2012: Time to Party Like It’s 2011?
Twenty twelve is anticpated to be a momentous year, the first winter youth Olympic games will be held in January, America will hold a presidential election and the United Kingdom are going to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth. In case you happen to be looking forward to 2013 you should not get your hopes up, considering that based on some predictions, the entire world is due to end on December 21. In case you enjoy Christmas, take full advantage of this year and the following, given that as outlined by the Mayan calendar, they will be your very last. Perhaps.
Well before Europeans showed up in meso America the inhabitants employed an elaborate combination of calendars to record their dates. The Haab or solar calendar, both a timepiece and Mayan art form, was made from eighteen 20 day months plus a period of five days referred to as Wayeb to bring the total to 365.
The Tzolkin on the other hand was a cycle of 260 days, thirteen multiplied by 20. No-one is aware quite the reason 260 days were decided on, though it seems that the numbers 13 along with 20 were both important to these earlier cultures. There is a possibility that it is related to the amount of time in between a woman’s first missed period and the birth of her child, and made it easier to foresee when a baby might be born, however various other theories about crop planting and zodiac findings might be equally accurate. Most dates could be set by a mix of the Haab and Tzolin, the period would come together one time every fifty two years, which is approximately once in every life span.
To look at cycles longer than fifty-two years the Mayans used another method that we now refer to as the Long Count calendar. This system is found in both Olmec and Aztec art and wasn’t introduced by the Maya. Dates run forwards from a mythic day zero, the date from the beginning of the existing world. Just like all cultures the base units were days, with twenty days in the uinal and 18 uinals in a tun (more or less a year). A K’atun contains 20 tuns and 20 of those a b’ak’tun. Again the number 13 was important and several inscriptions in Mayan art exhibit the date changing at the end of 13 b’ak’tuns and talked of events to occur on this particular date. This resulted in a belief that the Mayans envisioned something significant would occur near 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 a number of scholars nothing in the least. There are some references to something taking place about that time in inscriptions, however nothing really concrete, so it’s surprising the amount of fuss 2012 seems to be generating. Many say there may a spiritual evolution, while others talk about a momentous galactic alignment, although this is based on the positioning of the galactic equator, and that cannot be established, this doesn’t seem very likely. Yet others worry about planet Niburu.
Collision with planet X (or Niburu) has been predicted since the year 2003, but any planet close enough to be within collision with the Earth in 2012 would certainly now become plainly visible to astronomers in the night sky. Sadly this fictional collision is now confused in the press with the real and predicted approach of a large asteroid referred to as Eros which is expected to pass the earth in 2012. Eros is greater than the asteroid which we think killed the dinosaurs 65 millions years ago but since it won’t ever be nearer than seventy times the distance of the moon, it is unlikely to do any harm.
Looking at the Mayan calendar is a great reason to take into account exactly how we measure time and the reason why, to comprehend the solar cycles which still rule our life and to admire the artwork of an appealing culture. As to getting ready for the end of the world, that still looks slightly premature.
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