My parents gave me a Mayan calendar for Christmas. It’s beautiful, as this photo doesn’t really show, and we have it hanging right outside our bedroom.

I find that even this early in the year, I’m becoming frustrated by the numerous people spouting nonsense about the Mayan calendar. I can’t actually tell how many of them believe what they’re saying. I don’t expect any intelligent people *actually* think the world is going to end on December 21, but it’s important to realize that NEITHER DID THE MAYANS.

The Mayan calendar is cyclical. This shouldn’t be so hard to understand. Our modern calendar is cyclical. We have several cycles. The 365 day cycle we call a year, and then there’s the 4-year cycle in which we adjust the fact that a year isn’t actually 365 days long. Then there’s the cycle we call a century, and the one we call a millenium.

December 21, 2012, is the end of a Mayan millenium, so to speak. Nothing more or less. There was never any prediction of apocalypse stated or implied in any Mayan writing. That’s all just as much hollywood nonsense as the movies and books surrounding January 1, 2000 (remember those) and the panics surrounding the year 1000 (I don’t expect you remember those) and the year 1900. (Now I need to figure out where I read about those, and post a reference. Can’t find it right now. Probably in the wonderful history of the calendar book I have somewhere …)

Be wary of people trying to push particular dates for the end of the world. Chances are they’re either a nut job, or they’re trying to sell something.