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Stringer/mexico / Reuters
A man in Aztec warrior costume dances in front of the Pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza in the Mexican state of Yucatan on Thursday. The archaeological site was expecting a deluge of visitors on Friday, 12-21-12, to witness what some expect to be the end--or beginning--of an epoch.
As pockets of anxiety crop up ahead of the day billed as the Maya apocalypse, a motley crew of New Age thrill-seekers, mystics and tourists have gathered at ancient holy sites in Mexico hoping to witness the birth of a new era.
In the Maya Long Calendar, December 21 marks the end of the 13th bak'tun, an epoch lasting roughly 400 years.
In the 1960s, one respected U.S. academic said the event might signify a possible "Armageddon" to the Mesoamerican culture, and the belief that Friday could be the world's last day has spread since.
But to many of the artists, hippies, lawyers and businessmen congregating in the nerve center of 12/21/2012 — the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza in southern Mexico — the day will be the culmination of a spiritual journey, the dawn of a new consciousness, or the wellspring of untapped energies.
Or even all the above.
"There is an explosion of consciousness through this," said Shambala Songstar, a gray-haired Californian musician who gave his age as "eternal."
"We are becoming billionaires of energy. Opening to receive more light and more joy," he said.
In other parts of the world, fears that December 21 may bring doom, or unleash lesser disasters, has sparked scares.
On Thursday, Chinese state media said about 1,000 people had been detained for spreading rumors about Friday, such as the prospect of a three-day-long blackout.
Doomsday prompts jokes, arks and mass arrests in China
The crackdown, which targeted members of the "Almighty God" cult, has not been enough to stem shortages of candles, instant noodles and matches, according to complaints logged on Weibo, China's popular Twitter-like microblogging site.
In France, the media has buzzed about the Pic de Bugarach, a mountain said by believers in an impending catastrophe to be the only place that will survive 2012.
Pilgrims converge on serpent god
Social media spread fears that a mass suicide was being planned on a mountain popular among UFO spotters in Argentina. Local authorities decided to limit access to the Cerro Uritorco peak, though they said it was to prevent overcrowding.
A cornerstone of the 2012 phenomenon has been U.S. scholar Michael Coe's 1966 observation that the end of the 13th bak'tun could herald an "Armageddon" for the Maya. Coe could not be reached for comment, but friends and colleagues say he never meant to forecast an apocalypse.
NASA, other scientists and other experts on Maya culture have also dismissed the idea of disaster striking, but media rumors and Internet fascination with the subject have put the spotlight on the sweltering heartland of the ancient civilization.
Stringer/mexico / Reuters
Tourists browse among handicraft vendors in the archaeological zone of Chichen Itza in Yucatan State on Thursday.
Thousands of people are expected in Chichen Itza, where pilgrims will converge on the Temple of the serpent god Kukulkan, an imposing 100 foot pyramid.
Visitors have come from as far afield as Asia, Europe and South America to share in the experience, and there is little apprehension among them that the world faces a day of reckoning in the annals of the Maya's 5,125 year-old calendar.
"At least we can die saying we saw the end of the world," said 27-year-old Minu Nair from Kerala, India, laughing and bathed in sweat after a steep climb to the top of the Maya pyramid at Coba, about an hour's drive from Chichen Itza.
Helpful aliens
Most visitors here describe Friday as a moment of positive change, a time for reflection over the planet's direction.
"A new age will dawn, and everybody who is involved in this knows that the world is in a very sad state," said Jill Baker, an artist from Kentucky, who, together with her partner Lee Pennington, spent $14,000 to visit Mexico for the big day.
"We want to learn how we go about bringing the peace all the elders of the ancient civilizations have told (of)," she added.
Many modern Maya, whose ancestors rose to prominence as a conquering civilization in much of southern Mexico and Central America during the first millennium, practicing human sacrifice along the way, have been baffled by the hype.
Scholars say the date has been exploited by purveyors of spiritual hokum and tall tales in exotic locations.
Friday, Dec. 21, is the day many believe the ancient Mayans predicted the world would end. The hype has spread on social media, illustrating the world's endless fascination with the end of time. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.
"This whole Maya prophecy is actually a hoax, which cynical pseudo-scholars have developed to sell their books," said Susan Milbrath at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com
Whatever the truth of the matter, Sandra Stocco, 39, a tax lawyer from Brazil, said she was honored to be in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and pointed to a group of meditating people dressed in white and quietly humming to explain why she had come.
"For this. This sound, this is the sound of the vibration of their heart, and Chichen Itza is the heart chakra," she said.
Others see the gathering of minds as a chance for humanity to correct its ways by calling on extra-terrestrial assistance.
"We're hoping for some sort of contact event and to meet some beings of other species," said Otto Martin, a production manager wearing shorts who had traveled from Los Angeles. "We're basically just hoping to ask them for help."
Lisa Harris, a 23-year-old jembe drummer from Oakland, California, with a nose ring and dreadlocks, said friends had paid for her to come to Mexico. She hoped she would see UFOs.
"I definitely believe in UFOs and alien ancestry, so that would be pretty cool if that does happen," she said.
Jeremy Berg, a 28-year-old from Oregon and fan of full-moon celebrations, solstices, solar eclipses, and meteor showers, said great energies were coming into alignment.
"All over the planet there are key lay-line positions that meet up into little vortex spots," said Berg, whose day job is running an electronics firm. "This is a momentous time in history. I look at it as a new beginning."
But in case Friday is the end, Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid thanked his readers for their time over the years.
"It's been a blast," Reid wrote on Thursday. "So have an extra few roast potatoes today at lunch as it really won't matter if their prophesy turns out to be correct."
More world stories from NBC News:
- UN calls for ban on 'grotesque practice' of female genital mutilation
- Syrian refugees speak out on the nightmare of exodus
- UFO lovers, light-seekers and lawyers await Maya end of days
- Rumors of plot to sterilize Muslims with polio vaccine spark Pakistan killings
- Richard Engel, NBC News team freed from captors in Syria
- Video: It's so cold in Siberia, boiling water freezes
- 'Doomsday' prompts jokes, mass arrests in China
- Video: ‘Magical’ mountain is focus of doomsday cults
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
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Yada, yada, yada...... and if you go by calendars it's supposed to be the day I die. Notice I'm still here.
Here's my response to the whole picture:
My head is a garden
My hair is it's trees
Who's houses the worlds'
Who's length is it's leaves
They sparkle in darkness
Like stars upon seas
They journey the waters
They journey the skies
They journey the fires that sway in the eyes
It's land holds it's ocean with colors and sizes so vast
Never shall it be said that this is the last.
Boy I wish I had a list of these credulous idiots, I could make a fortune selling them useless crap! Seaside property in AZ? Ski Lodges in KS? The Brooklyn Bridge? The possibilities are endless. I see y'all tomorrow! Ha Ha, losers!
What I want for Christmas.....a dollar for every idiot in the world!
Steak and shrimp for the barbeque. Sam Adams ready to go on ice. I'm good to go.
Well, it's the 21st and I'm still here. Don't know whether to feel let down or not! Enjoyed the grilling and the Sam Adams though.
This whole Mayan thing seems to be a tad way over the top. Other times the world was suppose to end there did not seem to be so many believers; hell we have Michigan closing schools. Why is it that this case seems more believable to so many people???
EVEN more Scary, there was NO Thursday Night Football.... :-(
Dumb asses.
Probably some of the same lot who voted for Obama to save the US.
Well, if your crap came true, even that vote would fail (and it will anyway).
Already it's past midnight in Australia.
The tourist mongers and tee shirt vendors will mourn the loss.
But they will smile all the way to the bank when the sun comes up.
Your bitterness is as sweet as honey, loser!
You're going to be very miserable for at least the next four years. That's a happy thought! ;-)
You may continue bitching and moaning now. Have a stroke. It'll end your pain.
Why bother with a stroke?
The world ends tonight at the stroke of midnight central time where I live.
And if the sun shines tomorrow, I think I can hold out for four more years of stupidity before conservatives regain office.
Waaaa.........
Viewer_Ready,
Sounds like fuzzy math to me, I mean, even if you could hold it for 4 more years, it will still be more like 12+ years before any credible opposition is ever found.
Hillary: 2016--------
Proof that westerners have been getting more religious (not less) over that last 50 years. Influence of eastern religions and maybe LSD.
Proof that new-age religion makes people stupid. Some of these people have sci-tech degrees! Were apocalyptic views common among christians/jews 40+ years ago?
Let this be a warning for you, Don't drink the water in Mexico.
UFO's are going to come and based on this cast of characters in the story, surmise there is no intelligent life on earth.
If the UFO's come to end the world... I'm writing a book and going on late night radio shows. Just give the Al Bundy socks and they'll go home.
Serious question here. I thought they already found out that because the calendar doesn't just repeat like ours does that either the Myans simply ran out of rock to cut on, or just got bored with the whole project and thats why it stops.
Something got lost in translation. The Mayans didn't say "end of time", they said "end of LIME". They had run out after the annual tequila festival was over. It was their equivalent of "last call".
Another Bak'tun come and gone....How the epochs keep flying by....Except for the differences in technology it was pretty much like last one and the one before it....
Happy New Bak'tun to all...!
The Mayans also thought the sun wouldn't appear every day without human sacrifice. I'm guessing modern Mayan descendants have moved on with their beliefs and they're making some tourism money from all this. That shouldn't be hard to do, considering the gullibles interviewed in the article.
All you dummy's better stop smoking that meth pipe. End of days, yeah right. It was 12-12-12. All you are doing is paying out billions to the leaches who demand payment from the weak and the weary. You all need to smoke some good pot and relax man. Oh one more thing, It's almost my time again....
All illegal aliens please come forward and identify yourselves. Thank You.
THIS JUST IN!!!
THE planet NIBIRU just materialized over CALIFORNIA!!
No, hold that, sources now claim it's headed for FLORIDA!!
NO HOLD THAT!!
This just in!!
The world is apparently saved!!
The planet cannot decide which f$%ked up state to hit, so now its headed back out into space.
Seriously - Since the Myans could not fortell their own demise how - in the mind of any average person could you possible think they could predict either a (a) change in the world, (b) the end of the world, or (c) any prediction that would impact our world - alien or otherwise.The unfortunate reality of this situation is that there are too many people in this world that are totally lost and are trying to grasp on to something - however unrealistic the something might be. God help us all because we are surrounded by idiots.
The reality, Barb, is that beginning on the morning of the 22nd, there will be a lot of Mayans and Mayan mythology believers frantically doing some last-minute Christmas shopping!
I am in Dallas, Texas and it is 10:41PM here.... But it is 12/21/12 in Australia and other parts of the World, so do we have to wait for the WHOLE world to hit 12/21/12 ?? And if so, WHAT time would this happen??
The Fam and I want to have a Great ol' Cook out.... If we got's to go, we will do it with a Bang (party)
Don't worry, The Mayans didn't have leap year because the Earth was rotating a little faster and our orbit was a little closer to the Sun, back then. Recalculating with this dicrepancy taken into account, places the end of the world at June 21 2015. Party on.
I'd show you the math, but my waitress threw away the bar napkin.
Den.. Mayans were located in CST zone so you got 20 min to go and besides we got all day of the 21st.. keep an eye out for strange things happening...Bahahahah
Think the way the end of the world thing works is it starts on the 21st and takes some time to happen.. be patient !!!
The Galactic Alignment is happening and is the cause of all the wacky weather and the seasons being in chaos and out of order. The Galactic Alignment on 12-21-12 means the earth, sun, moon, and all the planets in our solar system are lining up with the center of the Milky Way (our galaxy). Planet X, also came from 26,000 light years (miles) away and will be lining up for the alignment as well. The planet X is considered the 2nd sun prophecy and we very well might see it tomorrow. Just because you can not see things does not mean they do not exist or are not happening. We have been in this Galactic Alignment with the Milkyway and our solar system for some time now. Tomorrow will just be the "Peak" of it. This Galactic Alignment that happens once every 26,000 years in not the END, but a new BEGINING. We have been in the "Technology" age up till now. 12-21-12 will mark the new begining of the NEW AGE OF WISDOM. We as humans are going to "WAKE UP" AND REMEMBER our abilities, past, and OLD ANGIENT WISDOM. WE ARE ENTERING AN AGE OF "THE END OF TIME" (linear, "man made time"). As this galactic alignment happens and causes crazy weather and natural disasters of the next few years we will come to understand we have to "CONNECT" with "MOTHER NATURE" and realize we are all connected with other human beings and with our environment. We are all the same...as one and have to learn to live in peace and harmony with one another and to respect other humans and our planet. Greed, the love for money and material items is BS and has to come to an end. PLEASE WAKE UP. THE TIME IS NOW. WE ARE THE LIVING MAYAN PROPHECY AND ARE ALIVE TODAY TO BE APART OF IT AND MAKE IT HAPPEN. THE PROPHECY WILL UNFOLD HOW OUR ONE WORLD MIND CO-CREATES IT TO HAPPEN.
Serra, what are you trying to say by putting (miles) after light years? Are you under the impression that they are the same length? This being the only thing in your post that's verifiable, it doesn't inspire much confidence..
No, the planets are about as un-aligned as they can be:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Solar/action?sys=-Sf
Nope - still invisible. Also, there is NO detectable change in the orbits of the planets, which we would see if "an invisible planet" was wandering through our Solar System.
Nope; this alignment occurs EVERY SINGLE DECEMBER. It was closest in 1998; I don't recall any great cosmic event at that time, either....
Short version - a load of BS peddled as science. Grade = F. Please see your prof for tutoring and reassignment to intro level course.
Looks like we made it. Thank the heavens, and I will continue to be able to spend my life in my recliner watching television talk shows all night. What could be better? And that standing there bending over was getting pretty tiring!
Oh man.... you mean it is today? Crap. I spent all my end of the world money at the stripper joint last night. Now I will have to spend my last day at home watching the Facts of Life rerun festival on tv. Take me now!! :-)
Well. The world didn't end did it? Many of them just don't want responsibilities for what they have done. They believe god, aliens or whatever is going to come down and clean up their mess they made and rescue them from all the trouble they created. Mayan calender never indicates an end of the world but a renewal, a new beginning (and perhaps a second chance).
Jupiter... try Venus.
Did we really make it? How do you know that we did not emerge from our sleep into an alternate reality? Maybe the re-set button was hit and now we have a chance at redemption - get it right and do the right thing. Imagine that...........no heaven, no hell, no countries, no religion, no possesions, no greed, no hunger...and the world will live as one.
I am still here. By the way,$14 grand to go to Mexico? That's what I call a "mission".