December 21st, 2012 - Doomsday or Hoax?

December 21st, 2012 is a date that is on the mind of many. This date, being the end of the Mayan calendar, is considered by many to be doomsday. But is it?

An onslaught of movies and books such as Solving the Greatest Mystery of Our time : The Mayan Calendar have been released in regard to this topic. An odd fact of note is that some of these are set to release in 2013, which is well after the date that we are supposed to be wiped off the face of the earth. This fact lends very little, if any, credibility to the authors of these books and scripts.

End of the world predictions are nothing new. Each has a varying degree of believers. Many people bought into the Y2K theory, and the recent prediction by Harold Camping, citing May 21, 2011 as the beginning of the end, caused quite a buzz. Even popular evangelists such as Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robinson have made predictions as to when the world would end. Thus far, every prediction has been a bust.

It is a fact that the Mayan calendar does indeed end in 2012. However, what the really means for us is not clear. My calendar ends each December the 31^st. Does that mean that I should tell everyone that the end is coming? I think not.

The Mayans were not the only civilization that kept a calendar, and not the only ones that had a calendar that ended. There is no valid reason that we should put more stock into their calendar than the calendar of others. The reason that their calendar was more popular is simple. They were a larger civilization.

The Mayans never claimed that the end date of their calendar meant anything. Nothing good, nothing bad, nothing indifferent. They simply did not say. The fact that it ends could mean nothing more than it was time for the Mayans to start working on a new calendar, and they were not able to stick around long enough to do it.

So what will happen on December 21^st, 2012? No one can say for sure. I, for one, will not lose sleep over it. The future is always uncertain. The important thing is to live everyday as if it were your last. Not just the days close to the end of the Mayan calendar.