Why the world won't end in 2012

A new film suggests an apocalypse is coming, but the Maya disagree

Published On Thu Oct 29 2009

MAYAN RIVIERA, MEXICO–If there's a word in Mayan for "malarkey" that's what shaman Gerardo Carrera thinks of Hollywood's end-of-days spin on Dec. 21, 2012.

With Roland Emmerich's big-budget disaster movie 2012 riding a wave of studio publicity into theatres Nov. 13, people are talking about what seems to be the date the sophisticated Maya calendar runs out, perhaps triggering the downfall of civilization.

Trailers for the blockbuster, rumoured to cost some $260 million, show John Cusack and Amanda Peet desperately fleeing a crumbling Los Angeles that literally hives off and slides into the ocean as they make their airborne escape.

The trailer ends with the solemn words: "Find out the truth: Google 2012."

But Carrera, a traditional spiritual healer, ceremonial leader and go-between for this world and the next, says Dec. 21, 2012 isn't the end of the world as far as the Maya are concerned.

"It's not true. It is not the end," says the soft-spoken Carrera, resident shaman at a luxury eco-resort about 60 kilometres from Cancun on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, an area rich in the Maya culture and belief system that predates European settlement.

In fact, Carrera sees this as a very beneficial period in human history, a time of rebirth as the calendar clicks over and starts again.

"There will be change. All the signs are there, with the economy, the world weather, the Earth," Carrera says.

"It will be a time of rebirth. Newness. Not destruction."

Gyles Iannone, Mayanist and associate professor of anthropology at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., explains the Maya calendar doesn't end on Dec. 21, 2012 – not even close.

"The calendar is much more complex than the calendar system we use today," Iannone says.

Based on 20-day months and 18-month years, the Maya Long Count calendar is only in the 13th phase – the 13th baktun – of a 20-baktun system, Iannone explains.

"In a purely calendric aspect, 2012 doesn't mean a thing," Iannone says.

The cycle doesn't wind up for another 2,700 years.

Which isn't to say Dec. 21, 2012, holds no significance. It marks 13.0.0.0.0 – the beginning of the 14th baktun under the Mayan calendar that starts at the Gregorian equivalent of Aug. 11, 3114 BC, the date Maya people credit as the birth of the world.

"There's nothing to suggest anything about the end of the world. It's really a celebration of a day in the past tied to creation," says Iannone.

"If you Google 2012, the amount of material that comes up is telling and, of course, everybody has their own interpretation," says Iannone, who touches on the subject in the classroom.

Iannone, who also teaches a course on archaeology and pop culture, plans to see the movie – and enjoy it.

"It's a movie, let's not forget that fact," he says.