"If you are worried the world will end this year based on the Mayan calendar, relax: the end of time is still far off."
So say Mayan experts who want to dispel any belief that the ancient Mayans predicted a world apocalypse this year.
The Mayan calendar marks the end of a 5,126 year old cycle around December 12, 2012 which should bring the return of Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with war and creation.
Author Jose Arguelles called the date "the ending of time as we know it" in a 1987 book that spawned an army of Mayan theorists, whose speculations on a cataclysmic end abound online. But specialists meeting at this ancient Mayan city in southern Mexico say it merely marks the termination of one period of creation and the beginning of another.
"We have to be clear about this. There is no prophecy for 2012," said Erik Velasquez, an etchings specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). "It's a marketing fallacy."
The National Institute of Anthropological History in Mexico has been trying to quell the barrage of forecasters predicting the apocalypse. "The West's messianic thinking has distorted the world view of ancient civilizations like the Mayans," the institute said in a statement.
In the Mayan calendar, the long calendar count begins in 3,114 BC and is divided into roughly 394-year periods called Baktuns. Mayans held the number 13 sacred and the 13th Baktun ends next year.
Sven Gronemeyer, a researcher of Mayan codes from La Trobe University in Australia, who has been trying to decode the calendar, said the so-called end day reflects a transition from one era to the next in which Bolon Yokte returns.
"Because Bolon Yokte was already present at the day of creation ... it just seemed natural for the Mayan that Bolon Yokte will again be present," he said.
Of the approximately 15,000 registered glyphic texts found in different parts of what was then the Mayan empire, only two mention 2012, the Institute said.
"The Maya did not think about humanity, global warming or predict the poles would fuse together," said Alfonso Ladena, a professor from the Complutense University of Madrid. "We project our worries on them."
Source: (Reuters)
So say Mayan experts who want to dispel any belief that the ancient Mayans predicted a world apocalypse this year.
The Mayan calendar marks the end of a 5,126 year old cycle around December 12, 2012 which should bring the return of Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with war and creation.
Author Jose Arguelles called the date "the ending of time as we know it" in a 1987 book that spawned an army of Mayan theorists, whose speculations on a cataclysmic end abound online. But specialists meeting at this ancient Mayan city in southern Mexico say it merely marks the termination of one period of creation and the beginning of another.
"We have to be clear about this. There is no prophecy for 2012," said Erik Velasquez, an etchings specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). "It's a marketing fallacy."
The National Institute of Anthropological History in Mexico has been trying to quell the barrage of forecasters predicting the apocalypse. "The West's messianic thinking has distorted the world view of ancient civilizations like the Mayans," the institute said in a statement.
In the Mayan calendar, the long calendar count begins in 3,114 BC and is divided into roughly 394-year periods called Baktuns. Mayans held the number 13 sacred and the 13th Baktun ends next year.
Sven Gronemeyer, a researcher of Mayan codes from La Trobe University in Australia, who has been trying to decode the calendar, said the so-called end day reflects a transition from one era to the next in which Bolon Yokte returns.
"Because Bolon Yokte was already present at the day of creation ... it just seemed natural for the Mayan that Bolon Yokte will again be present," he said.
Of the approximately 15,000 registered glyphic texts found in different parts of what was then the Mayan empire, only two mention 2012, the Institute said.
"The Maya did not think about humanity, global warming or predict the poles would fuse together," said Alfonso Ladena, a professor from the Complutense University of Madrid. "We project our worries on them."
Source: (Reuters)
To say that the Mayans never thought about humanity, etc, well, that is also speculation. We do not know what they thought about really, do we.
Yes...so it is. The World will not vanish or explode or whatever for now. Even when there is no more life on our Earth, the Planet will still turning till it is sucked in by the Sun. Like it is going now, it can't last for long. There will certainly be a change for the Future, and this could be starting in 2012.
See what the Future brings us.
Little Sunshine.
Do not let doom and gloom overshadow all the wonders of this planet. There is so much love light and beauty here on our gorgous mother earth to keep us all safe and happy for ever. Let your light shine. The hardships that befall the human race and the planet are our growing and time to look after this earth..xx
Although the Mayan Calendar is well documented,THIS prediction has been interpreted from ONE drawing in ONE codex, on ONE occasion. And the date at which the archeologist decided to make the Mayan Calandar begin is a CONSENSUS between themselves, but not a fact. so if we don't EXACTLY know when it started , how can we know when it ends?.PAUL-GEORGES
The calendar shown above is an Aztec one...
Well they predicted that the world as we know it will change and perhaps in one respect they were right. Despite all this economic depression we are entering a golden age, what is probably one of the most important events in humanity's history is about to happen, the end of religion.
Siener van Rensburg, a South African prophet, predicted in the beginning of the 1900s also about events to happen during the end of 2012. He said it will happen when the ice starts to melt. He also said something about deadly rays from ther heaven. A third of the population of the earth will die. Siener was a farmer who could barely read or write. "Siener" means to be able to "see". He said it will not be the end of the world because he saw other things to happen after 2012.
Oh,I guess I'm gonna have to go back to work!! Damn mayans!!
Yeah! And what am I gonna do with all this food I've got stored up? Lol!