The end of the world!

As you can clearly see from looking at this Mayan calendar, the world is about to end!

Or someone is going to stick his tongue out at you.

Some say that when the last entry in the Mayan Calendar comes, so will the end of the world as we know it.

The calendar system used in the ancient world reflect the agricultural, political and ritual needs characteristic of the societies in which they flourished. Astronomical observations to establish the winter and summer solstices were in use three to four millennia ago. By the 14th century BCE the Shang Chinese had established the solar year as 365.25 days and the lunar month as 29.5 days. The lunisolar calendar, in which the ritual month is based on the moon and the agricultural year on the sun, was used throughout the ancient Near East (except Egypt) and Greece from the third millennium BCE. Early calendars used either thirteen lunar months of 28 days or twelve alternating lunar months of 29 and 30 days and haphazard means to reconcile the 354/364-day lunar year with the 365-day solar year.

Where the Maya Calendar differs is the fact that they use two calendars. Put into one by placing it into a circle or calendar round. There was first the sacred year of 260 days and a vague year of 365 days. The sacred year was used for religious purposes and to name children. The vague year was used to plant crops. When placed together on the calendar round, they look like the above picture.

The calendar round is not like our yearly calendars. It is instead made up of 18,980 days or 73 sacred years  or 52 vague years. We'll discuss here, the vague years.

The 365 day year consist of 18 months of 20 days each, followed by an additional month of five days. These five days were a gift from God and to be used as what we would call a holiday.

They found that the 52 year cycle eliminated the need for leap years because the time would balance itself out. We today, use a calendar that adds a day every 4 years, but time actually has been shifting slightly each year as we do this. Their system, while it takes 52 years to complete, takes care of the discrepancy all on it's own.

Additional circles keep track of longer periods of time. On each of the calendars that have been found, they plotted out time up until what we would call December 21, 2012.

Some say that on that day, the planets will align and send the earth out of balance. This could change its spinning axis , thus changing where the North and South Poles are located.

What the Maya would say about this is unclear. The fact that their calendar comes to an end, may simply mean that it starts over again. The reality is that the Mayas did keep track of large cycles of time, and there is a cycle that began in 3013BC on our calendar. There are reasons to think that the cycle reaches a significant number on Dec.21, 2012.

Today we have the internet to perpetuate any doubts of our survival and we are influenced by the Bible and all it's doomsday theories. Weather you look at scientific evidence or biblical prophecies, one thing is clear. 

We are heading toward a new beginning. Even if it's just in our heads. Will we wake up on the 22nd of December in a new world? Or will we wake up at all?

Or will we all get hit by a bus today?

We don't know what the future holds. So we need to live as though there is no tomorrow.

Call those that you've been meaning to call. Experience what you've been wanting to do for a long time. 

Stop putting off until tomorrow what you should have done yesterday.

Live life with no regrets. What was done in the past can not be changed and the future is yours. So enjoy it.

Having written all of that, I really only wanted to show you some of the things that we purchased on our trip.

Above, obviously is a Maya Calendar. I can't read it either.

This is a small hand carved wooden jar that I fell in love with and had to have.

And here we have a hand carved mahogany mask.

Next stop, Honduras and an amazing beach resort where we spent the day.

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