2012 is anticpated to be a momentous time, the very first winter youth Olympic games are going to be held in January, the US are going to hold a presidential election and the United Kingdom is going to observe the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth. But if you happen to be looking forward to 2013 do not get your hopes up, because according to some prophecies, the world is due to end on December 21. If you happen to take pleasure in Christmas, take full advantage of this year and the following, given that according to the Mayan calendar, they will be your last. Potentially.
Prior to Europeans arrived in meso America the populace utilized a complicated combination of calendars to record their days. The Haab or solar calendar, both a timepiece and Mayan art form, was composed of 18 20 day months and also a period of five days named Wayeb to bring the sum to 365.
The Tzolkin on the other hand was a cycle of 260 days, thirteen times 20. No-one has learned quite the reason why 260 days were decided on, however it appears the numbers thirteen and 20 were both significant to these early civilizations. There exists a likelihood that it was linked to the amount of time between a woman's first skipped period and the birth of her child, and made it easier to predict when a baby might be born, however other notions about crop harvesting and astrological observations might be just as accurate. Most dates could be set by a combination of the Haab and Tzolin, the cycle would come together one time every fifty-two years, which is about once in every lifetime.
To observe intervals for a longer period than fifty two years the Mayans employed a different technique 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 day from the beginning of the present world. Like all cultures the base units were days, with 20 days in a uinal and eighteen uinals in a tun (approximately a year). A K'atun contains twenty tuns and 20 of these a b'ak'tun. Once again the number 13 was important and several inscriptions in Mayan art exhibit the date changing at the conclusion of 13 b'ak'tuns and talked of incidents to occur on this date. This resulted in a belief that the Mayans envisioned something important might occur around the final day of the 13th B'ak'tun. That day has been calculated to be 21st or 23 December 2012. What exactly can we expect?
Well according to a number of scholars nothing in the least. There are several references to things happening about that time in inscriptions, but nothing very concrete, so it really is surprising the amount of fuss 2012 seems to be creating. Many say there'll a religious evolution, while some talk about a momentous galactic alignment, although this draws on the location of the galactic equator, and that can't be identified, this does not seem very likely. But others worry about planet Niburu.
Collision with planet X (or Niburu) was predicted since the year 2003, but any planet near enough to be within collision with the Earth in 2012 would certainly now become plainly visible to astronomers in the evening sky. Sadly this fictional collision has become confused in the press with the actual and anticipated approach of a large asteroid known as Eros that is likely to pass our planet in 2012. Eros is greater than the asteroid which we believe wiped out the dinosaurs 65 millions years ago but since it will never be nearer than 70 times the distance from the moon, it is not likely to do any destruction.
Looking at the Mayan calendar is a great reason to consider exactly how we measure time and why, to be aware of the solar cycles that still dominate our lives and to admire the art of an culture. As to preparing for the end of the world, that still seems slightly premature.
Tags: 2012, aztec art, aztec calendar, end of days, judgment day, mayan art, mayan calendar, solar calendar