The World Goes On
There have been several different claims about when the world is going to come to an end. This time around, there were many who believed that December 21st, 2012 would be the day that life would be wiped off the face of the earth. And what led to this belief? The Mayan calendar!
The Mayans were an ancient Native American civilization that originated from the Mexican and Central American regions. This group of people created their own calendar based on the positions of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and the main purpose of the calendar was to help understand agricultural and economic trends.
One of the catalysts behind the apocalyptic fortunetelling behind the year of 2012 was the end of the 13th “baktun” of the Mayan calendar, which occurred on December 12th. A “baktun” was the Mayan people’s way of measuring time in cycles of 394 years each.
Another factor played into the predictions about cataclysmic, world-ending event: a Mayan stone carving, created in 700 A.D., that talked of a “major event” occurring at the end of this baktun. However, this carving is missing its second half, which could have changed the real intent behind the message.
Modern-day descendants of the ancient Mayans did not believe December 21st to be the end of the world. Instead of thinking the end of the baktun to be the mark of a catastrophic event that would destroy all life on Earth, they believed that the day represented the ending and beginning of a new era in life.
It is clear that the world did not end on December 21, 2012. Life on earth will continue to grow and develop for the time being, so make sure to look out for a bright new 2013!
