The Maya calendar and the end of our world

There are many voices saying that 21^st December 2012 is the day when our world will come to an end. A great cataclysm such as a black whole, a collision with an asteroid, a solar explosion or the reversal of the Earth’ magnetic poles are just few of the disastrous scenarios developed around this mysterious date.

Some theories only suggest that on   21^st December the Earth will pass through a spiritual transformation and the world as we know it will come to an end.

On one side there are so many apocalyptic scenarios suggesting that the end of the world is close but on the other side there are so many other theories saying that no world ending catastrophe will take place in the near future.

The long count Maya calendar is identifies each day by counting all the days passed from the Mayan creation date. Despite the modern calendar which is decimal (in base 10), this Maya calendar is a modified 20-base calendar. The units of the Maya calendar and their equivalent in solar years (the year as is now known) look like this:

Many wonder why 21^st December 2012 is set as an important day. The answer is quite simple: that is the last day of the 13^th Bak’tun of the long count Maya calendar.  In late 1970s many New Age authors promoted the idea that at the endof the 13^th Bak’tun a major change will take place and the world as we know it will end. And so the speculations started to pour especially as the mysterious date is getting closer.

The scientists say that there is no clear evidence that the old Maya civilization predicted the end of the world or a major catastrophic event for the date 13.0.0.0.0 which is Dec. 21, 2012. On the other hand many other individuals support the idea of a major change or a catastrophic event to take place in the days before this Christmas.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see who’s right.