There is a lot of hype going on concerning the 2012 Mayan prophecies. The reason is quite clear. This is not a far-off distant prediction that won't effect people for hundreds of years. These prophecies have something to do with a catastrophic event that is supposed to occur in the very near future.
The Mayan Calender: Ending on December 21, 2012?
According to Ian O'Neill writing on universetoday.com, "Most of the Mayan calendars were short. The Tzolk'in calendar lasted for 260 days and the Haab' approximated the solar year of 365 days. The Mayans then combined both the Tzolk'in and the Haab' to form the "Calendar Round", a cycle lasting 52 Haab's (around 52 years, or the approximate length of a generation). Within the Calendar Round were the trecena (13 day cycle) and the veintena (20 day cycle)...The answer to a longer calendar could be found in the "Long Count", a calendar lasting 5126 years - ending on December 12, 2012."
The Mayan calender ends on December 21, 2012. Some scientists have suggested that the Mayan prophecies relating to this date only predict what will happen to the Mayan descendants and not necessarily everyone on earth; others believe that it refers to a global event that effects everyone and still others believe that nothing significant will happen at all. Everyone seems to disagree about what will happen on that day.
Will the Apocalypse Happen in 2012?
Throughout the history of man kind, people have sought after prophetic explanations to extraordinary events. Even things that may not seem significant to most, such as a calender ending, can be molded into some type of myth regarding some negative event occurring that will shake the human race to an extent that has never been witnessed.
"Archaeologists and mythologists on the other hand believe that the Mayans predicted an age of enlightenment when 13.0.0.0.0 comes around; there isn't actually much evidence to suggest doomsday will strike. If anything, the Mayans predict a religious miracle, not anything sinister," O'Neill adds.
When a calender ends, a new cycle begins. This is likely what will occur at the end of this cycle of the Mayan calender. The only event that will happen on that day that has any significant evidence based in science is that the Mayan calender will end. The end of the Mayan calender in 2012 does not indicate the end of civilization as everyone knows it.
2012 Mayan Prophecies
There are several prophecies across many cultures that speak of many different disastrous scenarios. The Mayans are no exception to this. The Mayans did predict a significant event occurring in 2012 and they did indeed attempt to warn humanity about it's growing materialism and the growing gap between people and the earth. However, they did not refer to the event as positive or negative; simply a change that would occur on a global scale.
Reference:
 |
