QUOTE (DigitalSentinal @ Feb 12 2008, 09:26 AM)

Well, if you're right, then I've learned something from you. I wasn't aware of the length of the various cycles. Thanks.

QUOTE
Table of Long Count units
Days Long Count period Long Count period Approx solar years
1 = 1 K'in
20 = 20 K'in = 1 Winal 1/18th
360 = 18 Winal = 1 Tun 1
7,200 = 20 Tun = 1 K'atun 20
144,000 = 20 K'atun = 1 B'ak'tun 395
Okay, so basically we have a Baktun (B'ak'tun) that is 395 years long.
The way that they wrote dates was like this: Baktun.Katun.Tun.Winal.Kin.
QUOTE
Today, 09:49, Tuesday February 12, 2008 (UTC), in the Long Count is 12.19.15.1.6.
We are in the 6th Katun of the 1st Winal of the 15th Tun of the 19th katun of the 12th Baktun according to the Mayans.
Just like we are in the 9th hour of the 12th day of the 2nd month of the 2008th year.
Okay, so that being said, the way we know this is because early scientists used dates that were important to the Mayans (who used the Mayan calendar) and the Spanish Explorers (who used OUR calendar) to correlate days. Like, for example, let's say that there was a war that started on May 5th, 1520. We can see on the Mayan calendar that the Mayans wrote that the war happened on 9.12.8.6.6 (these are not accurate I am just making an example). So that way, the scientists can use that reference point to convert the rest of the Mayan calendar.
This method is not 100% for sure, because none of these scientists could accurately say what day some events happened, and also because our calendar is flawed as well (thats why we have leap years and stuff) but there are 3 conversion methods that are the most common, and one says that the beginning of this 4th world that we are in correlates to a date of August 13, 3114 BC.
It gets really tricky because our measurements were so tricky, but scientists have said that leaving room for extra minutes, longer days in the summer, leap years, etc, that one Baktun equals about 5126 years.
QUOTE
2012 and the Long Count
According to the Popol Vuh, a book compiling details of creation accounts known to the K'iche' Maya of the Colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fourth world.[7] The Popol Vuh describes the first three creations that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fourth world where men were placed. In the Maya Long Count, the previous creation ended at the start of a 13th b'ak'tun.
Okay, so according to this book they had, instead of just one world being created by a God, they had several Gods who they thought created the world, and that there were 3 worlds before that, and the Gods were not happy with them, and destroyed them. The world right before ours lasted until the date of 12.19.19.17.19 (which is around 5126 years from the creation) before the Gods destroyed it and started over. We are in the 4th world right now.
Using the method I talked about earlier, where they deciphered the Mayan calendar and converted it to our calendar, they were able to establish that according to the Mayans, this 4th world was created in 3114 BC.
QUOTE
The previous creation ended on a long count of 12.19.19.17.19. Another 12.19.19.17.19 will occur on December 20, 2012, followed by the start of the thirteenth b'ak'tun, 13.0.0.0.0, on December 21, 2012.[8]
When the Mayans made their calendar, they stopped at that year because the previous world ended there and they decided that was the cycle they wer going to use. Their calendar is around 5126 years long instead of just one.
So, just because the previous world ended at that date, some people think that this means that this 4th world will end on that date as well. Using the methods to convert the dates I mentioned above, the date happens on 12/21/2012.
You can check that yourself (remember we are just estimating here because I am only using years and not days) by adding up 3114 (years BC) and 2012 (years AD) and seeing that we get about 5126 years, the same amount of time that the last world ended.
So there it is. That's the Mayan calendar extremely simplified. There are other calendars they have that show predicted events that happen past the date of 12/21/2102, and nowhere in Mayan predictions do they even say that they believe the world will end again. They think that this is the perfect world, this fourth world, because this is the one that the Gods put mankind on, so they don't believe the Gods will destroy it. It is simply the last page of their cyclic calendar, and if they were still around, they would simply start recording time back at the beginning of the 1st baktun again.
Does this help anyone?
(All my quotes are from Wiki)