Dr. Gerardo Aldana lectures about the misconceptions of the Mayan calendar. Photo courtesy of Hotel Maya.
6:00am | In an attempt to share Mayan culture and history with its guests as well as the residents of Long Beach, Hotel Maya is taking its name quite literally as well as having fun with 2012 being the famous — albeit ill-conceived — notion that it is the “end” of their calendar (it is but the end of one cycle of it, also known scientifically as the end of a Platonic Year, where the precession of the equinoxes completes).
The free series kicked off last month with Dr. Gerardo Aldana, an Associate Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. He lead a hands-on “Maya Calendar Workshop” as well as providing a lecture entitled “Observatories and Green Stones: Exploring the Origins of the Maya Calendar” for more than 250 guests.
The attendees learned how to debunk end-of-the-world prophecies by learning about the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar, or in layman’s terms, how the Mayans kept track of days. Dr. Aldana then applied the importance of the calendar to the establish of Preclassic societies, deeming it a political and cultural tool that engrained the stability of ancient society. Guests also grasped an understanding of the misconceptions many have had with the hieroglyphics of the Long Count Calendar tablets that have led to many of the prophetic tales that have amassed in popular culture today in tandem with Mayan history.
The next lecture will be on May 19th, featuring Dr. Khristaan D. Villela, Research Professor at University of New Mexico and Professor of Art History at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, on May 19. Dr. Villela specializes in the art of Precolumbian Mesoamerica and the history of the field of Precolumbian studies.
The event is free to the public. To RSVP, please call 562-481-3922. Hotel Maya is located at 700 Queensway Drive.