End of the World Mayans = Y2Kx2

(Page 68 from Gate's "An Outline Dictionary of Maya Glyphs")

In an earlier blog post I wrote: "So, for the last several years we've heard that the world is coming to an end December 21, 2012, thanks to the Mayans and their Calender ending on this date.  Because they lived 1000+ years ago, and stopping their calender now must mean something.  (And has nothing to do with them getting tired and wondering why they were keeping track of dates so far in the future.  It's like starting at one and hand writing numbers to a trillion.  Really?  You got to stop sometime).  Anyway, I'm sure this is nothing more then another Y2K.  (Remember that?  It was exciting.  Nothing happened)."

So I woke up this morning, and again, nothing happened!  No impending doom.  No asteroid hurtling itself towards the Earth.  Yellowstone didn't erupt.  All's good!

In truth I think, as time went on, this whole Mayan calender thing became more and more of a joke, and I wonder how long it will be before people start wearing "I survived the End of the World!" shirts.  Maybe some people are wearing them today. 

(Print type supposedly used in an early printing of Gates book.  I found them at a geology store.)

James Watt wrote a blog post entitled "Mayan Calender and the Gregorian Leap Year."  It's an interesting read, and worth checking out.  One thing he mentions is that December 21, 2012 is nothing more then a Mayan era ending, leading into the new baktun 13.0.0.0.0.  The last baktun was September 18, 1618 which was 12.0.0.0.0.

So really December 21, today, is like celebrating the "Mayan's Millennium," Y2K.  (Though I now know, thanks to Watt, that a baktun is 1,872,000 days, which seems to be quite a big deal.)

So instead of End of the World frantics, I bet the ancient Mayans would have had a huge celebration, probably on par to the global celebration of the year 2000, the best New Years ever.  Personally I thought it was amazing, and loved counting down each hour and watching on T.V. how each culture celebrated the event.  Nothing like that will ever happen again in our lifetime.

Life will continue on, as normal.

Happy Baktun Everyone!!