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You asked: Will the world end when the Mayan calendar runs out on Dec. 21?

BY STEPHEN H. COWLES/CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Playback58@gmail.com

FRANKLIN—There’s bad news and good news when it comes to that Mayan calendar prophecy people have been chattering and writing about for the past few years.

The bad news is that you’ll still have to pay the bills for Christmas gifts. The good news is the earth will still be around and, one hopes, you’ll also be around to pay those bills.

“The Maya never forecast the end of the world,” said Longwood professor Walter Witschey.

“It appears they were saying a very important king, who was living when the inscription was written, was so important that he would still be worshiped in 13.0.0.0.0. That’s like saying 1,000 years from now, George Washington will still be so important that we’ll celebrate him in the year 3,000.”

“They said nothing about end of days, nothing about 13 being the final cycle, nothing about apocalypse, nothing about astrological predictions of any sort,” Witschey said.

Dr. Carl Sweat Jr., professor of religion for Paul D. Camp Community College, sees the Mayan calendar as just marking a transition, not doomsday.

“The Mayans were really predicting the end of an age, and the beginning of another era,” Sweat said.

He agreed with its comparison to the Age of Aquarius described by Western astrologers. This supposedly will occur when the spring equinox moves from Pisces to Aquarius.

Based on Internet research, no one can seem to agree if this has even occurred.

“I don’t think we fully understand,” said Sweat. “We’re looking at time succinctly. The Mayans were looking in a holistic perspective. They were looking at life in phases, a broader perspective.”

He added that the ancient Greeks thought of seven as a complete number.

So instead of 2012 being the end of a 6,000-year cycle, 3012 A.D. would be the true year for a new era.