John Major Jenkins has claimed that the Maya designed the long count calendar to end on December 21st, 2012, based on the idea that the solstice sun would be in the dark rift on that date.
As interesting a claim that this is (and we discuss it in detail elsewhere) it begs the question: Did the Maya consider this alignment significant?
An interesting counter-claim is that the Maya should have picked the December solstice 2010.
Why?
We know that the Maya tracked and predicted lunar eclipses, and the cycles of Venus. Tables of both of these events appear in the Dresden Codex. So, today (December 21st, 2010) there was a total lunar eclipse, and Venus is near its greatest western elongation (which occurs on January 8th, 2011), and the solstice occurs at 23:38 UT… all in one day!!!
From space.com:1
The total lunar eclipse was the only one this year and the only one in the last 372 years to coincide with the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, which is the longest and darkest night of the year.
So, given that all of this occurs on a single day, is clearly visible to any interested observer (unlike the position of the sun in the dark rift), and that the Maya were clearly interested in both the cycles of Venus and lunar eclipses, why would they settle for 2012?
"Do you ever think about things you do think about?" - Henry Drummond to Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind