The Mayans were an intelligent society, well-versed and taught in mathematics in astronomy. As a result, they have the most accurate calendar available created from a system of calendar that work together to form a cohesive understanding of time and events.
There is the 260-day ritual calendar called the Tzolk'in. The solar calendar is 365 days and is called the Haab. There is the Long Count of 5125.36 years. The date that concerns most of us today is the December 21, 2012 date - it is the last date provided by the Mayan calendar and is the last day of the Long Count. To many, it is alarming to see the end of a very detailed calendar - they ask whether the end of the calendar at 2012 means the end of the world in disaster of apocalyptic proportions.
Think of the end of the world in the traditional volcano, earthquake, war, famine sense. The Mayans spoke of the global disaster brought up by sunspot flares that could reverse the geomagnetic polarity of the world on the 2012 date.
Our society is fragile - we depend on our electromagnetic instruments, on our infrastructure, on our cars. Even in the wake of hurricanes and tornadoes and volcanoes in the past, we feel secure on our Earth's surface. But our world is overdue for any number of catastrophes - imagine all the possibilities. The Yellowstone caldera is rumbling and is overdue to blow, which can destroy an entire half of the United States and fill the atmosphere with ash and cause the equivalent of a nuclear winter. The geomagnetic polarity is overdue to switch - even if all that changes is electromagnetic direction, planes and boats and other instruments are calibrated for geomagnetic north. A geomagnetic reversal caused by a solar flare on 2012 could cause satellites and cellular phones to malfunction. It is also theorized that the reversal could cause the earth's crust to experience upheaval, leading to record volcanic and earthquake activity, triggering tsunamis and already delicate volcani c tensions to release.
Considering how specific the Mayan calendar is, and how sophisticated in comparison to other calendars throughout human civilization, it is understandable why many people are panicking when they think of the rapidly approaching December 21, 2012, date. The 2012 date is not just the end of the three calendar cycles, it's also the end of a longer 26000 year calendar - the end of everything as we know it. There is a possibility that the end of everything as we know it does not preclude the beginning of something knew after terrible birth pangs. The end of cycles was cause for celebration to the Mayan civilization, and humans and their ancestors have experienced the end of cycles before. While 2012 may seem like a year to fear, we should treat it with more wariness than panic. Instead of destruction, we may be able to experience creation for a new cycle, a new age after December 21, 2012.
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