All Quiet, No Fuss

 

    May 2012 is just around the corner and I have not noticed or have I missed the specials on 2012? I amazed that the media in Australia have not been promoting 2012 orientated TV shows and films. Not something I would expect myself to miss considering I have a curiosity about the predictions of doom that 2012 is supposed to release. But then if you air these shows can you sell adds past 21st December 2012? Guess you can just don't expect to be paid before 21st December 2012, not much sense in paying for something you might not get, wonder if that argument would be accepted. Probably not.

So far the only people seeming to bother with 2012 are the countries of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras who have decided to promote their countries links to the Mayan Calendar in the hope of increasing tourism. If what is being predicted turns out to be correct, then what better place to be but in the land that the Maya walked.

I wish I could travel to one or all of these countries, but some things just don't work out. There are alternatives, the easiest is to make the 21st December 2012 the start of your party, yes, that's right a start, because Christmas 2012 can be included in the 2012 celebration which end sometime after New Years Eve 2012.

The plan is to have at least 12 days of celebration  'eat drink and be merry', as near as I can get because it is a best calculation claim that 21st December 2012 marks the end of the Mayan Calendar cycle of approximately 5,125 years. I have a suspicion that 21st December was picked because it is a solstice day, in ancient times these days were religious and festival times.

If the 12 day party plan happens, then just maybe the year date should be revised to 2013. Another year to party? Or just recover from thinking the worst, I might need a party to recover from all the stress of 2012. Perhaps that is why I remember the millennium year of 2000 with fondness, plenty of parties and fun. Maybe that is why media is ignoring 2012, so much effort went into the forecasts of doom and when it didn't happen, a lot of people felt they had a lot of yoke on them.

Must save a lot of trees though, to be able to carve a stone calendar, and only need one in 5,125 years. A nice piece to pass from generation to generation, continuity, because you know that there has been a past, there is a Calendar that begins before your parents parents were born and a sense that life has long existed, there is no evidence that the Maya expected and end to everything, a new calendar just bought change, a New Year a chance to make resolutions, to begin...........

Winter is Here

I have forgotten the chill of a 11C day, with a southerly added for... not comfort, Antarctic chill could never be placed under comfort.  When I noticed that my feet were cold it was a hint that the rest of me was suffering too, never noticed the shivers till I noticed my cold feet. Strange how focusing on a computer screen can numb the senses.

I have lit the wood heater and am feeling the warmth, the forecast must have changed from this morning predictions, the weather bureau expected 14C as a top temp. Hoping this meant a sunny day with cold air I thought that inside wasn't too bad, but alas the day has cooled rather than warmed.
So I intend to spend some quality time in front of a good fire.  

A Pilgrammage Inspired By The Mayan Calendar

Bugarach

Bugarach, is a small town of around 200 people situated at the foot of Pic De Bugarach, the highest mountain in the Corbieres. The mountain is nicknamed the 'upside down mountain', because the oldest rock is on the top of the mountain and the youngest rock is at the bottom of the mountain. Geologist think that the mountain exploded and when everything settled the mountain landed top down.
  
Many beliefs surround this mountain. Some of them are that the mountain has magnetic energies, and strange powers, there is an Alien garage parked full of space craft inside the mountain, and anyone near the peak on 21st December 2012 will be save by the alien space ships, inside the mountain from the chaos that the end of the Mayan calendar cycle on 21st December 2012 will cause and they will be taken somewhere else to begin a new age. 

Just to confuse someone trying to work out what is happening there another belief that the village will survive the 21st December 2012,  I guess this means anyone in the village with survive the predicted apocalypse as well. Another rumour involves the Nazi's and then the Israeli's and just refers to something about digging on the mountain.

For the town of Bugarach the story began in the 1960's and 1970's when the mountain became popular with the hippie movement favouring the strange powers and energies and then towards the end of the last century with the with the 'New Age' movement, who favoured the rescue by alien belief.



The beliefs have bought the residents of Bugarach a steady stream of visitors,  2011 saw a massive jump to 10,000 visiting their village, but only three months of 2012 have past and already at least 20,000 visitors have visited the mountain, normally a town would not mind this number of tourist, but it is the rumours of the strange rituals and ceremonies these visitors are performing that make the local residents nervous, and then there are warnings from a French parliamentary committee that sects may consider a mass suicide, especially if they are not rescued by the aliens.


How can so many people feel that the completion of the Mayan calendar cycle be the end of everything?  Scholars believe that the Mayans would have planned a massive party, because 21st December 2012 is the end of a cycle that takes 5,125 years to complete. There is no evidence that the Maya believed an apocalyptic event was expected when the calendar cycle of 5,125 years was completed. The Mayans expected life to continue after 21st December 2012. 


Remembering the predictions made about the year 2000, how the Y2K bug would end all computing as we know it. And that meant that the world as we know it would also end. All that happened were some really good parties and a lot of disappointment for people who planned for the prediction of Armageddon that didn't happen. 

The Maya had the right idea, planning a party for the 21st December 2012 is a better choice, and the excuse for a really good party at that, better still I can look forward to something pleasant and fun, what more could I want?