About

The 2012 Phenomenon were various mythological beliefs surrounding the date December 21st, 2012, which marked the end of a 5,125 year cycle, according to the Mayan Long Count calendar.

Origin

The earliest known mention of December 21st, 2012 has been attributed to author Michael D. Coe who wrote in his 1966 book The Maya:

"There is a suggestion […] that Armageddon would overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all creation on the final day of the 13th b'ak'tun. Thus […] our present universe [would] be annihilated [in December 2012] when the Great Cycle of the Long Count reaches completion."

Coe's interpretation is largely based on the ancient Mayan Long Count Calendar, which is scheduled to complete its 5,125-year Great Cycle on the winter solstice in December 2012. According to the Popul Vuh, a compilation of Mayan mythical and historical narratives, three previous, failed worlds were abolished at the end of each of the previous three Great Cycles.^[3] Thus, Coe inferred that at the end of the current Great Cycle in December 2012, an event of apocalyptic or transformative nature will occur. There are a multitude of competing theories as to exactly what will happen: some say that an interplanetary alignment will cause a series of catastrophic events, while others predict an incredible sign that will mark the beginning of a new Age. This doomsday interpretation has been dismissed by most Mayan scholars.

Spread

In 1975, the ending of the current (13th) b'ak'tun became the subject of speculation by New Age authors, who asserted it would correspond with a global "transformation of consciousness" (see Age of Aquarius, below). In Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth Age of Consciousness, Frank Waters tied Coe's original date of December 24th, 2011 to astrology and the prophecies of the Hopi.

Coe's interpretation was repeated by other scholars through the early 1990s, including citations in David Carrasco's 1990 books Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century A.D and Religions of Mesoamerica: Cosmovision and Ceremonial Centers. In the late '90s, other researchers interpreted the end of the 13th b'ak'tun as the beginning of a new astrological Age. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Mayan scholars have openly dismissed the date's association with apocalypse, including Mark van Stone, who said "the notion of a Great Cycle coming to an end is completely a modern invention."

Online Presence

With the advent of video-sharing communities, thousands of videos discussing the 2012 doomsday have emerged online, mostly focusing on the apocalyptic interpretation of the year 2012. There are hundreds of thousands of news blogs and websites dedicated to the topic; "Ask an Astrobiologist," a NASA public outreach website, has received over 5000 questions from the public on the subject since 2007, with some even asking whether they should kill themselves, their children or their pets.

Theories

In Popular Culture

The History Channel has produced a handful of special series on doomsday, such as Decoding the Past (2005–2007), 2012, End of Days (2006), Last Days on Earth (2006), Seven Signs of the Apocalypse (2007), and Nostradamus 2012 (2008). The Discovery Channel also aired 2012 Apocalypse in 2009, suggesting that massive solar storms, geomagnetic reversal, earthquakes, supervolcanoes, and other drastic natural events may occur in 2012.

The phenomenon has produced hundreds of books, including Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Lost Symbol. The 2009 disaster film 2012 was inspired by the phenomenon, and was publicized with a stealth marketing campaign in which TV spots and websites from the fictional "Institute for Human Continuity" called on people to prepare for the end of the world. The film features cataclysmic natural disasters which cause fundamental shifts in the Earth's geography. Despite poor critical reviews, the film became one of the most successful of the year, grossing nearly $770 million worldwide.^[6]

There have also been a number of pop music hits containing references to the 2012 doomsday, including "A Certain Shade of Green" (1997) by Incubus, "2012 (It Ain't the End)" (2010) by Jay Sean, and "Till the World Ends" (2011) by Britney Spears.

Notable Reactions

Project Mayhem 2012

In June 2012, YouTuber rEVOLUTIONART2012 uploaded an Anonymous call to action (shown below, left) urging people to leak sensitive documents from their workplaces. Called "Project Mayhem 2012," the video used imagery and quotes from the 1999 film Fight Club and George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel 1984. In September, two Pastebin files associated with the project appeared, the first^[28] nothing that the planned project is a "reality-hacking wargame" calling for creative people to join together and make the government afraid of its people through hacking and art. The second document^[29] contained instructions, encouraging people to download documents containing lies and evidence of illegal activity in their workplaces and putting them online at 11:11 AM local time on December 21st, 2012. A website[30 with a countdown to that time, referred to as "The End of Fear" was launched soon after, featuring more quotes from 1984.

On December 9th, a lengthier version of the first communique was uploaded to YouTube (shown above, right) announcing 10 days of leaked corporate, financial, military and state documents that had been gathered beginning on December 12th. Though the project has been covered on Russia Today^[31], I Am Bored^[32] and Cyber Warzone^[33], no major leaks have come out as of December 20th.

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been preparing for December 21st since as early as 2007, when they launched the site Ask an Astrobiologist^[14] to field a variety of questions about the universe. On December 11th, the agency published a video titled "Why the World Didn't End Yesterday" (shown below), dating it December 22nd, 2012. The video confirms with the head of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, Don Yeomans, that there are no known asteroids or comets set to collide with the earth on December 21st. By December 20th, NASA revealed they had been receiving 200 to 300 phone calls and emails per day, two and a half times their normal volume.^[15] Many of these messages were coming from children and teens who are so worried they claim they cannot eat or sleep.^[16]

Chinese Arrests

Between late November and early December, authorities in China arrested nearly 100 people from seven provinces for spreading rumors of the Mayan apocalypse.^[9] Many of those arrested were members of the cult Church of Almighty God^[10] who were asking people to hand over all their possessions in order to be saved on December 21st. Others were charged with disturbing public order after handing out red dates and walnuts, whose pronunciations sound similar to the phrase "escape in time" in Chinese.^[11] Despite the arrests, people in China were found buying arks^[12] and a furniture maker named Liu Qiyuan designed survival pods (shown below) made out of steel and fiberglass that come equipped with water, food and oxygen tanks.

Marketing

Throughout November and December, survival gear retailers including Ready to Go Survival and First Aid Global saw increases in emergency kits.^[17] Several hotels have also cashed on in the impending apocalypse, offering special deals for December 21st^[19], including The Curtis in Denver. who offered a "Party LIke There's No To-Maya" package^[18] for $12,021 which included a private party, freeze-dried foods, gas masks, access to a tattoo artist and a brunch on the 22nd. Travelers also began to flock to a mountain range in Serbia^[20], who saw a 30% increase in tourism. Additionally, restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday's planned "Last Friday" celebrations (shown below) in six US cities boasting Mayan Margaritas.^[21]

School Closings

As December 21st, 2012 approached, 33 schools in Michigan decide to close for the holidays two days early^[7] to avoid any incidents that may be influenced by the recent Sandy Hook elementary school shootings or with the Mayan doomsday rumors. While the superintendent Matt Wandrie noted that all rumors of threats had been looked in to and debunked, he noted that the students were distracted by all the misinformation and chose to cancel school, activities and sporting events on December 20th and 21st. Though these may have been the only schools whose closings made national news, internet culture blog Twitchy^[8] gathered a series of tweets from students associating the words "school," "Friday" and "bang" or "shooting."

Who ever go to school Friday gone feel like they in a chief keef video you gone here so much bang bang BANG!!

— Ra'Quon Glenn(@Super_Man32) December 20, 2012

December 21st

On Reddit

As Redditors living directly west of the International Date Line began to see midnight on December 21st, many began boasting on Reddit that the Mayan prophecies were wrong, with posts from New Zealand^[22] and Australia^[23] hitting the front page with more than 2400 points each. A handful of additional Reddit posts were linked on Cnet.^[24]

On Twitter

In the days leading up to the 21st, many people voiced their concerns and theories on Twitter. On December 19th, the word "Mayan"^[25] was mentioned 113,487 times and #apocalypse^[26] was used 9809 times. "End of the World"^[27] was used 335,986 times, compared to the previous days 98,733 mentions.

Notable Parodies

Search Interest

There was a large spike in 2012-related searches towards the end of 2009, coinciding with the release of the film 2012 in November of that year. There has also been a dramatic upswing in searches for "2012 maya" since the beginning of January. In addition, searches for "nibiru" have remained relatively high compared to other strings; this is due to the large number of conspiracy theories surrounding the supposed planet.

External References