2012 Apocalypse
From RationalWiki
The 2012 Apocalypse is the belief that the human species will come to an end in 2012. This bizarre idea is based on the Mayan calendar,[1] which ends on the date corresponding to our December 21st 2012 CE. The Mayan calendar was based on 256 year cycles, and the one the calendar was written in ends in late 2012. The belief that this is a prediction of the world ending is something akin to believing the world is going to end on December 31st because you have to throw away this years calendar, and go out and buy one for next year. A number of pop culture books and websites have tried to give this idea some scientific support,[2] but as per normal with pseudoscience, only the evidence that fits the belief is cited.
[edit] The three Mayan calendars
There are basically three Mayan calendars which are important here (we will ignore the Venus one):
- The 260 days long calendar called Tzolk'in, which is used for religious ceremonies.
- The 365 day long calendar called Haab', which is used for planting crops.
- The Long Count calendar.
Every 52 Haab', the Haab' and Tzolk'in begin on the same day so the Mayans could only record dates for 18,980 days. Being extremely pedantic people this was not enough days for Mayans, so they created the Long Count calendar.
The Long Count calendar counts the number of days since creation, August 11, 3114 BCE, in base twenty.
December 20 2012 CE will be 12.19.19.19.19 and December 21st 2012 CE will be (shock horror) 13.0.0.0.0. According to the Mayan creation myth, we are living in the 4th world and the previous one ended on 12.19.19.19.19, although for some reason the Mayans thought it was important enough to record events that would occur after December 21st 2012 CE, so they didn't seem worried.
Basically, if everything is fine the morning of December 22nd, 2012, then we can finally put this nonsense to rest and go back to throwing wild parties.
[edit] Pop culture
The comic strip Wapsi Square uses the 2012 apocalypse as a major plot unifying point, though this was not revealed until well into the comic's run. It also presents the lead character, Monica, as a confirmed skeptic who considers the weird "supernatural" things she encounters on a daily basis as simply a part of her world she doesn't understand yet.
