2012: The end of the world or apocalypse theorists gone mad?
By Lisa Evans - Published on Tuesday, 28 December 2010 11:55
Do you remember the chaos that surrounded Y2K? Time Magazine’s headline in January 2009 read: “The End of the World as We Know it?” Newspapers told people to stock up on the essentials just in case. While households purchased batteries and bottled water by the case; banks, government offices and retail chains chewed their fingernails on December 31, 1999, nervously awaiting the potential collapse. Do you remember what happened on January 1, 2000? Nothing. That’s right. The date came and went uneventfully.
With the year 2011 around the corner, it seems as though we are set to re-live the Y2K madness. December 21, 2012, a date associated with a significant event on the Mayan calendar, has been cited by many as the date that signals the end of civilization.
Numerous books have been published on the significance of the 2012 date. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl has printed over 40,000 copies. Journalist Lawrence E. Joseph has written two books about the topic, forecasting widespread catastrophe: Apocalypse 2012: An Investigation into Civilization's End and Aftermath: Prepare for and Survive Apocalypse 2012.
Popular interest in the Mayan calendar has been fuelled in part by the 2006 film Apocalypto and the blockbuster 2010 film called 2012. A Google search of the 2012 date reveal numerous online groups in Europe, Canada and the United States, who cite ecological disasters as evidence of the upcoming end of civilization, as predicted by the Maya. The build-up to 2012 echoes the excitement and fear that surrounded the new millennium. But just like the Y2K madness, scientists argue end of civilization concerns are largely unfounded.
While end of civilization theorists attempt to tie the 2012 date to the Maya, scientists argue that doomsday theories are a Western creation, not a Mayan one.
The Maya civilization is well known for advanced writing, mathematics and astronomy. They had a stronghold on Mesoamerica between 300 and 900 A.D. Their astrological predictions have so far been largely correct. The date December 21, 2012 is an important date on the Mayan calendar, but does it really signal the end of civilization?
There are two main factors that have led theorists to point to the 2012 date as the end of the world.
A stone tablet, called Monument Six, found at a remote ruin site in southern Mexico during a highway construction project in the 1960s, revealed date December 21, 2012. The inscription, which was partially destroyed, describes something that is supposed to occur on this date involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation.
The second piece of evidence comes from the Mayan calendar itself. The Maya Long Count calendar was developed based on this ancient civilization’s advance knowledge of the cosmos and mathematics. It is much more complex than the calendar we use today. It is based on 20-day months and 18-month years. The calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. There are 20 Baktuns in the calendar.
The Mayan calendar is currently in its thirteenth phase. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and the 13th Baktun ends around December 21, 2012. This fact has caused some doomsday theorists to argue that this is evidence of a Mayan prediction of the apocalypse. However, scientists argue that the date simply signifies the end of a cycle in the Maya calendar and represents a time for transformation and renewal, not the end of the world. December 21, 2012 is the date when the calendar clicks over and starts again.
Scientists argue that there is a significance to the December 21, 2012 date that is predicted by the Mayan calendar. This is the date of the 2012 winter solstice, in which the sun will be aligned with the centre of the Milky Way for the first time in 26,000 years.
While it has been said that the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world in the year 2012, scientists argue that this is simply a misunderstanding, or a conspiracy of Western doomsday theorists attempting to tie an ancient civilization to the apocalypse. Scientists acknowledge that a significant time period for the Maya will end on December 21, 2012, but we can rest assured that while there may be a significant astrological event on this date, it will not be the end of the world.