2012 is set to be a momentous time, the 1st winter youth Olympic games are going to be held in January, the United States are going to hold a presidential election and the United Kingdom will commemorate the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth. In case you’re awaiting 2013 don’t get your hopes up, because according to some forecasts, the entire world is due to end on December 21. If you happen to enjoy Christmas, make the most of this season and the next, given that according to the Mayan calendar, they will be your very last. Potentially.
Before Europeans appeared in meso America the inhabitants used an intricate 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 along with a period of 5 days referred to as Wayeb to bring the sum to 365.
The Tzolkin however was a cycle of 260 days, thirteen times 20. No-one understands quite exactly why 260 days were chosen, although it seems that the numbers thirteen and 20 were each significant to these earlier cultures. There’s a likelihood that it is associated with the time period between a woman’s first skipped period and the birth of her child, and made it easier to estimate when a infant would be born, however other notions about crop planting and zodiac observations could be equally correct. Nearly all dates could be set by a mix of the Haab and Tzolin, the cycle would come together one time every 52 years, which is roughly once in every life time.
To look at cycles for a longer period than fifty two years the Mayans applied a different structure that we now refer to as the Long Count calendar. This method is found in both Olmec and Aztec art and wasn’t introduced by the Maya. Dates run forward from a mythologic day zero, the date from the beginning of the existing world. Like all civilizations the base units were days, with 20 days in a uinal and eighteen uinals in a tun (more or less a year). A K’atun consisted of 20 tuns and 20 of these a b’ak’tun. Once more the number 13 was important and several inscriptions in Mayan artwork exhibit the date changing at the end of 13 b’ak’tuns and spoke of events that occur on that date. This resulted in suggestions that the Mayans expected something substantial might occur around the final day of the 13th B’ak’tun. That day is calculated to be 21st or 23 December 2012. What exactly might we expect?
Well according to several scholars nothing whatsoever. There are several references to things going on about that time in inscriptions, however nothing very concrete, therefore it’s surprising the amount of publicity 2012 is creating. A few say there may a spiritual evolution, while others refer to a momentous galactic alignment, even though this is based on the location of the galactic equator, which cannot be established, this does not seem very likely. Yet other people worry about planet Niburu.
Collision with planet X (or Niburu) was predicted since 2003, yet any planet near enough to be within collision with the Earth in 2012 would certainly now be plainly visible to astronomers in the night sky. Sadly this fictional collision has become confused in the media with the actual and expected approach of a large asteroid known as Eros that is likely to pass the earth in 2012. Eros is greater than the asteroid that we think killed the dinosaurs 65 millions years ago but since it won’t ever be closer than seventy times the distance of the moon, it’s unlikely to do any destruction.
Looking at the Mayan calendar is a great reason to consider how we calculate time and the reason why, to be aware of the solar cycles that still rule our existence and to admire the fine art of a fascinating civilization. As to getting ready for the end of the world, that still appears slightly premature.
Tags: 2012, aztec art, aztec calendar, end of days, judgment day, mayan art, mayan calendar, solar calendar