Why does the Mayan Calendar think the world will end on 21 December?
AN EVANGELIST pastor believes that the Mayans decided doomsday will come in December.
Pastor Paul Begley claims it could happen due to a certain planetary alignment.
Here is more about the prediction of the end of the world.
What is the Mayan calendar?
The Mayan calendar is a system of calendars and almanacs which was used by several cultures in Central America.
It dates back to the 5th century BCE and it is still in use in some Mayan communities today.
The Mayan Calendar has three separate corresponding calendars: the Long Count, the Tzolkin (divine calendar), and the Haab (civil calendar).
Each calendar is cyclical, meaning that a certain number of days must occur before a new cycle can begin.
The calendars are also used simultaneously.
The Tzolkin and the Haab identify the days and every 52 years they connect and create a calendar round.
The Long Count date comes first, then the Tzolkin date, and last the Haab date.
The Mayans believed that the universe was destroyed and then recreated at the start of each universal cycle.
What was the Mayan prediction for the end of the world?
The Mayans predicted that the world would come to an end on December 21, 2012.
Nasa debunked the rumors that the world would end in 2012 – the prediction of the Mayan calendar.
“For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence?
“There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact.
“There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012,” said the agency.
Scientist and Fullbright Scholar Paolo Tagaloguin fed into the conspiracy theory on Twitter, posting “following the Julian Calendar, we are technically in 2012.”
“The number of days lost in a year due to the shift into the Gregorian Calendar is 11 days.
“For 268 years using the Gregorian Calendar (1752-2020) times 11 days = 2,948 days. 2,948 days / 365 days (per year) = 8 years.”
By Tagaloguin’s calculations, Earth would be destroyed on June 21, 2020.
To no one’s surprise, the world did not end on June 21.
However, there are other dissenting opinions on the final date of the Earth.
Pastor Begley believes doomsday will strike on December 21, 2020.
“Of course, the Mayan elders said this could have been the end of the world today.
“December 21, 2020, during the great conjunction when Jupiter and Saturn come within 0.1 degrees of one another and create the brightest star in the skies since the star of Bethlehem.
“It will be the closest Jupiter and Saturn have been since 1623 and it won’t even come that closes again for another 500 years.
“So this is so rare and it’s going to be on the winter solstice,” said the Pastor.
Is the Mayan calendar used today?
Some communities still refer to the calendar as part of their culture.
It has been said that the Mayan’s further advanced the development of the calendar, however, they did not invent it.
A similar system was used by most cultures in pre-Columbian Central America, including those before the Maya.
MOST READ IN NEWS
What happened to the Mayans?
While most of their community declined in the 8th and 9th century, many can be found in Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and parts of Mexico.
There is no set fact as to why they declined, however, historians attribute climate change, disease and other environmental factors as to why most died.