At World's End

I would, as many of you undoubtedly will in the next few weeks, offer my good wishes for the New Year. But being a sensitive soul, I am aware that there are those, new-agers, sensation-mongers and seekers of vicarious thrills, who will venture into 2012 with some small trepidation.

No, it's not the advent of the Olympics that raises the mental hackles: that can be easily avoided by smashing the TV, throwing the radio out of the window and climbing onto the roof for a month wearing industrial ear defenders. The snag with 2012 is that on 21st (or 23rd) December the World Will End. Not just go through a bit of a bad patch; actually end, finish, disappear, become as dust.

This will obviously have a negative effect on plans for the festive season. 'Post early for Christmas' will take on a whole new meaning, as all missives will have to arrive by the 23rd (or 21st). Will shops actually set up their seasonal displays in August? Or will they lose heart and leave the unsold Easter eggs on the shelves for what little sales time remains? Will DFS actually have a genuine closing-down sale?

To those not so influenced by the bizarre, the actual evidence for this catastrophe is simply a small calendrical note in an old Mayan text. The Maya had three calendars, based on their counting system of 20. This is not the place for technical details, so we will merely observe that one calendar ran for 260 days (13×20) and another for 360 days (18×20). These calendars only became aligned every 52 years – a time for great celebration. Five 'dark' days were added to the end of the latter calendar to make a year like our modern one, except for not bothering with leap years.

The third calendar, which was not in general use for very long, was quite remarkable, and very complicated. One cycle lasted for 5,125 years before being reset to zero. It is a specific date in this calendar (13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ahau 3 K'ank'in, in case you want to know) that will occur on 21st (or 23rd, pick your scholar) December 2012. It seems from what little textual evidence we have that this should be a time of great celebration. But that's no good for the doom-and-gloom brigade, or the entertainment industry, who see it as nothing less than the world's end. (Book your seats now to avoid disappointment and, yes, there are enterprising souls selling survival gear!)

So there we have it, to plan or not to plan? And even if the world doesn't terminate in fire and flood, the following year will be equally fraught. We know of one soul who is giving up voluntary work simply because a year with 13 in it can bring nothing but disaster!