what do you think will happen when the mayan calendar ends?

Answer 1

I think that exactly what they predicted will happen. Astronomically speaking.

As we can tell from their architecture (and their calendars!) the Mayans were pretty good astronomers. In their case, the heavens had a very religious significance as well. So for many of the things they saw in the sky, there was a spiritual as well as a literal meaning.

One thing that did not escape their attention was the North Star. Well... not the star itself, but the place it now occupies. In a field of moving objects, only this region (dark and mysterious to the Mayans) seems to be completely stationary. In fact, everything seems to rotate around that point.

So if the heavens are another realm, the only one for it to be other than this one is the spirit world. Theologically speaking, the one most significant place in the spirit world can only be a kind of Heaven (with a capital H) - the place where the gods dwell and all spirits migrate to after death. So this is where the North Star now sits.

Another feature which cannot be missed by star-gazers is the path of the Milky Way. Mayans, however, looked EXTRA-close at it. As it happens, a part of the milky way is actually obscured by dark interstellar clouds along a path pretty close to exactly on the galactic equator (the imaginary line that would split the galaxy into a top and bottom half). This dark streak seems to lead from the horizon to near the very top of the arch of the Milky Way.

And in fact, while we just call it a bifurcation of the Sagittarius arm (if most of us have even heard of or noticed it), the Mayans - even modern ones - all have a special name for it. Ancient ones referred to it as 'The Black Road'.

Which leads to another question: where is this road supposed to lead? It turns out that the slow shifting of the Earth's axis (the reason the North Star wasn't always in the center of the night sky) will cause the end of 'The Black Road' to occupy the center of the sky in the year 2012. The Road will lead straight to Heaven.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see why people who attached such significances to things would believe the world would end at precisely this time. But it also means that there's no reason to believe that this actually IS the end of the world unless you share those beliefs - that in 2012 all the spirits of living things will take the Black Road and ascend to Heaven which lies directly above the Earth's axis.

But even if you don't believe such... it's still a good story!

Answer 2

The Maya calendar doesn't "end." The much-publicized year, 2012, is the end of a cycle of some length. I don't recall exactly how long, but the Maya calendar runs in cycles, so I don't think it really "ends."

From what I've heard, even the Maya didn't say this was the end of the world, as many people think. It's just the end of a period of time, and marks some kind of great transition. It came from their observation that the winter solstice sun would come into alignment with a particular area of the milky way, and they myths they built around such observations.

I think people will wake up that morning, go to sleep that night, and nothing will happen. It's just another day, just another supposed prophecy. See this site - it's quite enlightening. It lists all the dates in history where people thought something amazing or destructive was going to happen. http://www.abhota.info/end1.htm

Answer 3

You have to remember the Mayans were dying out. Maybe they didn't have time to keep making their calender? Maybe it's not really ending, and it's just the end of a cycle? Personally, I don't think the world is just going to end in 2012. I don't think much of anything is going to happen. Don't worry about it- and even if it is the end, well, isn't that what everyone's been waiting for anyway?

Honestly, don't give so much weight to it. All cultures have myths and beliefs about "the end" and when it happens, well, we'll know. In the meantime, live your life. I'm personally excited to see if anything big happens.

Answer 4

I think everything will continue as it has been. Perhaps when the Mayans were making these predictions, they ended at 2012 because their chief prophet died and no one else in the Mayan culture knew how he was coming up with the predictions...just a thought.

Answer 5

Nothing abnormal. The world will keep chugging along.

Do you think that anyone with a 2007 calendar hanging on their wall panics because January 2008 is not there?

Answer 6

Nothing. I think it is just a load of bull.
1. The world has been predicted to end countles times, it has not happend yet.

2.Why didn't they predict there own downfall?

3. The only proof that this could be true is because "they were smart"

Answer 7

Hopefully, nothing. Perhaps they simply had to leave off somewhere and 2012 was far enough into the future at the time that they saw no sense in projecting further than that.

Answer 8

A lot of people are going to feel very stupid.