How did the Mayans predict December 2012? Or how do we interpret it as that?

Question

When our calendar system was different than theirs? It was different 2000 years ago as well.

I don't believe in that supposed Mayan prophecy, at least as far as the Earth ending all of the sudden.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Their "calendar year" ends on the date we call December 21, 2012, just like our calendar rolls after every December 31. They didn't "predict" anything. People have taken the bait laid by a few crackpots, and it's ballooned into yet another doomsday conspiracy. It's all made up.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Yes, thanks. I didn't say I agreed with the prediction or not, so people need to learn their reading comprehension. All I asked for was why we think it ends on Dec. 2012 when their calendar wasn't the Julian one.

Answer 2

As far as I know, the Mayans didn't predict the end of this world, but merely their calendar dating ran out after December 2012.

Answer 3

They didn't predict anything. We said they did.
Their calendar ended there.
What are they supposed to do?..Spend their whole lives making the damn calendar until it's truly when they predicted the end of the world?
I'm sure either two things happened:
-they made the calendars until they disappeared
-they made them and stopped at a point where they figured we'd get how they made the calendars by now.

Answer 4

Their calendar is based on astrology. The cycle they saw ends then.

It's actually when the Sun will fall in line with the galactic disk center.

Answer 5

They didn't predict anything about 2012, that's just when their "long count" calendar ended.

Answer 6

It is silly that people consider the end of a calender to be some sort of end of the world prediction.

Answer 7

MasterMind has it.
If the Mayans could predict the end of the world, don't you think they could have predicted their decline.
It is like wondering why a psychic doesn't always win the lottery.

Answer 8

Watch the movie that started it all.

It has a happy ending.

Answer 9

They did left behind only the fragile remains of their myths, and 2012 thing is only more vague. People in the fields only translated very little of the Mayan's myth of what'll happen, of the events that'll transpire. Just research it on your own.

So, all these "end of the world" thing and people don't even know the half of what the Mayans wrote.

Answer 10

Its an astrological cyclical calender, it does not end, it begins again. The fuss is over its extreme accuracy in predicting solar eclipses and such. It has nothing to do with the end of anything.

Practicing Shaman... quantum physics rocks.

Answer 11

The ancient Mayan calendar was written in a notation which overflows from 4 to 5 digits after that date. The monks who wrote out the daily predictions took a well-earned rest when they got that far. Before they could resume their work, they were slaughtered by invading Spaniards.

Answer 12

Pretty easy. December usually comes after November, it always has. so that made predicting December in 2012 a pretty easy thing to do.

Actually the night crew never showed up to start on the 2013 calender Just have too much fun ant the new years eve office party.>_<