Exploring 2012

The New Year dawned with laughter and hope. It came at the stroke of midnight with pretty dresses and golden champagne glasses, resolutions and joyous kisses.

Three years left.

That is according to the Mayan calendar which began on 3114-Aug 13 with the birth of Venus. This ancient civilization believes the end of the world will occur during the winter solstice of 2012, on or around December 21st.

The life of the Maya, an ancient civilization that were inhabitants of an area that is now Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and the western portion or Honduras, was all about time. Religious leaders consulted calendars and used their numbers to give advice about problems regarding politics, agriculture and religion.

The Mayan calendar is said to be the most accurate calendar ever created by anyone, even more accurate than the Julien calendar we use today but it isn’t the only source to predict 2012 as the end, nor is it the first time the end has been predicted.

Net surfers worldwide are pretty pumped about the prediction. A type and click search of 2012 on Google brings forth an astonishing 700,000 hits. One of these hits is a 2012 believers list on www.2012.com. Believers in this changing day can sign their names to the list which was established in 2007 and now, 2 years later, has 24 counties represented on it.

The hype has gained so much momentum, that the online consumer can now purchase 2012 swag. Hats and t-shirts come in several colours and sport images of a meteor travelling toward the earth with slogans like “Yeah, It’s Coming.”

Even Hollywood’s gilded and glamorous can’t ignore this plausible phenomenon. Celebrity believers include; actor, producer and screen writer Mel Gibson, who is said to often make parallels between current-day U.S.A and the Mayan culture. He is joined in his belief by Alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins and Montel Williams, who focused an episode of his talk show on the subject.

So what is this event that’s so poised to unfold on that fateful day? Although no one can say for sure, experts do have some information and a few ideas that range anywhere from theories about polar shifts, wreaking climactic chaos to an invasion by extraterrestrials.

Those who entertain theories that go beyond conventional science even go as far as to say that another universe is slowly gaining a dimension in ours.

So what is a regular every-day water-based human just minding their own business on that day to do?

The website slogan at www.2012supplies.com advises people to “Be smart, be ready. This site offers several items needed they say, for the events of 2012. Items like gas masks, crank radios, water purifiers and cans of freeze-dried food.

A mania of this sort has swept the land many eras before. Predictions about the end of the world have been around since about 2800 BC.

In 60CE a literal interpretation of the epistles of Paul of Tarsus, suggested that the return of Jesus would fall during the lifetimes of those in mid-first century.

In 1843, William Miller of the Millerite Movement predicted Jesus’ return on March 21st and gained the Christian belief of many. When his first prediction failed he predicted a new date of October 22 1844. In this event, now referred to as “The great disappointment” many people of faith sold everything they had, quit their jobs and waited for the second coming that never came.

Most recently, society caught what the media coined, the Y2K bug. It was said in both media and government reports that this glitch would cause malfunctioning in computers worldwide. IT companies spent millions to check and revise their systems. As the clock ticked down to January 1, 2000 the human race let out a collective sigh of relief as disaster was averted, either by chance or because of meticulous preparation.

Critics and believers alike will again bait their breath and wait. clinky, glitter laden parties will cease to move, becoming living photographs. In those anticipated moments, some will hasten to prepare and some won’t but 6 billion people will believe anything is possible.