2012: Mexico Gets Serious as Mayan Deadline Approaches

On December 21, 2012 the Mayan calendar ends, and some say this means the end of the world or a new world order. December 21, 2012, the winter solstice, is indeed the final day of a Mayan calendar cycle of 1.8 million days, or 5,125 years. On that day at 11:11 a.m. GMT (6:11 a.m. EST) the sun and its path will align with the galactic center of the Milky Way, which Mayan legend says opens to the underworld. Recent books and "2012" websites predict giant solar flares, collisions with meteors, polar shifts, earthquakes and floods. Current media buzz says the marvelous Mayan pyramids in Mexico's Yucatan were built by aliens, and that in 2012 Mexico's government will show the evidence after 80 years of secrecy.

Like the U.S., Mexico is preparing for 2012, and takes it even more seriously. Mexican President Felipe Calderon attended the official opening ceremony of the "Mundo Maya" (Mayan World) program on the summer solstice, June 21, in Mexico City. Also present were Mexico's Minister of Tourism and Mexico's Public Education Secretary, as reported by Mexico Today. These officials foresaw in 2012 not Doomsday but a massive influx of an estimated 52 million tourists, and the government's "Mundo Maya" program is a major public-relations plan to capitalize on it.

According to Travelpulse.com, Calderon said on June 21, “Today we [Mexico] are the 10th power for tourism in the world, and we are working hard to be in the top five. We want the world to know the splendors of the Mayan civilization, with the end goal of positioning Mexico as a privileged and unique touristic destination."

To the Yucatan’s Secretary of Tourism, Juan Jose Martin Pacheco, 2012 is not the end of the world but "The Year of Maya Culture." Travelworldnews.com reported that Merida, capital of Yucatan, hosted a third annual tourism fair in June 2011 for hoteliers and tour guides. On a tour of U.S. cities to meet travel planners, the chief of Mexico's Tourism Board, Rodolfo Lopez Negrete Coppel, visiting St. Louis, told the AAA magazine Midwest Traveler, "Although many people would like to believe it is the end of an era...the interpretation we have is the beginning of a new era, one that is full of growth." In Los Angeles he told another reporter, “Our focus will be on growth and prosperity instead of the end of the world.”

"Mundo Maya" is not only the name of the tourism campaign but the name of the area spanning five modern countries where Mayan ruins are found: Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. Guatemala's "Mundo Maya" airport is currently being expanded and upgraded. Mundo Maya Online's homepage features many of the region's natural and cultural wonders, and also a box to enter information and arrange your tour package.

Mayan culture was not, as some believe, completely wiped out by 16th-century Spanish explorers. Five million Central Americans still identify as Mayan, and some practice Mayan religious rituals, such as the priestly blessing (see photo) of babies when they are grown enough to be carried on their mother's hip rather than in her arms. As for what Mayans say about 2012, a Mayan elder interviewed by the Associated Press in Mexico City told reporter Mark Stevenson in 2009 that he was already tired of being asked about 2012 and it would definitely not be the end of the world. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff," Apolinario Chile Pixtun told Stevenson.

Mexican experts on Mayan history and culture have clearly spoken. Professor Maria del Carmen Valverde of The Center for Mayan Studies announced its official statement on January 1, 2011: "The world will not end on December 22, 2012 nor will there be a catastrophe.There is neither any prophecy in that regard, as has been claimed in some statements without scientific basis.” The Yucatan Times quoted the statement's co-author Tomas Perez Suarez, historian and doctor of Mesoamerican studies, as explaining "that the Maya had a circular notion of time, which means that history repeats itself for them. 'The Mayans never spoke of doom, destruction or catastrophe,'" said Suarez.

Mexican officials see in 2012 a golden opportunity to change Mexico's reputation as a dangerous place for tourist travel, to teach the world about the Maya civilization whose mysteries so intrigue us, and to create new jobs.

Not even the experts are sure of what the Mayan "prophecy" supposedly says. Here is the best translation: "The thirteenth pik will be finished (on) Four Ahaw, the third of K'ank'in. ? will occur. (?) the Nine Foot Tree God(s) to (?)."

Sylvia Sky, experienced astrologer, writes about horoscopes, psychics, occult matters, and travel. Copyright 2011 by Sylvia Sky.