By Audrey Tolland
Round Table reporter

The 2012 phenomenon has everyone in the world questioning, even students at Middletown High School. As the unwelcoming date of Dec 21, 2012 approaches, more students are beginning to ponder the mysterious legend.

We’ve been told throughout history that the Mayan calendar is the culprit behind this unsolved dispute, but there are actually several different theories of how the phenomenon came to play.

The first theory that everyone seems to be familiar with is again, the Mayan calendar.

Students at MHS seem to find it convincing because it is the end-date of a 5,125 year long calendar.

The Mayan’s predicted that the Sun will move to a unique spot in the sky and hold still for a while, since it is solstice day. At that moment the sun will sit precisely on the heavenly crossroads between the Milky Way and the galactic equinox, forming a perfect alignment with the center of the galaxy.

People find this intriguing, and a little hard to believe, that an ancient tribe can predict what will happen five thousand years into the future. But to this day, they have been able to predict every solar and lunar eclipse. 

“I don’t believe in the whole 2012 thing, but it’s just weird how the Mayans have been able to predict all the space stuff like lunar eclipses,” said MHS Sophomore Samantha Barbeito.

Another theory was the beliefs of Nostradamus. In his book, The Prophecies, he allegedly predicts that to end of the planet would be on the date of Dec 21, 2012.

No one knows exactly how he predicts it will end though because Nostradamus’s writing is written very vague.

Some students choose to believe the Nostradamus theory because they think he predicted the 9/11 attack even though, that yet again, is an unsolved mystery.  
 
“The Nostradamus thing is what got me worried about it because I heard that he predicted the 9/11 attack and that’s crazy,” said Sophomore Austin Klingensmith.
 
People don’t know if this really means the end though. Some seem to think it marks the beginning of a new era in a physical and spiritual transformation.

While other students at MHS fear the idea of the end of the world because they see it as a world catastrophe, like the 2009 movie, 2012, portrays it.

Students tend to disagree about what they think will really happen to humankind on that awaiting day.

Some think that if anything at all is to happen, it will be the beginning of Armageddon as suggested in the bible.  Others say that it will be a geographic tragedy.

Barbeito goes on to say that she thinks there will be a lot of suicides of people who do believe in the phenomenon but people who don’t will just go on with their normal lives.

Scientist and some geographers suggest that Planet X will orbit into our solar system, causing magnetic poles to reverse, major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

“Everyone thinks that the worlds going to collapse or something, but I really don’t know what to think,” said Klingensmith.

When most students first hear the words 2012, they automatically think disaster. But the subject is so unknown that anyone can really think anything they want about that matter.

There have been people who say that they think the day will mark a positive transition like a change in consciousness and better spiritual state for mankind.

Skeptics generally believe that nothing truly remarkable will occur on this particular date. It is merely the date of a solstice when the length of the daytime is at a minimum.

While skeptics will pass the date of Dec. 21, 2012 as any other day, Christians and other religious denominations will surprisingly see it the same way.
 
Spiritual, religious, scientific, political, economic, medical, and  astrological changes are said to possibly occur on that day in history.