Monday 24 December 2012

Mayan Mayhem

A few days ago, most of the modern world felt fit to scorn at the ancient Mayan civilisation's prediction that the world would end imminently.
I'm writing this, you're reading it, and tonight a bloke with a long white beard will be visiting every house in the world to deliver presents down the chimney, with the aid of his flying reindeer.
So clearly those ancients got it all wrong, whereas we know much better.

But I'm not so sure we should be so smug. Bear with me and you'll see where I'm going with this one.

Sunday 23rd December 2012
Two sleeps till Christmas

The keen-eyed among you may have noticed that for three of the last five mornings I've not even bothered to take a photo of the sunrise, despite the fact that, like the Mayans, I've been conducting my own form of sun worship this year by watching every single sunrise.

But here's the thing. That infamous Mayan calendar which came to an end last Friday was based on the eternal (?) cycle of the sun rising every morning and setting every evening (at least in the Mayan part of the world).
Well, since Friday 21st December 2012 I have not seen the sun! Not just as it was scheduled to break the horizon, but not at all. Instead we have had incessant rain more akin to The Great Flood in another ancient story.
So maybe that Mayan end of the world was never going to happen in quite such a sudden manner as we envisaged. Just maybe it is a slower process. Has anyone actually seen the sun since last Friday?