Some believe the world is
coming to an end Friday -- on 12/21/12 -- which is when an important
phase on the ancient calendar of the Mayan people terminates.
Mayans don't buy it.
At least the ones living
in the city of Merida, Mexico, don't. Neither does anyone in the Mayan
village of Yaxuna. They know the calendar their ancestors left them is
about to absolve a key phase -- the end of an era and the heralding of a
new one -- but they don't think we're all gonna die.
"It's an era. We are lucky to see how it ends," said wood carver Santos
Esteban in Yaxuna, a sleepy village of fewer than 700 Mayans, located in
a territory that once belonged to the ancient kingdom founded around
2000 B.C.
He feels it is a momentous occasion and is looking forward to the start of the new age. He is not afraid.
"Lots of people say it's the end of the world, but we don't believe that," he said.
People in his village
will keep living much as they have, preferring hand-built, palm-thatch
huts to concrete buildings and baking tortillas on an open flame.
For those less
optimistic than the Mayans, an "official" website in the United States
has collected links to all the doomsday articles and videos Internet
users can consume.
December212012.com also
offers tips on survival and advertisements for the needed gear -- from
gas masks to first aid kits and hand-crank radios. Comments are welcome
on its Facebook page, which has more than 14,000 likes, and website
owner "John" from near Louisville, Kentucky, sends out tweets under the
handle @December212012.
On the doomsday Facebook
page -- in between gloomy superstitious links and user comments -- John
has confessed that he does not really believe the world will end on
Friday but thinks that a new era could dawn that may include some
improvements for the world. That new era, however, might require a good
bit of destruction as well.
John asked posters not to take the whole thing too seriously.
"PLEASE PEOPLE. . . I'm
begging you. Do not overreact or make any rash decisions regarding Dec
21st. Anyone who knows anything about the 2012 prophecies, including
myself, does not believes that the world is going to end," the Facebook
page says.
Gunmaker Ryan Croft in
Asheville, North Carolina, does take the prediction seriously. He is
building a special assault rifle to deal with any signs of doom lurking
around the corner.
He doesn't think life on Earth will come to a complete end Friday. "I'm not planning for the world to go away," Croft told CNN affiliate WHNS.
However, he thinks the
day could mark the beginning of cataclysmic times introduced by a
disaster. That may call for drastic measures, Croft said.
His new rifle, a hybrid
of an AR-15 and an AK-47, is designed to be easy to use, the Gulf War
veteran said. Trouble in the United States could ensue in the wake of an
economic catastrophe, he thinks.
"I taught about economic
collapse and how it actually looks on the ground," he said. "People
want to act like it can't happen or doesn't happen, and it happens
around the world. There are places on fire right now."
In true survivalist
manner, Croft also teaches his family how to subsist on alternative
sources of nourishment, such as algae, roasted mice and live earthworms.
Though 12/21/12 is a somewhat congruent date on the western calendar, the Mayan version enumerates the event in a different way.
The ancient people
measured time in cycles called "baktuns" of 394 years each, and the
winter solstice coming Friday marks the end of the 13th baktun. Some who
study the calendar say the date for the end of the period is not
Friday, but Sunday.
The Mayan calendar is
based on the position of the heavenly bodies -- the sun, the moon and
the stars -- and was meant to tell the Mayan people about agricultural
and economic trends, said archeologist Alfredo Barrera.
NASA is also weighing in on the matter, with a post on its website declaring that the world will not end on Friday.
"It will be another
winter solstice," NASA said. "The claims behind the end of the world
quickly unravel when pinned down to the 2012 timeline."
As of Thursday afternoon
in the eastern United States -- already Friday across Asia -- the space
agency said it had detected "nothing unusual" and that it anticipated a
normal couple of days ahead.
The hubbub about a
calamity occurring comes from a Mayan stone carving called monument 6,
made in 700 A.D., which predicts a major event at the end of this
baktun, Barrera said. But half of the broken tablet is missing, so one
may only speculate on what the complete message may be.
Whatever it is, it's not about the end of the world, he said.
"We don't have a prophecy or inscription related to the finish of the world. It just mentioned a deity."
Barrera said he believes
the hullabaloo about the end of the world has been whipped up by online
speculation -- and he finds it a bit ignorant.
In Merida, Mayan priest
Valerio Canche conducts an ancient ritual to honor the dead in light of
the upcoming end of the 13th baktun.
"It is considered the
closure of the great cycle of Mayan time," he said. "But, of course, the
cycle (14th baktun) begins the following day. For the Mayans, it's not
the end of the world."
If you're reading this
on Thursday, keep in mind that it's already Friday in New Zealand, and
it's still on the map. If it's Friday, a look out the window may be
reassuring.
If it's Saturday, and no
major calamity has occurred, then relax and go celebrate the beginning
of the 14th baktun with the Mayans.
source: CNN