Crazy2012.com

Below are documented the various religious holidays in the year 2012 for many of the key world religions.  The winter solstice is on December 21, 2012 — the same day as the Mayan Calendar ends.

JANUARY 2012

• 1
  • Mary, Mother of God - Catholic Christian
  • Feast of St Basil - Orthodox Christian
  • Gantan-sai (New Years) - Shinto
• 5
  • Twelfth Night - Christian
• 6
  • Epiphany - Christian
  • Feast of the Theophany - Orthodox Christian
• 14
  • Maghi - Sikh
• 15
  • World Religion Day - Baha’i

FEBRUARY 2012

• 5
  • Mawlid an Nabi * - Islam
• 8
  • Tu BiShvat * - Judaism
• 22
  • Ash Wednesday - Christian
• 25 - March 1
  • Intercalary Days * - Baha’i

MARCH 2012

• 8
  • Purim * - Judaism
• 17
  • St Patrick’s Day - Christian
• 20 Vernal Equinox
  • Ostara * - Wicca northern hemisphere
  • Mabon * - Wicca southern hemisphere
• 21
  • Naw Ruz (News Year) * - Baha’i
  • Norouz (New Year) - Persian/Zoroastrian
• 26
  • Khordad Sal (Birth of Prophet Zaranhushtra) Zoroastrian

APRIL 2012

• 7-8  
  • Pesach (Passover)  First two days * - Judaism
• 8
  • Easter - Christian
• 13-14
  • Pesach (last two days) * - Jewish
• 15
  • Easter/Pascha - Orthodox Christian
• 19
  • Yom HaShoah * - Judaism
• 21
  • First Day of Ridvan * - Baha’i
• 27
  • Yom Ha’Atzmaut * - Jewish
• 29
  • Ninth Day of Ridvan * - Baha’i

MAY 2012

• 2
  • Twelfth Day of Ridvan * - Baha’i
• 17
  • Ascension Day - Christian
• 10
  • Lag B’Omer * - Jewish
• 23
  • Declaration of the Bab * - Baha’i
• 27
  • Pentecost - Christian
• 27-28
  • Shavuot * - Jewish
• 29
  • Ascension of Baha’u'llah * - Baha’i

JUNE 2012

• 17
  • Lailat al Miraj * - Islam
• 20 Summer Solstice
  • Litha * - Wicca northern hemisphere
  • Yule * - Wicca southern hemisphere

JULY 2012

• 9
  • Martyrdom of the Bab * - Baha’i
• 20
  • Ramadan Begins * - Islam
• 29
  • Tisha B’Av * - Judaism

AUGUST 2012

• 19
  • Id al Fitr * - Islam

SEPTEMBER 2012

• 17-18
  • Rosh HaShanah * - Judaism
• 22 Autumnal Equinox
  • Mabon * - Wicca northern hemisphere
  • Ostata * - Wicca southern hemisphere
• 26
  • Yom Kippur * - Judaism
• 29
  • Tish’a Bav * - Jewish

OCTOBER 2012

• 1-7 (1-2 Primary Obligation Days)
  • Sukkot * - Judaism
• 8
  • Shemini Atzeret * - Judaism
• 9
  • Simhat Torah *- Judaism
• 20
  • Birth of the Bab * - Baha’i
• 28
  • Milvian Bridge Day - Christian

NOVEMBER 2012

• 12
  • Birth of Baha’u'llah * - Bahai
• 15
  • Muharram -  New Year * - Islam
• 22
  • Thanksgiving - Interfaith
• 24
  • Ashura * - Islam
• 26
  • Day of the Covenant * - Baha’i
• 28
  • Ascension of Abdu’l-Baha * - Baha’i

DECEMBER 2012

• 2
  • Advent - First Sunday - Christian
• 9-16
  • Hanukkah * - Judaism
• 21 Winter Solstice
  • Yule * - Wicca northern hemisphere
  • Litha * - Wicca southern hemisphere
  • Yule - Christian
• 25
  • Christmas * - Christian
• 26
  • Zarathosht Diso (Death of Prophet Zarathushtra Zoroastrian
• 28
  • Holy Innocents - Christian
• 31
  • Watch Night - Christian

Although there were only 365 days in the Haab year, the Mayas were aware that a year is slightly longer than 365 days, and in fact, many of the month-names are associated with the seasons; Yaxkin, for example, means “new or strong sun” and, at the beginning of the Long Count, 1 Yaxkin was the day after the winter solstice, when the sun starts to shine for a longer period of time and higher in the sky. When the Long Count was put into motion, it was started at 7.13.0.0.0, and 0 Yaxkin corresponded with Midwinter Day, as it did at 13.0.0.0.0 back in 3114 B.C.E. The available evidence indicates that the Mayas estimated that a 365-day year precessed through all the seasons twice in 7.13.0.0.0 or 1,101,600 days.We can therefore derive a value for the Mayan estimate of the year by dividing 1,101,600 by 365, subtracting 2, and taking that number and dividing 1,101,600 by the result, which gives us an answer of 365.242036 days, which is slightly more accurate than the 365.2425 days of the Gregorian calendar.(This apparent accuracy could, however, be a simple coincidence. The Mayas estimated that a 365-day year precessed through all the seasons twice in 7.13.0.0.0 days. These numbers are only accurate to 2-3 digits. Suppose the 7.13.0.0.0 days had corresponded to 2.001 cycles rather than 2 cycles of the 365-day year, would the Mayas have noticed?)

In ancient times, the Mayans had a tradition of a 360-day year. But by the 4th century B.C.E. they took a different approach than either Europeans or Asians. They maintained three different calendars at the same time. In one of them, they divided a 365-day year into eighteen 20-day months followed by a five-day period that was part of no month. The five-day period was considered to be unlucky.  The Mayans used this during their calendar analysis that ends in 2012.

USA Today wrote an article recently on 2012:

With humanity coming up fast on 2012, publishers are helping readers gear up and count down to this mysterious — some even call it apocalyptic — date that ancient Mayan societies were anticipating thousands of years ago.

Since November, at least three new books on 2012 have arrived in mainstream bookstores. A fourth is due this fall. Each arrives in the wake of the 2006 success of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, which has been selling thousands of copies a month since its release in May and counts more than 40,000 in print. The books also build on popular interest in the Maya, fueled in part by Mel Gibson’s December 2006 film about Mayan civilization, Apocalpyto.

Authors disagree about what humankind should expect on Dec. 21, 2012, when the Maya’s “Long Count” calendar marks the end of a 5,126-year era.

Journalist Lawrence Joseph forecasts widespread catastrophe in Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization’s End. Spiritual healer Andrew Smith predicts a restoration of a “true balance between Divine Feminine and Masculine” in The Revolution of 2012: Vol. 1, The Preparation. In 2012, Daniel Pinchbeck anticipates a “change in the nature of consciousness,” assisted by indigenous insights and psychedelic drug use.

The buildup to 2012 echoes excitement and fear expressed on the eve of the new millennium, popularly known as Y2K, though on a smaller scale, says Lynn Garrett, senior religion editor at Publishers Weekly. She says publishers seem to be courting readers who believe humanity is creating its own ecological disasters and desperately needs ancient indigenous wisdom.

“The convergence I see here is the apocalyptic expectations, if you will, along with the fact that the environment is in the front of many people’s minds these days,” Garrett says. “Part of the appeal of these earth religions is that notion that we need to reconnect with the Earth in order to save ourselves.”

But scholars are bristling at attempts to link the ancient Maya with trends in contemporary spirituality. Maya civilization, known for advanced writing, mathematics and astronomy, flourished for centuries in Mesoamerica, especially between A.D. 300 and 900. Its Long Count calendar, which was discontinued under Spanish colonization, tracks more than 5,000 years, then resets at year zero.

“For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle,” says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River, Fla. To render Dec. 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is “a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.”

Part of the 2012 mystique stems from the stars. On the winter solstice in 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. This means that “whatever energy typically streams to Earth from the center of the Milky Way will indeed be disrupted on 12/21/12 at 11:11 p.m. Universal Time,” Joseph writes.

But scholars doubt the ancient Maya extrapolated great meaning from anticipating the alignment — if they were even aware of what the configuration would be.

Astronomers generally agree that “it would be impossible the Maya themselves would have known that,” says Susan Milbrath, a Maya archaeoastronomer and a curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History. What’s more, she says, “we have no record or knowledge that they would think the world would come to an end at that point.”

University of Florida anthropologist Susan Gillespie says the 2012 phenomenon comes “from media and from other people making use of the Maya past to fulfill agendas that are really their own.”

Here’s the link to the full article: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-03-27-maya-2012_N.htm