21st December 2012 - Global Holiday ?

That day has attracted a lot of attention (more than the normal attention given to any winter solstice) because in the 1980s, some dude claimed that the Mayan Long Count calendar ended on that day.

That is a lie. It is only a day-count calendar. It works by adding "1" to today's date, in order to create tomorrow's date. Period. As long as you don't run out of numbers, it cannot end.

The dude did this in order to sell a book representing HIS understanding of Central American calendar and the "predictions" that he had made from it. This dude was a bit "esoteric" and passed himself off as a reincarnated Mayan priest from way back (he is not, he was born in Minnesota).

All he did was to pick a round figure in the calendar (there is a round figure every 394 years and a quarter) and claimed that it had magical significance. The same way that other charlatans claimed that our own calendar would not know how to reach the number 2000 after Dec. 31, 1999.

The Big 2012 Hoax itself was built from the earlier Planet X hoax (Planet X passing too close to Earth in May and June 2003, killing most of us). Other charlatans (not the fake Mayan priest) had made lots of money from that Planet X hoax. They needed a new one so, during the summer of 2003, they created the Big 2012 Hoax, using the fake date from the Minnesotan's book and rewriting their own Planet X horse-hockey.

The also added a ton of other hoaxes, lies and stories (none of which had originally been written about 2012), which they modified to fit their new date.

Roland then made a movie called "2012" to ride the wave of "popularity" of that date (even though most of the scenario is based on the original 2003 hoax).

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It is only a "special day", attracting a lot of attention because the charlatans made it that way.

We could, for example, begin the same kind of stuff for the date September 20, 2020 which also happens to be a special date in yet another ancient calendar (plus, it has numerological appeal, with all these "20"s).

So maybe that is what we should be doing on Dec. 21, 2012: take a day off college or work or whatever, and create weird stories about what we "predict" will happen in 2020. Maybe Roland will pay us for our ideas and maybe Sony Pictures will give his another 260 million dollars for that movie.

Taking a day off work/college? Not a good idea. That will give away the fact that you're gullible enough to fall for this garbage.

Take it from me, the whole world is not thinking about it. The whole world is going about its regular business and couldn't give two hoots for a bunch of lunatics ranting on with their perennial end of the world delusions. The whole world will also be going about its normal business on 21st December 2012, apart from a few of the more simple-minded who will be taking refuge in underground bunkers or on remote mountaintops.

Be like the rest of us normal people and pay no attention to the ravings of nutcases.

It's a Friday before Christmas. I'll be working that day so I can take off between Christmas and New Years, like I usually do.

And by the way, the "whole world" isn't worried about this. It takes a combination of a complete lack of scientific education, zero critical thinking skills, and a great deal of gullibility to get worried about 2012 myths. I'm not saying that there are no adults who are taken in by this stuff, but most of the people who claim here to be worried are kids under 15, or at least so they claim to be.

Ive been doing some research and some are saying 'yes' others 'no' so i think there is a 50% 50% chance something happening. Well just have to wait and see:) And yeah im taking the day off as well

There are very good days to make holidays, like 4 October and 20 July, to commemorate genuinely important events. In my office we observed the 50th birthday of the space age down to the minute (1928 UTC, 4 October 1957). In the former Soviet Union 12 April was the Day of Cosmonautics.

Fraud and mass stupidity are not things to celebrate.

If the world's going to end what matters it if you have a day off or not.

Personally I'm retired so I'll be going down the pub, swilling a few pints down and wandering back home to ogle that fit bird off Countdown, end of the world or no.

Fill myself up with Vodka