the end, which were considered unlucky days. This solar wheel shows the Maya lord of time at the center, supporting the burden of time on his back, represented by a glyph called ajaw, the name of the 20th day in the Tzolk'in calendar, and surrounded by the hieroglyphs for the 19 counts.
The names of the 19 counts reflect aspects of the seasons of the solar year: mat, black conjunction, red conjunction, bat, watering time, dog, new sun, water, black storm, green storm, white storm, red storm, enclosed, yellow sun, owl, planting time, turtle, granary, resting of the year. However, because the Haab' does not take into account the extra quarter of a day in each solar year, the correspondence to the seasons would wander over the years.
The Maya calendar is actually a system of calendars. The Calendar Round of 52 solar years includes the Haab' year of 365 days and the Tzolk'in, or Sacred Round, composed of 13 counts of 20 days, with each day having a unique name. For longer time periods, the Maya use the Long Count, which covers any length of time, past or future.
This year the Maya calendar is getting a lot of attention everywhere because the Long Count of 20 b'ak'tuns, 7,885 solar years, will end on 21 December 2012. But rather than indicating a cataclysm, this is simply the day that the calendar will go to the next b'ak'tun at Long Count 13.0.0.0.0.
The cyclical nature of time was important to the Maya, who believed that each cycle had a particular character, which would influence events within that cycle, and the completion of one cycle and the recurrence of the next cycle was marked with ceremonies. So it will be interesting to see what influence the new Long Count of 20 b'ak'tuns will bring to the Earth and its inhabitants.
I have a feeling that Oswaldo will celebrate on 21 December, and then return to his own cycle of painting.
The names of the 19 counts reflect aspects of the seasons of the solar year: mat, black conjunction, red conjunction, bat, watering time, dog, new sun, water, black storm, green storm, white storm, red storm, enclosed, yellow sun, owl, planting time, turtle, granary, resting of the year. However, because the Haab' does not take into account the extra quarter of a day in each solar year, the correspondence to the seasons would wander over the years.
The Maya calendar is actually a system of calendars. The Calendar Round of 52 solar years includes the Haab' year of 365 days and the Tzolk'in, or Sacred Round, composed of 13 counts of 20 days, with each day having a unique name. For longer time periods, the Maya use the Long Count, which covers any length of time, past or future.
This year the Maya calendar is getting a lot of attention everywhere because the Long Count of 20 b'ak'tuns, 7,885 solar years, will end on 21 December 2012. But rather than indicating a cataclysm, this is simply the day that the calendar will go to the next b'ak'tun at Long Count 13.0.0.0.0.
The cyclical nature of time was important to the Maya, who believed that each cycle had a particular character, which would influence events within that cycle, and the completion of one cycle and the recurrence of the next cycle was marked with ceremonies. So it will be interesting to see what influence the new Long Count of 20 b'ak'tuns will bring to the Earth and its inhabitants.
I have a feeling that Oswaldo will celebrate on 21 December, and then return to his own cycle of painting.
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