# Explain the Mayan calendar to me.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-mayan-calendar-to-me/317379>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 17, 2005, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-mayan-calendar-to-me/317379 "2005-08-17T02:51:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-mayan-calendar-to-me/317379/1 "2005-08-17T02:51:02Z")

</div>

Specifically, how does it work? Why is it revered as a time piece? Isn’t it supposedly especially accurate? Until then, I’ll try and uncrack military time.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-mayan-calendar-to-me/317379/2 "2005-08-17T04:28:46Z")

</div>

The Mayan Civil Calendar was 365 days long (18 months of 20 days, plus a 5-day bad luck week). However, the Mayans actually had three Calendars - the civil calendar, the divine calendar and the Long Count.

I tried to start to explain it but honestly it’s complicated. [Read this](http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.html).