Following on from Beyond 2012, the latest 2012 theories, prophecies and discoveries are covered in the Whats New department;
Addendum (updated 3/July//05)
UPDATE: One-day discrepancy now cured. Thanks to Clare DaSidhe for help on this.
Calculating the end-point from a given Day of Creation
The calendrical system of the Maya was older and more complex (and accurate) than that of the Aztecs, who had forgotten the Long Count system. The Mayan "Great Cycle", or 13-Baktun cycle, which is part of the Long Count, is 1,872,000 days long, and the start date is given as August 11th 3114 BC or August 13th 3114 BC according to the 2 most popular correlations, (known as the GMT 584283 and GMT 585285 respectively). The end-date is given either as 21 December 2012 AD or 23 December 2012 AD respectively. There are many other alternative start & end-dates that I have come across since first writing this page, especially in 2011 and 2013. There is now a special 2012: Dire Gnosis article about these : End-Date Confusion Explained.
In order to work out leap-years, the rule is a leap year must be divisible by 4, unless it is divisible by 100 - then it is not a leap year - unless it is divisible by 400, in which case it is a leap-year. The exception is 1 BC which is a leap year - plus the BC years have to converted to "astronomical years" by subtracting one year, to make up for the missing year zero, before calculation.
To work out the termination point using the GMT 584283 correlation:
The "zero-day", or Day of Creation; 0.0.0.0.0 in The Long Count, is 11th August 3114 BC in Gregorian calendar. This is the same as the year -3113 in "astronomer's jargon" which inserts an extra "year zero" to make BC-AD calculations simpler. Since the Gregorian calendar didn't exist then, and has to be back-calculated, it is should be more efficient to use a Julian Day number system - in this case, JD 584283. The only trouble is, the JD starts at midday, so often leads to confusion see another special 2012: Dire Gnosis explanation on the Maya Links and calculators page.
After 0.0.0.0.0 there are 1,872,000 days until the next Day of Creation, which is 13.0.0.0.0.
We know this is 5125 years (3114 + 2012 = 5126; subtract 1 for the missing "year zero" = 5125) 3114 + 2012 - 1 = 5125
Multiply the 5125 years from 3114 BC to 2012 AD by 365, to get 1870625; 5125 x 365 = 1870625
then dividing 5125 by 4 to get the number of "simple" leap days; (=1281-1282), 5125 / 4 = 1281.25. To determine 1281 or 1282, see yellow figs
then calculating how many century years from 3114 BC to 2012 AD are NOT leap years, by the century rule above (=39);
Century Years astronomical (+ 1 to convert to Gregorian for BCE years) LEAP YEAR? (divisible by 400) Non-leap year tally Simple leap years total
3113 BC, 3109 BC, 3105 BC, 3101 BC 4 4
-3100 (3101 BC) NO 1
25 29
-3000 (3001 BC) NO 2
25 54
-2900 (2901 BC) NO 3
25 79
-2800 (2801 BC) YES -
25 104
-2700 (2701 BC) NO 4
25 129
-2600 (2601 BC) NO 5
25 154
-2500 (2501 BC) NO 6
25 179
-2400 (2401 BC) YES -
25 204
-2300 (2301 BC) NO 7
25 229
-2200 (2201 BC) NO 8
25 254
-2100 (2101 BC) NO 9
25 279
-2000 (2001 BC) YES -
25 304
-1900 NO 10
25 329
-1800 NO 11
25 354
-1700 NO 12
25 379
-1600 YES -
25 404
-1500 NO 13
25 429
-1400 NO 14
25 454
-1300 NO 15
25 479
-1200 YES -
25 504
-1100 NO 16
25 529
-1000 NO 17
25 554
-900 NO 18
25 579
-800 YES -
25 604
-700 NO 19
25 629
-600 NO 20
25 654
-500 NO 21
25 679
-400 YES -
25 704
-300 NO 22
25 729
-200 NO 23
25 754
-100 NO 24
25 779
0 (1BC /"year zero") YES -
25 804
100 NO 25
25 829
200 NO 26
25 854
300 NO 27
25 879
400 YES -
25 904
500 NO 28
25 929
600 NO 29
25 954
700 NO 30
25 979
800 YES -
25 1004
900 NO 31
25 1029
1000 NO 32
25 1054
1100 NO 33
25 1079
1200 YES -
25 1104
1300 NO 34
25 1129
1400 NO 35
25 1154
1500 NO 36
25 1179
1600 YES -
25 1204
1700 NO 37
25 1229
1800 NO 38
&nbs