I know the world won't end in 2012. But did the Mayans actually believe that it would?

Question

We are constantly hearing that the Mayan calendar ends in the year 2012. But did the Mayans actually think the world would end, or that something huge would happen in 2012?

Or did they just run our of space or something?

Answer 1

The Mayans are in a fourth demension.

Answer 2

We can never be sure. It can also be possible we haven't found a new calender. We will have to see.

Answer 3

My Aunt is an archaeologist and in her investigation, and talking to several remaining Mayans, they think that everyone who is making a big deal about it is silly. According to them, the Mayans on that specific area simply stopped the calender, no predictions, nothing. That's what I have been told.  

Answer 4

If the mayans were so great....why did they die off?

Answer 5

You have to understand that the Mayans were a very primitive tribe... And a solar eclipse was seen as a world ending event..... And how many people had their heart cut out because of that single event........

And who knows how they felt about a meteorite hitting the earth not to far from them....

Answer 6

yes the mayans be lived it and they weren't the only ones to pick that year

Answer 7

No -- the end of the Mayan Calendar is simply the end of that Long Count (or the present World Age).  It simply marks the beginning of the next cycle of rebirth & renewal for the Mayans.

Answer 8

Well the weird thing is that every 26,000 years the Earth tilts on its axis.This will happen again on 12-21-2012.We will also be centered with a black hole in the center of our galaxy when this happens.So it may all be a coincidence,or it may not.Either way it is strange....

I watched a big thing about it on Discovery

Answer 9

as other posters said, not the end of the world, but the end of a cycle.

probably the cycle of ignorance, greed and violence that has been going on.

Answer 10

Ah finally! Yes yes yes YES! They just ran out of stinking space to write their stupid calendar! Or they just probabaly ran out of darn ink too or stone tablets whatever!

Are the words harsh? sorry people but i don't believe in this mayan c**p.

Answer 11

I think the calendar just ended for some reason.  There is simply no way that they predicted anything specific.

There are literally hundreds of dates throughout history that people said the world would end on.  And its never happened.

Answer 12

We really don't know what the Mayans believed about 2012.  We know it was the end of this  current epoch - we just don't know the  direction they would have taken.

Almost all the books the Mayans wrote were destroyed by the Spanish missionaries who thought they were books by the devil because they were written in cuneiform shapes.   In fact we've only recently learned how to decipher the Mayan writings in stone.

Answer 13

No, neither is right. The Maya calendar DOES NOT end in 2012, nor did they think that the world would end on that date. All that stuff you hear about the Maya long count ending is c**p dreamed up by new age nut jobs who can't bother to pick up an anthropological text on the subject. The calendar simply rolls over. Just like how your clock rolls over at midnight to the AM of the next day. Nothing more.

And, when it comes to Maya end of the world ideas, they though that our age would end in "fire", though it's most likely a metaphor for conflict of some sort if the written record is to be believed. There's supposed to be fighting amongst both creatures and inanimate objects (the Maya believe that everything is alive, though we don't see it that way). Even then, it's not the end end by any indication. It's only the end of this creation. According to the Maya, there were already 4 ages before us, each dominated by a different type of creature that failed to meet the gods' standards. As each group failed, it was replaced.

Answer 14

yes they did. they were brilliant and i actually kinda believe it. they figured that the sun would be in the center of the universe on December 21, 2012 and that this alignment would be the cause of the end of the world.

Some people believe that this is the year the antichrist will rise.

Some believe that Planet X will be the cause of our death.

Some believe that the economy will have something to do with it.

Some believe Global Warming will do it.

Nostraudamus predicted that it would have something to do with religion.

All of these have one thing in common: december 21, 2012.

I think all the others are just branches off the mayan prediction though.

Answer 15

Yes they did believe that. Almost everything that has happened in history has been on that calendar. How they know? I don't know.... Maybe they got that wrong, WE WILL SEE IN 2012

Answer 16

I don't think that they just ran out of space, because they plotted the begging of creation. Why go all the way back, then suddenly end on this date? As for primitive, their calandar is more accurate than the one we use today. I don't think that the world will end, but I do think that there will be a shift.

Just for giggles, check out the Large Hadron Collider -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadro...

Answer 17

The world won`t end . Don`t be afraid about it . The mayans didn`t say it would end .They just stopped the calendar . Maybe the carver just passed away . But they don`t have any proof. The scientists aren't even sure yet ! So don`t believe it .