PANIC OR PARTY? THOUSANDS PREPARE FOR THE END OF THE WORLD, By The Associated Press

Mayan shamans perform a ritual
at the Quirigua archaeological
site, Izabal department, 210 km
north of Guatemala City on
November 21, 2012. Ceremonies
will be held here to celebrate the
end of the Mayan cycle known as
Bak’tun 13 and the start of the
new Maya Era on December 21.
The Mayan calendar has 18
months of 20 days each plus a
sacred month, “Wayeb,” with five
days. “B’aktun” is the largest unit
in the time-cycle system, and is
about 400 years. The broader era
spans 13 B’aktun, or about 5,200
years. Johan Ordonez / AFP / Getty
Images

MEXICO CITY — The clock is
ticking down to Dec. 21, the
supposed end of the Mayan
calendar, and from China to
California to Mexico, thousands
are getting ready for what they
think is going to be a fateful day.
The Maya didn’t say much about
what would happen next, after a
5,125-year cycle known as the
Long Count comes to an end. So
into that void have rushed occult
writers, bloggers and New Age
visionaries foreseeing all manner
of monumental change, from
doomsday to a new age of
enlightenment.
The 2009 disaster flick “2012″
helped spark doomsday rumors,
with its visions of Los Angeles
crashing into the sea and
mammoth tsunami waves
swallowing the Himalayas.
Foreboding TV documentaries and
alarmist websites followed,
sparking panic in corners of the
globe thousands of miles from the
Mayan homeland of southern
Mexico and Central America.
As the big day approaches,
governments and scientists alike
are mobilizing to avoid actual
tragedy. Even the U.S. space
agency NASA intervened earlier
this month, posting a nearly hour-
long YouTube video debunking
apocalyptic points, one by one.
The Internet has helped feed the
frenzy, spreading rumors that a
mountain in the French Pyrenees
is hiding an alien spaceship that
will be the sole escape from the
destruction. French authorities
are blocking access to Bugarach
peak from Dec. 19-23 except for
the village’s 200 residents “who
want to live in peace,” the local
prefect said in a news release.
“I think this tells us more about
ourselves, particularly in the
Western world, than it does about
the ancient Maya,” said Geoffrey
Braswell, an associate professor
of anthropology and leading Maya
scholar at the University of
California, San Diego. “The idea
that the world will end soon is a
very strong belief in Western
cultures. … The Maya, we don’t
really know if they believed the
world would ever end.”
As the clock ticks down, scenarios
have mounted about how the end
will come.
Some believe a rogue planet called
Nibiru will emerge from its hiding
place behind the sun and smash
into the Earth. Others say a super
black hole at the center of the
universe will suck in our planet
and smash it to pieces. At least
two men in China are predicting a
world-ending flood. They’re both
building arks.
Lu Zhenghai has spent his life
savings, some $160,000, building
the 70-foot-by-50-foot vessel
powered by three diesel engines,
according to state media.
“I am afraid that when the end of
the world comes, the flood will
submerge my house,” the 44-
year-old ex-army man was quoted
as saying.
China’s most innovative ark
builder, however, may be Yang
Zongfu, a 32-year-old
businessman in eastern China.
His vessel, Atlantis, a three-ton
yellow steel ball 13 feet (four
meters) in diameter, is designed
to survive a volcano, tsunami,
earthquake or nuclear meltdown,
according to the state-run Liao
Wang magazine.
Jose Manrique Esquivel, a
descendent of the Maya, said his
community in Mexico’s Yucatan
peninsula sees the date as a
celebration of their survival
despite centuries of genocide and
oppression. He blamed profiteers
looking to scam the gullible for
stoking doomsday fears.
“For us, this Dec. 21 is the end of
a great era and also the beginning
of a new era. We renew our
beliefs. We renew a host of things
that surround us,” Esquivel said.
In fact, anthropologists aren’t
even sure whether the end of the
Mayan calendar falls on Dec. 21,
or whether it’s already happened
or is still to come, Braswell said.
The date is mentioned in only two
known cases, including an etching
that says nine gods will descend
from heaven to Earth. The verb
describing what the gods will do
is illegible in the etching.
“It probably was a ritual of some
sort, and even if we had the glyph
we wouldn’t understand what it
is,” Braswell said. “What we know
for sure is there’s no discussion
of the end of the world on that
date.”
The mystery isn’t only inspiring
dread: Some are whipping out
their yoga tights and meditation
cushions and joining a global
counter-movement promoting the
date as the start of a new era of
hope.
Thousands of New Age adherents
are expected to fill ancient sites
across Mexico in the days leading
up to Dec. 21, while their spiritual
brethren party in hotspots as
diverse as Culver City, Calif., and
Byron Bay, Australia.
One of the biggest movements is
Birth 2012, which is using the
Mayan date to launch what it
hopes will be a global spiritual
reset. Some 40 events around the
world will mark the change.
“We’ve activated this campaign for
three days of love,” said
movement co-founder Stephen
Dinan. “Let’s have generosity and
kindness be the operative fare,
rather than people hunkering
down in fear.”
In Mexico’s Mayan heartland,
nobody is preparing for the end
of the world; instead, they’re
bracing for a tsunami of spiritual
visitors of the terrestrial variety.
Hotels near the Mayan ruins at
Chichen Itza have been sold out,
with many rooms booked a year
in advance. Volunteers at the
Kinich Ahau center – dedicated to
spreading the “authentic wisdom
of the Maya” – were busy
chopping resinous wood to mix
with incense for a sacred fire
ceremony to greet visitors from
around the world. Mass tribal
drumming, circles of energy and
ritual dancing were also planned.
For Esquivel and other modern-
day Maya, Dec. 21 is a chance to
raise awareness about rescuing
the planet, not prepare for its
demise. People all over the world
need to focus on the very real
damage people have done to the
Earth, he said, and sound the
alarm about growing catastrophes,
such as climate change.
“We’re putting in danger the
existence of our world,” Esquivel
said. “It’s our goal for this date to
create consciousness about our
Earth. We want to say to
everybody that the Maya live and
we want to gather our strength to
save the Earth.”