Twenty twelve is set to be a momentous year, the first winter youth Olympics are going to be held in January, America will have a presidential election and the UK will commemorate the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth. But if you’re getting excited about 2013 you shouldn’t get your hopes up, considering that based on some prophecies, the world is due to end on December 21. For those who take pleasure in Christmas, take full advantage of this year and the next, because based on the Mayan calendar, they’ll be your very last. Maybe.
Prior to Europeans arrived in meso America the population employed an elaborate mix off calendars to record their dates. The Haab or solar calendar, both a timepiece and Mayan art form, was comprised of eighteen 20 day months and also a period of five days known as Wayeb to bring the total to 365.
The Tzolkin on the other hand was a cycle of 260 days, thirteen times twenty. No-one knows quite the reason 260 days were chosen, though it appears the numbers 13 and 20 were each important to these early civilizations. There is a possibility that it was associated with the time period between a woman’s initial missed period and the birth of her offspring, and made it easier to foretell when a baby might be born, however other theories about crop harvesting and zodiac findings may be equally correct. Most dates could be established by a combination of the Haab and Tzolin, the period would come together one time every fifty two years, that is about once in every life span.
To observe intervals for a longer period than 52 years the Mayans utilized another system which we now refer to as the Long Count calendar. This system is demonstrated in both Olmec and Aztec art and wasn’t invented by the Maya. Dates run forwards from a mythical day zero, the day of the beginning of the current world. Just like all civilizations the base units were days, with 20 days in a uinal and eighteen uinals in the tun (roughly a year). A K’atun contains 20 tuns and twenty of these a b’ak’tun. Once more the number thirteen is important and quite a few inscriptions in Mayan artwork display the date changing at the conclusion of 13 b’ak’tuns and spoke of incidents that occur on this date. This resulted in the notion that the Mayans anticipated something major to occur on the final day of the 13th B’ak’tun. That day is actually calculated to be 21st or 23 December 2012. What exactly might we expect?
Well according to a large number of scholars nothing at all. There are several references to things going on about that time frame in inscriptions, however nothing genuinely concrete, so it really is surprising the amount of publicity 2012 seems to be generating. A few say there will a spiritual evolution, while others mention a momentous galactic alignment, although this is based on the location of the galactic equator, and that cannot be identified, this doesn’t seem very likely. Yet other people worry about planet Niburu.
Collision with planet X (or Niburu) has been predicted since 2003, but any planet close enough to be within collision with the Earth in 2012 would now become plainly visible to astronomers in the night sky. Sadly this fictional collision has become confused in the press with the actual and expected approach of a giant asteroid referred to as Eros which is expected to pass our planet in 2012. Eros is greater than the asteroid that we think wiped out the dinosaurs 65 millions years ago but since it will never be nearer than 70 times the distance from the moon, it’s not likely to do any damage.
Looking at the Mayan calendar is a great reason to think about the way we measure time and why, to comprehend the solar cycles which still rule our life and also to enjoy the art of an exciting society. As to planning for the end of the world, that still looks a little premature.
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