December 21, 2012: It’s not the End of the World — it’s the
Baktunalia! It’s time for a celebration, not an apocalypse. Here
are the facts: The Maya long count calendar will go from
220.127.116.11.19 to 18.104.22.168.0 as we go from December 20
to December 21, 2012. So December 20 is New Baktun Eve and
December 21 is New Baktun Day. (FYI for those who like numbers:
The five digits of the Mayan long count are base 20, except for
the second number from the right, which is base 18. Our numbers
are base 10. We have ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands. The
Maya long count has kins, winals, tuns, katuns, and baktuns. For
the Maya, a day is called a “kin.” Twenty kins make a winal.
Eighteen winals, or 360 kins, equal a tun, making the tun about
a year long. Twenty tuns make a katun and 20 katuns equal a
baktun. Thirteen baktuns is just over 5,125 years.) The Roman
Saturnalia festival also occurred at this time — a celebration
featuring food, gifts, and celebrations around the Winter
Solstice. Early Christians could