Today's date in the Mayan calendar

We are  in the Mayan calendar

See Long Count (Wikipedia)
 * Today is in the Mayan calendar
 * Today is (showing the units)
 * Today is (UTC) in the Gregorian calendar.
 * This is the year in the Mayan calendar which they wrote as the year

The 13th Baktun 13.0.0.0 began 5,200 Mayan years after the start of the Mayan calendar on August 11, 3114 BC (13 baktuns and each baktun is 400 mayan years).

So, 13.0.0.0 was their notation for their year 5200.

Each Mayan "year" is 360 days so that's 1,872,000 days.

It is nothing to do with the Christian years since Jesus was born.

What we call 21st December 2012, for the Mayans is 13 * 400 *360 days since August 11, 3114 BC

[N.B. for some reason Mayan scholars refer to the Baktun that starts 13.0.0.0 as the 13th ratehr than the 14th Baktun a bit like calling the century starting 2000 the 20th century]

This page uses modified versions of scripts from Wikipedia.

There are still Mayans in Guatemala - and this is them celebrating the start of the 13th Baktun, on 21st December 2012 in the Gregorian calendar, 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan calendar:

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13 Baktun Ceremony in Antigua Guatemala See my
 * The Mayan's celebrated their thirteenth Baktun 8 years ago - and didn't use the Gregorian or Julian or Ethiopian calendars or any calendar based on the birth of Jesus

They actually had a mind bogglingly complex system based on three separate calendars, the long count based on a year of 360 days which gave the year, and the month and day in the long count, the Tzolkin which is 260 days long to choose amongst the 13 day names, and then the Haab which is 365 days long, for the day number (which doesn’t usually match the day number of the long count), so they go in and out of sync with each other.


 * The three calendars are used simultaneously. The *Tzolkin* and the *Haab* identify the days, but not the years. The *Long Count* date comes first, then the *Tzolkin* date, and last the *Haab* date. A typical Mayan date would read: 13.0.0.0.0 4 *Ahau* 8 *Kumku*, where 13.0.0.0.0 is the *Long Count* date, 4 *Ahau* is the *Tzolkin* date, and 8 *Kumku* is the *Haab* date.

Techy details
 * So, they had thirteen names for days of the week and 20 weeks in a 260 day cycle called the **Tzolkin**
 * They had 18 months each of 20 days and one month of 5 days to give the number in the month of the Haab.
 * Then finally they had the long count, 18 months of 20 days each for a year of 360 days.

How does the Mayan calendar work

Long round
The Tzolkin is 260 days long

The 52 year calendar round is 52 Haab years or 73 Tzolkin years

18,980 is 73 × 260 Tzolkʼin days and 52 × 365 Haabʼ days

The long count is 360 days long and is not involved in that cycle. 52 long count years is 18,720 = 52 × 360. It is out by one Tzolkin

So every 52 years the long count will move back one Tzolkin. After 72 of those then the long count will move back one calendar round and so will coincide again (after 73 * 52 long count years).

After 52 * 72 years or 3744 of the Haab years, or 73 * 52 = 3796 long count years, the whole cycle would repeat, you get the same long count, Haab and Tzolkin date as you got 3744 Haab years previously

They were aware of this cycle at least according to a preprint .


 * On page 24 of the Dresden Codex, there is a period called Long Round noted 9.9.16.0.0 or 1366560 days= 2340×584 = 3744×365 = 1752×780 = 72×18980 = 3796×360= 5256×260."

Claim that the Mayan calendar is more precise than the Gregorian calendar
The Mayan calendar is based on 365 day Haab years. That's much less precise than the Egyptian calendar.

The claim that the Mayan calendar is more accurate than the Gregorian calendar seems to be based on this claim:


 * In an old book of Prescott (died in 1859), The conquest of Mexico, the author described Aztec calendar with a year of 365 days. To compensate for the difference, every 52 years an additional 12.5 days were added (so that every other 52-years period started at noon, and the rest at midnight). This gives the average length of the year 365.24038 day which is only 2 minutes short, and is more precise than any European calendar before the Gregorian one. He refers to the research by Gama, Descripcion historica y chronologica de las Dos Piedras, (Mexico 1832).

But how could they have the Long Round 9.9.16.0.0 for all three cycles to repeat, if they were inserting 12.5 "leap days" all in one go every 52 years? There doesn't seem to be any evidence to back up the claim of the author.

From this stack exchange conversation, would need to check it if I wanted to be sure https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/45318/how-is-the-accuracy-of-the-maya-calendar-measured But there doesn't seem to be much to back that up.

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Find out more
For details of the intricate system of three calendars and to get an idea of how modern Mayans think about the false prophesies: See also:
 * Nothing will happen on 21st December 2020 - another Paul Begley false prophecy - and details of the intricate Mayan calendars
 * The Mayans had an origin story but no ending story - and celebrated their new Baktun in 2012