Guatemalan Maya people are protesting the commercialization and exploitation of
their "long count" calendar by western business and entertainment interests.
US Person posted about the
13th B'ak'tun ending on December 21, 2012, the winter solstice. According to popularized interpretations of the Popol Vuh corpus from the western highlands of Guatemala (known through the 18th century manuscript of Father Francisco Ximénez, left) and the Mayan codex
Chilam Balam, December 21st is characterized as "doomsday". Modern Mayans object to this characterization, thinking it
a distortion of their cultural tradition. Native objections have not stopped the government's plan to cash in on popular expectations by organizing a huge fiesta in Guatemala City where as many as 90,000 are expected to await the predicted end of the "fourth world". A leader of the Guatemalan Maya said all the Mayan time cycle predicts are "big changes on the personal, family and community level so there is harmony and balance between man and nature." Some interpretations of the relevant glyphs at Tortuguero, Mexico indicate the end of the 13 B'ak'tun when the diety B'olon Yorke' ascends to power will occur on December 23rd, not the 21st. Recently, archeologists discovered
astronomical tables on a wall in Xultun, Guatemala which calculate the movements of the moon and other heavenly bodies over 17 B'ak'tuns, hardly consistent with an earlier date for the end of time. Whichever date appeals to your
western new age notions, let us hope the modern Mayans are correct because mother Earth is in sore need of more harmony and balance.
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