What most people don't realize is that the Mayan calendar is nothing more than a practical joke that ancient civilization played on us ;)

2012 isn't the end of the Mayan calender. All it does is reset itself on that date.

It's like the millenium bug.

The answer is simple:

It's not going to be destroyed..it's nothing but common sense.

For thousands of year people thought that the world would end: from causing the gods anger to the antichrist, everything and anything has people scared. Christopher Columbus thought that it would happen in the 1660s. London, in 1666, underwent a grand catastrophe when a conflagration enveloped the city in September. June 6, 2006 ('666') was also a date many feared. Everytime that there is a ruler or a politician, or anybody famous for that matter, the Christians have always thought him the Antichrist and believed he would hail the end of the world, or other such things along that line.

The Norse believed in the Ragnarok, where the gods would meet their demise against their enemies. The so-called 'gotterdammarung' never happened and I should imagine went mostly forgotten after the conversion of the Norse to Christianity.

P.S. Sorry about the shoddily writted article, eschatology is not one of my strong suites.

2012 is the end of the Mayan calendar, not of the world. However, there seems no end to this kind of foolishness.

Those people (the Mayans) must have really been bored to carve out a calendar so far out. I mean, I buy a calendar for the upcoming year and chuck the old one away. Who keeps old calendars? And why would you make one that goes on for centuries? Unless, of course, you are bored and have nothing better to do ;)