Question: is the world relly goin to end in 2012 ?

Sara Imari Walker answered on 9 Jun 2011:

Hi James98! That certainly seems to be something that movies and popular media like to pick up on! The rumor that the world will end in 2012 has come about because of some very ancient calendars that the Mayans wrote. The Mayan culture flourished about 2,000 years ago and they wrote some very precise calendars. They had one such calendar called the “long count” which starts at zero every 5,000 years. This is the same as our own yearly calendar restarting with January 1st once every 365 days (except of course the Mayan long count time frame is much longer!). So, the current Mayan long count ends in 2012, but it starts a new cycle in their calendar. There is no indication – even in the Mayan cultural mythology that anything special will happen at the end of the long count. So, basically it is a clock being reset! So, no the world will not end in 2012, we will just start a new Mayan long count. However, popular media sometimes likes to pick up on these things to cause a sensation, it certainly makes books sell! This is a case where we must be cautious and find out the facts before making judgement on a “scientific” prediction or fact. So, great question! Keep it up!