BajaNomad - The End Is Near!

The End Is Near!

woody with a view - 12-20-2011 at 07:54 PM

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_MEXICO_APOCALYPSE_...

Mexico Mayan region launches apocalypse countdown

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Seize the day.

Only 52 weeks and a day are left before Dec. 21, 2012, when some believe the Maya predicted the end of the world.

Unlike enthusiasts of other doomsday theories who suggest putting together survival kits, southeastern Mexico, the heart of Maya territory, plans a yearlong celebration.

Mexico's tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors by next year only to the regions of Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Campeche. All of Mexico usually lures about 22 million foreigners in a year.

It's selling the date, the Winter Solstice in the coming year, as a time of renewal. Many archeologists argue that the 2012 reference on a 1,300-year-old stone tablet only marks the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar.

"The world will not end. It is an era," said Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun. "For us, it is a message of hope."

Cities and towns in the Mayan region on Wednesday will start the yearlong countdown. In Chiapas the town of Tapachula on the Guatemalan border will start a countdown on an 8-foot digital clock in the main park exactly a year before the mysterious date.

In the nearby archaeological site of Izapa, Maya priests will burn incense, chant and offer prayers.

In the tropical jungle of Quintana Roo, between the resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, people are putting messages and photos in a time capsule that will be buried for 50 years. Maya priests and Indian dancers will perform a ritual at the time capsule ceremony.

Yucatan state has announced plans to complete the Maya Museum of Merida by next summer.

"People who still live in Mayan villages will host rites and burn incense for us to go back in time and try to understand the Mayan wisdom," Zaldo said.

The Maya reputation for wisdom has people taking the alleged prediction seriously.

The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy

Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and they wrote that the 13th Baktun ends on Dec. 21, 2012.

The doomsday theories stem from a stone tablet discovered in the 1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco that describes the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period.

Believers have taken the end-of-the world fears to the Internet with hundreds of thousands of websites and blogs.

"The Maya are viewed by many westerners as exotic folks that were supposed to have had some special, secret knowledge," said Mayan scholar Sven Gronemeyer. "What happens is that our expectations and fears get projected on the Maya calendar."

Gronemeyer of La Trobe University in Australia compares the supposed Mayan prophecies to the "Y2K" hype, when people feared all computer systems would crash when the new millennium began on Jan. 1, 2000.

For some reason, Gronemeyer says, people have ignored evidence that dates beyond 2012 were recorded.

The blogosphere exploded with more speculation when Mexico's archaeology institute acknowledged on Nov. 24 a second reference to Dec. 21, 2012, on a brick found at other ruins.

"Human beings seem to be attracted by apocalyptic ideas and always assume the worst," Gronemeyer said.

It's all a bit frustrating for serious Mayan researchers whose field has made huge strides in recent years.

"This new historical and archaeological knowledge is so much more interesting and mind-blowing than the fantastical claims about Maya prophecies one sees on TV, books or on the Internet," David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin, said in an email to The Associated Press. "We're dealing with thousands of newly deciphered texts and trying to weave together a coherent picture of Maya history and culture, which to me is as exciting as it gets."

While the 2012 hype might increase interest in the Maya, "that will probably be offset by the long and difficult effort ahead to correct the ubiquitous lies and misconceptions, even after 2012 has come and gone," he wrote.

Jonnie Channell of Albuquerque, New Mexico, says that 2012 "is going to be one of those things where people are definitely going to have to plan," not because of impending apocalypse, but because hotel rooms in the Maya region are probably going to be full.

Channell, who owns Maya Sites Travel Services, is surprised that she already has 24 reservations for three tour packages she is offering to major Mayan ruin sites in the week leading up to the solstice.

She named one "Beginning the New Calendar Era Under the Yucatan Stars."

"We put together these tours, and we've got lots of signups, and people are excited about it," she said. "If anybody think it's going to be the end of the world, then they better stay home."

---

Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report

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[Edited on 12-21-2011 by woody with a view]

bacquito - 12-20-2011 at 08:05 PM

Thanks, interesting.

END

captkw - 12-20-2011 at 08:22 PM

HOLA,thank's for the info,,you can't start a new book,till the last one is over" Keith & lil tasha

bajadock - 12-20-2011 at 08:27 PM

Thanks, Woody!
If that promo gets Mexican tourism brewing again, that's really good news.

Islandbuilder - 12-20-2011 at 08:38 PM

If the world ends, will a "survival kit" be of any help? A time machine or worm hole travel device maybe, but anything else will be atomized along with everything else.

captkw - 12-20-2011 at 08:48 PM

THANK"S ,,that's one funny cartoon !!! :lol:

surfer jim - 12-20-2011 at 08:59 PM

Time to tell ALL secrets.....especially ones locating SURF SPOTS....... :tumble:

woody with a view - 12-20-2011 at 09:30 PM

Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy....

my secret is safe with me! 'cept it ain't a secret unless you don't know... and you do!

keep the crumbs fresh buddy!

jan_2011_with_regan_090.jpg - 46kB

Phil S - 12-20-2011 at 09:32 PM

I'm going to be moving into one of those "underground" cities I keep hearing so much about. And I know it's true, because of the sightings of space ships shooting out of the ocean into the sky!!!!!!! I just can't seem to locate the company that is taking reservations??????

ELINVESTIG8R - 12-21-2011 at 04:52 AM

At least I can celebrate my 60th birthday on December 16th before my demise on December 21st. Have a Happy Crappy everybody see you on the other side!

Hook - 12-21-2011 at 06:09 AM

Yes, the end must be near. We're in the middle of our FOURTH Pacific storm this winter, already!!!! We had a total of TWO in the first three winters of living here.

Anyway, it's time to change my signature back to my original New Frontier line from Fagen.

Curt63 - 12-21-2011 at 08:27 AM

If anyone is positive about this and wants to donate any land, houses vehicles or toys, I can help you out

Bob H - 12-21-2011 at 09:11 AM

Here's more interesting reading on this subject:

http://rb77.hubpages.com/hub/Mayan-Calander---The-End-is-Nea...

Woooosh - 12-21-2011 at 09:47 AM

They found a second stone with the same inscription. From what I can understand- they are saying it is not the actual end of the world, but an event that will cause a series of disasters which ends the world. Something about a specific Mayan deity being named that represents serious change/conflict.

Islandbuilder - 12-21-2011 at 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by woody with a view
Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy....

my secret is safe with me! 'cept it ain't a secret unless you don't know... and you do!

keep the crumbs fresh buddy!

Hmphh. That's just mean!

durrelllrobert - 12-21-2011 at 10:16 AM

it should end for a few of the posters in the OT section :lol:

Bajahowodd - 12-21-2011 at 04:53 PM

Just wonder why so many folks feel like living today is just so crappy that they feel the need to embrace Armageddon. Not just the Mayans. Obviously, given some of the stuff they did utilizing geometry and telemetry, boggle the mind. But we must remember just when they were doing this stuff.

But there are also a bunch of non-Mayans that seem to relish the end. What's with that?

Islandbuilder - 12-21-2011 at 06:07 PM

Being 60 years old, with 28 years left on a 30 year mortgage. The only hope I have for retirement is that the world end and BofA's data base gets wiped by the solar storm that preceeds the global conflagration. I figure I may, perhaps, get a couple of debt free breaths.

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajahowodd
Just wonder why so many folks feel like living today is just so crappy that they feel the need to embrace Armageddon. Not just the Mayans. Obviously, given some of the stuff they did utilizing geometry and telemetry, boggle the mind. But we must remember just when they were doing this stuff.

But there are also a bunch of non-Mayans that seem to relish the end. What's with that?