Doomsday talk means brisk business

MEXICO CITY—Relax doomsayers, the Maya people did not really mark their calendar for the end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012.

As tourists book hotel rooms in Mexico’s Maya Riviera and Guatemalan resorts ahead of next month’s fateful date, experts are busy debunking the doomsday myth.

The apocalyptic prophecy that has inspired authors and filmmakers never appears in the tall T-shaped stone calendar that was carved by the Mayas around the year 669 in southeastern Mexico.

In reality, the stone recounts the life and battles of a ruler from that era, experts say. Plus, the last date on the calendar is actually Dec. 23, 2012, not the 21st, and it merely marks the end of a cycle.

So no need to build giant arks because the terrible floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions depicted in the Hollywood blockbuster “2012” were not prophesied by the Mayas.

“The Mayas had a cyclical idea of time. They were not preoccupied with the end of the world,” Mexican archeologist Jose Romero told Agence France-Presse.

Ajaw’s story

The stone, known as Monument 6, was located in El Tortuguero, an archeological site discovered in 1915.

Broken in six pieces, the different fragments are exhibited in US and Mexican museums, including Tabasco’s Carlos Pellicer Camara Anthropology Museum and New York’s Metropolitan Museum.

Various archeologists have examined the stone’s significance and agree that it refers to the

Dec. 23 date.

“The last inscription refers to Dec. 23, 2012, but the central theme of Monument 6 is not the date, it’s not the prophecies or the end of the world. It’s the story of (then ruler) Bahlam Ajaw,” Romero said.

The final date represents the end of a cycle in the Mayan long count calendar that began in the year 3114 before Christ. It is the completion of 13 baak t’uunes, a unit of time equivalent to 144,000 days.

Judeo-Christian view

“It is not the end of the Mayan long count calendar, which is endless. It’s the beginning of a new cycle, that’s all,” said Mexican historian Erick Velasquez.

Though the Mayas made prophecies, they looked at events in the near future and were related to day-to-day concerns like rain, droughts, or harvests.

The belief that the calendar foresees the end of the world comes from Judeo-Christian interpretations, the experts said.

Velasquez warned against giving too much weight to Monument 6, noting it is just one of more than 5,000 stones from the Mayan culture that have been studied.

Thousands of years to go

The Earth still has a few years left, even in eyes of the ancient Maya: Some stones refer to the year 7000.

With one month to go before the end of the calendar’s 5,200-year cycle, tourists will find all-inclusive excursions and religious ceremonies in holy sites across Central America and Mexico.

It is also a chance to celebrate the contributions of the Mayan civilization to mankind, but indigenous groups have accused governments and businesses of profiting from the Hollywood-inspired fiction about their culture.

“The world has been marked by a very peculiar interpretation given by Hollywood, without much knowledge about it,” said Alvaro Pop, an indigenous leader in Guatemala.

“In Mayan culture, scholars never were prophets. That’s why there shouldn’t be interpretations based on supposed prophecies that don’t exist,” he said.

Brisk business

Guatemala’s indigenous groups have prepared their own activities in five cities and six natural sites considered sacred to them. More than half of Guatemala’s population of nearly 15 million are from indigenous groups of Mayan descent.

But the end of the world tales mean brisk business for others.

Guatemala expects to greet 2 million foreign visitors in 2012, an 8-percent increase from the previous year. Activities are planned in 13 archeological and tourism sites. And on Dec. 21, President Otto Perez will attend a ceremony at the archeological site of Tikal, home to majestic pyramids.

In Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, home to white sand beaches, the Cancun Hotels Association says 90 percent of rooms are booked for the second and third weeks of December, compared to 81 percent last year. AFP