My Oh Maya!
This scare was a little unfair to its source, for a couple of reasons. The end of the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012 was said to mark the end of days and what better way to mark the end of the world than with a dashed-off John Cusack disaster movie? However, multiple calendars exist and an alternate calendar gives the world a lot more running room. Even if there was only one, scholars pointed out that the Mayans didn't seem to foresee a violent apocalypse. Also, "Mayan" may be hugely misleading here, because the calendar probably originated with the Olmec people of modern-day Mexico's south-central tropical lowlands. It sounded better because more people are familiar with the Mayans than the Olmecs and because it was a heck of a lot catchier than its technical name, the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar.
