Ian O'Neill of Universe Today explains why the Mayan calender ends on December 21, 2012:
The base year for the Mayan Long Count starts at "0.0.0.0.0". Each zero goes from 0-19 and each represent a tally of Mayan days. So, for example, the first day in the Long Count is denoted as 0.0.0.0.1. On the 19th day we'll have 0.0.0.0.19, on the 20th day it goes up one level and we'll have 0.0.0.1.0. This count continues until 0.0.1.0.0 (about one year), 0.1.0.0.0 (about 20 years) and 1.0.0.0.0 (about 400 years). Therefore, if I pick an arbitrary date of 2.10.12.7.1, this represents the Mayan date of approximately 1012 years, 7 months and 1 day.Seems like the ancient Mayans were quite clever, but not quite clever enough when it came to calendars. But then, their civilization ended long before their calender did, so I guess it worked out for them.
This is all very interesting, but what has this got to do with the end of the world? The Mayan Prophecy is wholly based on the assumption that something bad is going to happen when the Mayan Long Count calendar runs out. Experts are divided as to when the Long Count ends, but as the Maya used the numbers of 13 and 20 at the root of their numerical systems, the last day could occur on 13.0.0.0.0. When does this happen? Well, 13.0.0.0.0 represents 5126 years and the Long Count started on 0.0.0.0.0, which corresponds to the modern date of August 11th 3114 BC. Have you seen the problem yet? The Mayan Long Count ends 5126 years later on December 21st, 2012.
I wish I could find a source on this, but it's been several years since I heard it explained, and I'm not having luck with searches... I once heard someone talking about the problem with people who haven't deeply studied the Mayan culture trying to make sense of that calender. What the guy was saying was that, according to his study of the culture, they'd already had one calender end because their calenders were for stages of Earth, life, etc... not one calender for all time. So he said the Mayans didn't believe the world would end when their calender did, but that we would move on and they'd make a new calender. They just didn't last until the "make a new calender" part.
ReplyDeleteAll of that would be easy to argue back and forth, though. I'd feel a little more secure trying to tell someone to cancel their End of the World Party plans using the mathematical approach. Thanks for posting this.
I wasn't too worried about it, once I realized the Mayan calendar running out was no worse than our calendar running out every December 31st. It just starts all over again.
ReplyDeleteI've had people try to scare me with the Mayan calendar ending before, but I think I'm in nyx's camp. It's logical to believe that the Mayans came up with a really cool calendar that would last thousands of years and that they just assumed later generations would come up with a new one when the current one ended. It's nothing scary when one calendar ends and another one starts. After all, who misses the Julian calendar these days?
ReplyDeleteFREAKING RETARDED!!! the worlds not gonna end.
ReplyDeletethey said that 6-6-06 was the end, NOTHING
they said 9-9-09 was the end, NOTHING
and im pretty sure that the worlds not gonna end 12-21-12!
The argument here, and widely across the net is misguided. Surely we shouldnt be asking "will the world end" but "what did the mayans say would happen"??
ReplyDeleteFrom what i have read, and what Mayan elders have said we are going to go through a period of social awakening, an emotional revolution if you will.
This will not come from government or organisations but from within us, the people who dare to look at the world with open eyes.
Except they said no such thing. They just happened to make a calendar that ends next year. It's no more significant than my calendar ending on Dec 31 every year.
ReplyDeleteEveryone always thinks some "vast social awakening" is going to happen during their lifetime. When it doesn't, they predict it again for a couple of decades in the future. It just happens that somebody noticed the Mayan calendar and fixed on it as significant. It isn't.
Actually they are saying such things. I have researched what they predicted, in fact the Mayan's still survive - the piece i read was from a recent interview with a modern-day Mayan elder. His description followed what many of the shamans are saying in India.
ReplyDeletePersonally i dont care if you believe it or not, I simply wanted to add my own research to this debate.
"in fact the Mayan's still survive - the piece i read was from a recent interview with a modern-day Mayan elder."
ReplyDeleteRight.
The question is how the world is going to end, not when, and what are the signs out there now and how can they scientifically produce total global genocide, or even something akin to that which renders the nearly six billion people on the earth down to say, 5,000. Earthquakes, will kill a lot but not everyone, floods, the same, yellowstone super volcano eruption, maybe, mother natures nuclear winter, an asteroid. Quite possibly. But even more importantly, what are the specific verifiable psychic signals that this is happening now. We need confirmation that will be convincing to the skeptics, otherwise it is just trash. O[pinions mean nothing unless proven, if the world is ending, and I see some signs, this is irrelevant unless we have evidence
ReplyDelete