Twenty twelve is set to be a momentous year, the very first winter youth Olympics will be held in January, the United States of America are going to 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 towards 2013 you shouldn't get your hopes up, given that according to some forecasts, the world is due to end on December 21. For those who enjoy Christmas, make the most of this year and the next, since as outlined by the Mayan calendar, they will be your very last. Perhaps.

Well before Europeans arrived in meso America the habitants made use of a complicated mixture of calendars to record their dates.  The Haab or solar calendar, both a timepiece and Mayan art form, was composed of 18 twenty day months including a time period of 5 days named Wayeb to bring the sum to 365.

The Tzolkin on the other hand was a cycle of 260 days, thirteen times twenty.  No-one is aware quite the reason 260 days were picked, though it appears the numbers 13 and twenty were each important to these early civilizations. There is a probability that it is based on the time period 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 other theories about crop harvesting and astrology observations might be just as correct. Nearly all dates could possibly be set by a mix of the Haab and Tzolin, the cycle would come together one time every fifty two years, which is roughly once in every life time.

To look at durations longer than fifty two years the Mayans employed a different method that we now call the Long Count calendar. This method is demonstrated in both Olmec and Aztec art and wasn't invented by the Maya. Dates run forwards from a mythical day zero, the day from the beginning of the present world. Just like all cultures the base units were days, with 20 days in the uinal and 18 uinals in a tun (roughly a year). A K'atun consisted of 20 tuns and twenty of those a b'ak'tun. Again the number thirteen was significant and numerous inscriptions in Mayan art show the date changing at the conclusion of 13 b'ak'tuns and spoke of events that occur on this particular date. This resulted in  a belief that the Mayans envisioned something substantial would occur around the final day of the 13th B'ak'tun. That day is calculated to be 21st or 23 December 2012. So what can we expect?

Well according to several scholars nothing at all. There are several references to things taking place about that time in inscriptions, however nothing really concrete, so it's surprising just how much publicity 2012 is generating. A few state there will a spiritual evolution, while some talk about a momentous galactic alignment, although this draws on the location of the galactic equator, and that can not be determined, this does not seem very likely. Yet other people worry about planet Niburu.

Collision with planet X (or Niburu) was forecast since 2003, yet any planet near enough to be in collision with the Earth in 2012 would certainly now become obviously visible to astronomers in the evening sky. Sadly this fictional collision has become confused in the media with the actual and predicted approach of a large asteroid referred to as Eros that is likely to pass the earth in 2012. Eros is larger than the asteroid which we believe wiped out the dinosaurs 65 millions years back but since it will never end up being nearer than 70 times the distance from the moon, it is unlikely to do any harm.

Looking at the Mayan calendar is a great reason to think about the way we measure time and the reason why, to comprehend the solar cycles which still rule our lives and also to enjoy the fine art of an appealing civilization. As to preparing for the end of the world, that still would seem slightly premature.