So some people think that the year 2012 is going to be really important. "New age of mankind," that kind of thing.
The problem here is that this belief is based on the ancient Mayan calendar. Their basic calendar rolled over around every 52 or so years (like a clock going from 23:59 to 0:00), which is not enough to be useful. The Mayans then began adding a Long Count to their dates, which was unambiguous. These cycles layered on top of each other, and even these roll over (but unambiguously, like 9999 -> 10000). In 2012, the cycle of "B'ak'tun" rolls over, likely on December 21. So people began wondering if this meant something.
For a real quality debunking of most of the astronomical claims, see this page.
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