The myth that the world will end on 21 December 2012 is so widespread that NASA
scientists have been fielding questions about it for years. Some people who
write in to the organization are genuinely afraid, and a few have even said
they ve contemplated suicide because of it.
The farfetched doomsday scenario was born from the Mayans long-count
calendar, which was divided into 13 baktuns (or 394-year periods), beginning in
3,114 BC and ending on the 2012 winter solstice, 21 December. But, in the words
of NASA: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to
exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December
21, 2012... just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another
long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.
Actual modern-day Mayans many of which live throughout Central America don
t believe that the world will end on 21 December 2012. They say that
end-of-the-world theories are a Western invention and archaeologists agree,
noting that the concept of apocalypse is a very Western and Christian one. This
year, an archaeological excavation in Xult n, Guatemala even unearthed a Mayan
calendar featuring dates well beyond December 2012.
But all of this hasn t stopped several countries in the Mayan world, including
Guatemala, Mexico and Belize, from capitalizing on the 2012 doomsday hype. In
fact, projections by the Guatemalan Tourism Institute and the Mexico Tourism
Board say end of the world travel could boost tourism to the region by 8% to
10% compared to figures from 2011.
In Mexico, the government has launched a Mundo Maya 2012 campaign, which
includes events such as Day Zero, a 24-hour party beginning 20 December at a
brand new theme park in Playa del Carmen. Maya 2012 tours abound as well,
including a seven-day End of the World bike tour beginning 15 December, which
takes visitors around the jungles and ancient ruins of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Belize has been offering a Maya 2012 Passport, which allows travellers access
to all of the country s Mayan sites for one ticket price, valid from 21
December 2011 to 21 December 2012. The country is also hosting a camping night
on 20 December at the archaeological site of Caracol a particularly special
event since camping there is not typically allowed.
In Guatemala, the city of Tapachula has erected an 8ft-tall countdown clock
(which has already started ticking), while the national government is hosting a
public New Dawn for Humanity summit at the archaeological site of Tikal,
where celebrity acts such as U2 and Bruce Springsteen may perform. The
government s Culture Ministry is also holding an event in Guatemala City on 21
December and expects around 90,000 locals and visitors to attend.
Mayan leaders in Guatemala have come out against such events, which they see as
exploiting Mayan culture. Felipe Gomez, a Mayan spiritual leader and one of
many indigenous Guatemalans who denounce the doomsday theories as patently
false, told the Agence France-Presse that the tourism industry and the
government are turning us into folklore-for-profit .
Even the ancient Maya didn t believe that something catastrophic would happen
at the end of their long-count calendar cycle. Astronomer Anthony Aveni, author
of The End of Time: The Maya Mystery of 2012, said there are no signs of any
Mayan predictions linked with 2012. The whole timekeeping scale is very past
directed, not future directed, Aveni told National Geographic in a 2009
interview. Guatemalan indigenous leader Alvaro Pop agreed, saying in a separate
interview with the Agence France-Presse that the ancient Mayan scholars never
purported themselves to be prophets at all.
So what exactly do Western apocalypse theorists believe will happen next week?
According to NASA, internet hoaxes have spread the following fictions:
The ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia discovered a mysterious planet Nibiru
or Planet X which is now headed toward Earth.
Earth will undergo a pole shift , causing its continents and oceans to break
away from each other, forcing such calamitous events as cities falling into the
sea.
The galaxy s planets will align, causing something cataclysmic like a pole
shift or like the interaction between Earth and a massive black hole created
at the centre of the galaxy.
NASA scientists have debunked all of these claims.
None of this means, though, that travellers shouldn t visit and explore the
Mayan World just the opposite, in fact. Mayan ruins and sacred sites are some
of the best places to learn about these ancient people, their history and their
beliefs. The indigenous spiritual organization Oxlajuj Ajpop, which Gomez heads
up in Guatemala, is holding its own celebrations this month, recognizing 21
December as a spiritual new beginning just as some see New Year s Day as each
year.