Mayan 'Year of Doom' begins, Maya astronomers knew long ago that there would be intense solar activity in the year the world now calls 2012.  Mayan 'Year of Doom' begins , suggests that December 21, 2011 would begin a year of horrors that would culminate in the Earth’s destruction on December 21, 2012.
In 1993, archaeologist Michael D. Coe revised his classic book, The Maya, to discuss “the end of the Maya calendar in 2012”. The revised edition stated that Mayas had prophesied cataclysmic events accompanying the calendar’s end in 2012. Since then, there has been increasing concern around the world that the earth would be destroyed when the “Maya calendar ended.” Apprehension of the significance of 2012 has sparked an industry that interpolates questionable interpretations of Maya culture with equally dubious interpretations of the Bible to create books, movies, paid lectures and web sites that produce handsome income for their proponents.
For example, legitimate Biblical scholars are aware that there is absolutely no mention of “the rapture” in the Book of Revelations, and it is certainly not a part of the Jewish scriptural tradition. The “Rapture” is a belief, spawned in the late 19th century by a Pentecostal sect, that all “saved Christians” (i.e. members of their sect) will simultaneously disappear prior to the destruction of evil elements of mankind by God, followed by the return of the Messiah and the previously disappeared Christians. Scriptural justification of the Rapture is achieved by mixing portions of sentences in several books of the Jewish Torah and Christian New Testement.

Today, one can find a pantheon of web sites and books which use the same "shell game" technique to claim that 1400 years ago, the polytheistic Mayas prophesized the coming of the Rapture in 2012. These venders of doom invariably ask their readers to buy something or send money, so that they can be raptured, too!

The Maya calendar

The “Maya Calendar” was most likely developed by the Olmec civilization, long before the Mayas existed. Maya Long Count Calendar’s first date in the Gregorian calendar used by Western civilization is August 11, 3114 BC. It is currently believed that Maya civilization first appeared around 500 BC. The first evidence of any calendar is at the site of Itzapa in the southern part of the Mexican state of Chiapas. It appears to date from about 1200 BC.

For over 5,125 years the Winter Solstice has marked the beginning of the Maya solar year. However, the annual cycle of the sun was just one of several calendars used by the Mayas to describe the passage of time. There was a 260 day long Tzolk'in, which was combined with a 365 day Ha’ab to create a calendar used by commoners.

The Maya elite used several other calendars based on the full lunar cycle (360 days), the cycle of the planet Venus (584 days,) 9 & 13 day weeks, 20 day months, and a strange 18 month solar calendar. Most of these calendars were meshed together to create a Long Count Calendar. It is the Long Count Calendar that completes a full cycle in 2012.

The solar and lunar calendars simultaneously synchronize about ever 52 years. This unit of time became a Mesoamerican and Muskogean (Southeastern Moundbuilders) century. The 52 year period was associated with a person’s life expectancy. Four of these 52 year periods were considered a dynasty’s life cycle.

What does Maya literature actually say?

Very few Mayas today are fully knowledgeable of their ancient history, and only a tiny handful can read Classic Maya writing. They have been under the domination of Spanish-speaking governments for over 500 years. One of Mexico’s most respected archaeologists, the late Roman Piña-Chan, was one-half Maya, but he was an exception. Some remote Maya groups do use some of their ancestral calendars, but none use the old system in its entirety.

There are some Mexican-Americans in the United States who claim to be Maya Keepers, or priests. They also claim to be making prophecies on the behalf of all the Maya people. Traditional Maya priests are closely associated with a specific rural community and Maya language. There are several, mutually unintelligible Maya languages. An authentic Maya Keeper would never pretend to speak for all Mayas.

Traditional Mayas consider the year 2012 as an especially auspicious time on the Maya calendar because it is the end of the 13th b'ak'tun or combined lunar-solar cycle. The Combined Maya calendar will then move into the 14th b'ak'tun. The passage of a major cycle of time was known as a K’atun, and a time of celebration.

Sandra Noble, Executive Director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies (FAMSI) has stated, "For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle". She added that the portrayal of December 2012 as a doomsday or cosmic-shift event to be "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.”

The mainstream of the archaeology profession has made public statements similar to those of Sandra Noble. No Maya inscription discusses the end of the world or cataclysmic events occurring at the end of the 12th B’ak’tun, or 2012 AD.

There is more to the story

Perhaps in their revulsion toward the high-jacking of Maya culture by profit making ventures and psuedo-religious sects, archaeologists are not telling the public the full story. Maya astronomers DID know that the early 21st century would be time of violent weather, which would peak in 2012. Such dangerous periods have happened like clockwork through the ages.
The indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere were clever folks. Although the ubiquitous 52 year century they used was based on the period required for the solar and lunar calendars to complete their mutual cycles, it also marks 1/8th of the 416 year cycle of the sun. The sun’s peak production of heat energy occurs every 416 years. Alternatively, one could say that the periods when the earth receives the least warmth from the sun occur every 416 years.

In either case, there is proof of the sun’s impact on weather, and human history. The last period of maximum solar activity was in the late 1500s and early 1600s, with the peak at 1595. Most of the towns visited by Hernando de Soto in 1540-42 disappeared during a period of extreme drought in the Southeast during the last 20 years of the 16th century. The Roanoke Island Colony probably disappeared because of this drought, while the Jamestown Colony almost failed because of this drought.

During the previous period of maximum solar intensity (mid-12th century) the Toltec Empire collapsed, the enormous town on the Ocmulgee River in Georgia was abandoned, all the Native towns around Lake Okeechobee, FL were abandoned and horrific droughts devastated the Anasazi culture in the Southwest. However, the warmth was beneficial to northern European farmers. English farmers were able to grow grapes and make commercial quality wines in the 12th century.

The late 20th century and early 21st century saw several record-breaking storms and earthquakes, while the American Southwest is experiencing an ever worsening drought. This is exactly what Maya astronomers and priests expected each 416 years. On the peak year of solar activity, 2012, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted very dangerous solar flares.

A solar flare blast can knock out satellites, land-based communication systems, regional power grids, mainframe computers, cable TV networks and even the computers that operate modern automobiles. In truth, there is potential for major damage being done to the world’s economy in 2012 because of natural catastrophes, but it is not likely to be hurricanes the size of nations or asteroids simultaneously striking several locations on earth as portrayed in the movies.

Of course, as soon as such statements as above are published, one can expect 20 inches of snow at Miami Beach on Christmas morning. Mother Nature is ultimately, a very unpredictable lady.