What will happen on 21 DEC 2012?

There is so much miss-information and half-truths out there that more and more people are thinking the end of the wold is coming sometime in the year 2012 and some even claim the actual day to be Dec 21st! Why do people think this is true? Well, mostly because there seems to be evidence that some ancient civilizations, who had NO contact with each other, end their calenders around the same point of time in the future. Wow, that seems spooky doesn't it? How could this have happened? These ancients must have know something!....No, they were just very good at astronomical observation:

Most people who believe the end of the world is coming in 2012 think the actual day will be December 21st because the ancient Mayan's of South America picked that specific day to end their own calender cycle. The year 2012 is significant because a RARE event WILL happen, but it wont be the end of the world. Its the year that the sun appears to to be at the center of the galaxy. The sun does not pass through the center, we are actually at the outer edge of the galaxy. But from our vantage point on earth, the sun will appear to pass in front of the galactic center in 2012. Dec 21st is the winter solstice. So, it only makes sense that a people who are great astronomers and who base their calender from astronomical events, should pick one of the most astronomically significant days of the year (the winter solstice) of one of the most significant astronomical years (a rare year when the sun "appears" to be at the center of the galaxy) to be the beginning/end of any "long count" calender cycle. The Mayans did not believe that the world would end, they simply figured that the time of such a rare astronomical event (once every 26,000 years) would be a good time to start/stop their long count calendar cycle.

Any other civilizations that may have come up with a 2012 year would have picked it for the same reason, but they may have picked a different day on that year to end on because it was a day of more significance to their own culture.

But when you DONT look at it from an astronomical view, people say "holy cow!, there is evidence that two (or more) civilizations who could not have contact with each other (due to distance or existing at different times) almost picked the same time for when time stops....! And then the human mind will fill in all the superstitious "explanations" for this phenomenon.

Here is some interesting reading:

http://www.planetpapp.com/br21december2012/

/John