Traditionally the clock and watch museum releases a mint calendar every year. This was a typical watchmaker’s calendar in the 18th century. Unfortunately the tradition disappeared during the French revolution. The system was rediscovered by Jozef Op de Beeck in 1984. The first mint calendar of the clock and watch museum was released in 1985.
On the mint calendar you can read the date on one table instead of 12; i.e. one for each month. The system is also called the Sunday table and is hence based on Sundays. Let’s explain how it works. In the first row you can find the months. The column below each month shows the Sundays in that particular month. You can see that in the year 2012 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 January are Sundays. When you are looking for another date, all you have to do is count further using your finger.
Maybe an example will make things more clear. Let’s say you want to know what
kind of weekday is June 9. You look in the column below June and spot the two nearest Sundays. That is the 3rd and the 10th. Now there are two options: either you count forward from the 3rd on or you count backwards form the 10th. In both cases you will find that the 9th is a Saturday.
Another application of the mint calendar is to find out the current date. Of course you know the day of the week we are now. Just look up the two closest Sundays in the current month and you will soon find the solution.
On the rear side of the mint we each year put a different illustration that is related to time or the history of clocks and watches. This year the rear side of the mint shows a Maya calender. This calendar is sead to end in 2012. Maya used to look at history as a series of cycles rather than a linear principle. Hence they had several calendars; a ritual one counting 260 days, a sun calendar counting 365 days and a long calendar, that we talk about in this case. Al the calendars are built up as series of 20 days. At 21 December 2012, 13 cycles of 144.000 days will have gone by since the start of the Maya calendar. The Maya used to believe that a new era will be entered. It is no coincidence that the last day of this calendar coincides with winter solstice. The Maya also knew that the sun will be exactly at the galactic equator at that particular moment, almost in line with the centre of the Milk way, the place they called the cosmic womb. This was often depicted as a snake of a cosmical monster with a head at both ends.
The ending of this calendar cycle is a source of a lot af speculation. Some even claim the world will come to an end. The Guatamalese Maya elders of the Eagle Clan write: 'This is a cycle of wisdom, harmony, peace, love, of consciousness and the return of the natural order. It is not the end of the world as many from outside of the Mayan tradition have misinterpreted it to be’. At 21 December 2012 a new long cycle of 26.000 years starts and also a small period of 5200 years. The end of world is probably not to be expected…
Amongst researchers there is even doubt the correct starting point of the Maya calendar. Astronomical and other research data show a smaller period of time that has elapsed between the classical period and the arrival of the Spaniards. Some claim there is a gap of about 200 years. This would mean we would have to wait until 2220 until 13 baktuns have elapsed since the beginning of the calendar. Al this shows once again that calendars and timekeeping in general are merely a convention and tend to cause a lot of discussion …
You can obtain this mint calendar in the Clock and Watch Museum, Lange schipstraat 13, 2800 Mechelen, Belgium (+32) 015 / 21.18.94, fax (+32) 015 / 21.25.15, e-mail info@horlogeriemuseum.be
Price for a mint calendar (Vat incl.)
| Brass | € 10 |
| Silver | € 65 |
+ shipping expenses: € 1,50 per mint calendar + € 4 per shipment.
You can transfer the amount on account number 860-0000031-13
Please make sure your address is mentioned correctly!