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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  4567 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: I'm Whimpering But It's Still Not Ending
Fear sells and not many people, aside from you would ever take the time to dispel such things. On behalf of all of us lazy anti-appocolyptic bah humbuggers... thanks.

I'm curious though, you wrote "Each period of 52 years was called a Calendar Round because once the cycle was complete it would begin again the start". Do you know if the Mayan's celebrated a calendar round or did it come and go with little significance? I wonder if the general public was aware of the astrology and math behind the two calendars or did they just go about their days, much like we do?





StJohn  ·  4567 days ago  ·  link  ·  
It's just a shame interesting things don't sell nearly as much as fear does. At least now you're equipped to shoot down the next idiot who claims the apocalypse is nigh. They might be idiots, but you know I have kind of a soft spot for them? The frauds and hucksters are too much fun to live without.

Alas I couldn't say how much the general public knew about the calendar, but from what I've read the Mayans loved a party and tended to celebrate the end of different cycles. I expect word got around about the end of the current Calendar Round, much like everyone seems to know when this year's Easter is without knowing how it's calculated. In reference to the Long Count calendar, a scholar is quoted on Wikipedia as saying, "for the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle".