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ORIGINAL: cyberdude611

Many believe it has to the do with the crystal skull legend.

There is an ancient legend that the Mayans had 13 crystal skulls and that when brought together have the power to project visions and influence cosmic and terrestrial forces. Some people even today believe those 13 skulls need to be reunited in order to save the planet in 2012.

By the way, this legend is what the new Indiana Jones movie is partially based on... That's why the called "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

quote:

ORIGINAL: BoiJen

The Mayan Calendar ends on dec 21, 2012. The Mayan calendar was actually a very limited calendar that only went to 3000-something BC. And we know that humans, specifically modern humans, existed well before then. I don't think anything will happen other than some cool astrologic alignments.

Every generation has it's doomsday theory. Check out the bible. It specifically names Armegeddon. And people took that to be an event...rather it was a place. So the event referenced in the Revelations, has already happened. And the Earth will go on for ages and ages. At least, as long as we don't kill eachother first. The outside forces aren't what we need to worry about....it's our own selves.

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ORIGINAL: kc692
Armegeddon is not a place and has not already happened. Others share different opinions than yours, I happen to be one of them..

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Most of the Mayan calendars were short. The Tzolk'in calendar lasted for 260 days and the Haab' approximated the solar year of 365 days. The Mayans then combined both the Tzolk'in and the Haab' to form the "Calendar Round", a cycle lasting 52 Haab's (around 52 years, or the approximate length of a generation). Within the Calendar Round were the trecena (13 day cycle) and the veintena (20 day cycle). Obviously, this system would only be of use when considering the 18,980 unique days over the course of 52 years.

Using an innovative method, they were able to expand on the 52 year Calendar Round. Up to this point, the Mayan Calendar may have sounded a little archaic - after all, it was possibly based on religious belief, the menstrual cycle, mathematical calculations using the numbers 13 and 20 as the base units and a heavy mix of astrological myth. The only principal correlation with the modern calendar is the Haab' that recognized there were 365 days in one solar year (it's not clear whether the Mayans accounted for leap years). The answer to a longer calendar could be found in the "Long Count", a calendar lasting 5126 years.
I'm personally very impressed with this dating system. For starters, it is numerically predictable and it can accurately pinpoint historical dates. However, it depends on a base unit of 20 (where modern calendars use a base unit of 10). So how does this work?

The base year for the Mayan Long Count starts at "0.0.0.0.0". Each zero goes from 0-19 and each represent a tally of Mayan days. So, for example, the first day in the Long Count is denoted as 0.0.0.0.1. On the 19th day we'll have 0.0.0.0.19, on the 20th day it goes up one level and we'll have 0.0.0.1.0. This count continues until 0.0.1.0.0 (about one year), 0.1.0.0.0 (about 20 years) and 1.0.0.0.0 (about 400 years). Therefore, if I pick an arbitrary date of 2.10.12.7.1, this represents the Mayan date of approximately 1012 years, 7 months and 1 day.

This is all very interesting, but what has this got to do with the end of the world? The Mayan Prophecy is wholly based on the assumption that something bad is going to happen when the Mayan Long Count calendar runs out. Experts are divided as to when the Long Count ends, but as the Maya used the numbers of 13 and 20 at the root of their numerical systems, the last day could occur on 13.0.0.0.0. When does this happen? Well, 13.0.0.0.0 represents 5126 years and the Long Count started on 0.0.0.0.0, which corresponds to the modern date of August 11th 3114 BC. Have you seen the problem yet? The Mayan Long Count ends 5126 years later on December 21st, 2012.

When something ends (even something as innocent as an ancient calendar), people seem to think up the most extreme possibilities for the end of civilization as we know it. A brief scan of the internet will pull up the most popular to some very weird ways that we will, with little logical thought, be wiped off the face of the planet. Archaeologists and mythologists on the other hand believe that the Mayans predicted an age of enlightenment when 13.0.0.0.0 comes around; there isn't actually much evidence to suggest doomsday will strike. If anything, the Mayans predict a religious miracle, not anything sinister.

Source: http://www.universetoday.com/2008/05/19/no-doomsday-in-2012/ 

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ORIGINAL: Zensee
thought it might be the end of Walmart and McDonalds.

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ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

and hillary will be campaigning.