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?