PEOPLE AND PLACES: Tomorrow marks the end of the 13th cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar

Tomorrow marks the end of the 13th cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar,

giving rise to rumors about the end of the world. Worries about a looming apocalypse are nothing new in human history, but 21st century reactions to the possible destruction of the planet (or human civilization) vary widely, from "preppers" who cultivate self-sufficiency, to groups offering prayerful wishes, to entrepreneurs who have found a growing market for their survival gear. Regarding tomorrow's fateful date, the descendents of the Mayans themselves appear to regard the milestone as simply marking the end of an era, not the entire world.

Phil Burns demonstrates his air purifying SCape Mask at his home in American Fork, Utah, on December 14, 2012. While most "preppers" discount the Mayan calendar prophecy, many are preparing to be self-sufficient for threats like nuclear war, natural disaster, famine and economic collapse. (Reuters/Jim Urquhart)

A man shows the "Before Doomsday" application on his smart phone, in a Belgrade cafe, on December 20, 2012. From Russia to California, thousands are preparing for the fateful day, when many believe a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count in the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to an end. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) #

Lu Zhenghai, right, walks near his ark-like vessel under construction in China's northwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, on November 24, 2012. Lu Zhenghai is one of at least two men in China predicting a world-ending flood, come December 21, the fateful day many believe the Maya set as the conclusion of their 5,125-year long-count calendar. Zhenghai has spent his life savings building the 70-foot-by-50-foot vessel powered by three diesel engines, according to state media. (AP Photo/ANPF-Chen Jiansheng) #

Lu Zhenghai, right, stands inside his ark-like vessel in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, on November 24, 2012. Zhenghai spent his life savings building the 70-foot-by-50-foot vessel preparing for a catastrophic flood, according to state media.(AP Photo/ANPF-Chen Jiansheng) #

A sky caiman vomits water on one of the last pages of the 12th-century Dresden Codex, also known as the "Codex Dresdensis", one of four historic Mayan manuscripts that still exist in the world and that together suggest modern civilization will come to an end on December 21, at the Saxon State Library in Dresden, Germany, on November 8, 2012. The documents enumerate the Mayan calendar, which will complete its 13th cycle on December 21, 2012 and many people across the globe are interpreting the calendar to mean impending global devastation and the birth of a new order are near. (Joern Haufe/Getty Images) #

The Tunupa ship is seen as Bolivian priests make offerings in Lake Titicaca, 74 km (46 miles) away from La Paz City, in La Paz, on December 16, 2012. Sunday marked the first of six days of celebrations to commemorate the end of the Mayan Calendar on December 21, which some believe to be the end of the world, that indigenous Bolivians regard as the change of an era. (Reuters/Gaston Brito) #

Honduran Ch'orti' of Mayan descent celebrate a point during a Mayan ball game against Guatemalan Quirigua in Copan, on December 18, 2012. This week, at sunrise on Friday, December 21, an era closes in the Maya Long Count calendar, an event that has been likened by different groups to the end of days, the start of a new, more spiritual age or a good reason to hang out at old Maya temples across Mexico and Central America. (Reuters/Jorge Cabrera) #

Tourists have their picture taken next to a slab of stone counting down the days until December 21, 2012 at the Xcaret theme park in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, on December 15, 2012. Amid a worldwide frenzy of advertisers and new-agers preparing for a Maya apocalypse, one group is approaching December 21 with calm and equanimity: the people whose ancestors supposedly made the prediction in the first place. (AP Photo/Israel Leal) #

Employees work on the construction of a bunker at Utah Shelter Systems in North Salt Lake, Utah, on December 12, 2012. The price of the shelters range from $51,800 to $64,900. (Reuters/Jim Urquhart) #

Paul Seyfried climbs into a bunker he is constructing for a client at Utah Shelter Systems in North Salt Lake, Utah, December 12, 2012.(Reuters/Jim Urquhart) #

Mike Porenta prepares to ship emergency camp stoves at American Prepper Network's warehouse in Sandy, Utah, on December 10, 2012.(Reuters/Jim Urquhart) #

Freeze dried meals and emergency food rations, which are a staple of preppers, fill the racks at Grandma's Country Foods in Sandy, Utah, on December 10, 2012. (Reuters/Jim Urquhart) #

Jeff Nice tends to his honey bees on his farm in Kinston, North Carolina, on December 14, 2012. Preppers Jeff and Jeanie Nice live on a 13 acre farm where they raise beef, chicken, turkey and can vegetables from their garden. (Reuters/Chris Keane) #

Jeanie Nice and her husband Jeff Nice carry parts for a shelving unit into their barn on their farm in Kinston, North Carolina, on December 14, 2012. After completion of a government contact working in computers Jeff has spent most of his time on the farm tending to the livestock and general chores such as planting grass or keeping his equipment in working order. On the farm is a 200 yard rifle range where Jeff teaches hunter education and gun safety. (Reuters/Chris Keane) #

Mike Holland reviews his stock of dry food storage in a trailer at the Holland family property in Warrenton, North Carolina, on December 13, 2012. Prepper Mike Holland lives with his wife, four children and three other men on their 13 acre property where they raise, chickens, turkeys, goats and a cow for milk. In addition to livestock they also have a greenhouse and a few trailers that house food storage including multiple freezers. Outside of food preparations Holland has ammunition and firearms, a safe room, security cameras and a military grade generator for power. (Reuters/Chris Keane) #

Gendarmes drive on a road in Bugarach, France, in order to secure the area around the peak, on December 19, 2012. The Peak of Bugarach, the highest point of the Corbieres massif, in southwestern France, surrounded in legend for centuries, has become a focal point for many apocalypse believers as rumors have circulated that its mountain contains doors into other worlds, or that extraterrestrials will return here on Judgment day to take refuge at their base. Residents of the tiny southern French hamlet, are witness to a rising influx of Doomsday believers convinced it is the only place that will survive judgment day, December 21, 2012, as an era closes in the Maya Long Count calendar. (Reuters/Jean-Philippe Arles) #

Bottles of wine with labels reading "the end of the world", on sale in Sirince, a village in western Turkey, on December 20, 2012. Believers in the Mayan calendar's doomsday prediction for December 21, 2012, are flocking to Sirince, a small village in Turkey's Izmir province, which some believe is the only safe haven from the impending apocalypse because the Virgin Mary is said to have risen to heaven from there. (Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images) #

A spherical pod, named "Noah's Ark", designed by Chinese inventor Liu Qiyuan floats on a river during a test in Xianghe, Hebei province, on December 12, 2012. (Reuters/Petar Kujundzic) #

Farmer Liu Qiyuan sits inside one of seven survival pods that he has dubbed "Noah's Ark", in a yard at his home in the village of Qiantun, Hebei province, south of Beijing, on December 11, 2012. Inspired by the apocalyptic Hollywood movie "2012" and the 2004 Asian tsunami, Liu hopes that his creations consisting of a fiberglass shell around a steel frame will be adopted by government departments and international organizations for use in the event of tsunamis and earthquakes. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images) #

This photo taken on December 11, 2012 shows farmer Liu Qiyuan posing with survival pods that he created, in the village of Qiantun, Hebei province. As people across the globe tremble in anticipation of next week's supposed Mayan-predicted apocalypse, this Chinese villager says he may have just what humanity needs: tsunami-proof survival pods. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images) #

Liu Qiyuan looking out from one of his survival pods, in Qiantun, Hebei province, on December 11, 2012. Liu has built seven pods which are able to float on water, some of which have their own propulsion. The airtight spheres with varying interiors contain oxygen tanks and seat belts with space for around 14 people, and are designed to remain upright when in water. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images) #

Hugh Vail inventories his food storage at his home in Bountiful, Utah, on December 10, 2012. (Reuters/Jim Urquhart) #

Phil Burns, a firearms instructor, holds a handgun that he carries as part of his survival supplies at his home in American Fork, Utah, on December 14, 2012. (Reuters/Jim Urquhart) #

Patrick Troy, a force security instructor with Jay Blevins's preparedness group, poses with firearms including a M1 carbine rifle and an AR-15 rifle, on December 5, 2012 in Berryville, Virginia. Jay Blevins and his wife Holly Blevins have been preparing with a group of others for a possible doomsday scenario. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images) #

Jay Blevins shows a "get home" bag, a bag with supplies to get home from his work on foot if necessary, he keeps in his car December 5, 2012 in Berryville, Virginia. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images) #

Jay Blevins and his wife Holly Blevins and their children Samuel Benjamin Blevins, 7, Elliana Grace Blevins, 9, and Evangeline Joy Blevins, 4, pose beneath one of their apple trees with survival gear including an AR-15 rifle and a hunting bow, on December 5, 2012 in Berryville, Virginia. Blevins and his wife have been preparing with a group of others for a possible doomsday scenario where the group will have to be self sufficient due to catastrophe or civil unrest. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

How predictable. While the apocalypse coinciding with the end of the Mayan age did not materialise today, a deluge of internet virals did.

Internet users around the world rushed to knock up weird and wonderful creations that saw the funny side when it turned out the world wasn't going to be besieged by raining fire or killer earthquakes.

For centuries, the ending of the Mayan calendar, which occured today, has been taken as a sign of an impending Armageddon.

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Funny side: A humorous seven-day weather forecast which shows balls of fire predicted to rain down on earth today

Film fame: The iconic scene from film Pulp Fiction starring Samuel L Jackson is depicted in one of the virals

Popular: Some of the virals have been sent on by hundreds of thousands of people across the internet

Internet fame: Many of the amusing photos were posed on social news and entertainment website Reddit

Under attack: This illustration of Australia's Sydney Harbour under attack from flaming balls of fire and a dinosaur as well as aliens was posted with the caption 'This was not photoshopped'

Minutes to go: Crowds of Guatemalan Mayan natives took part in celebrations marking the end of the Mayan age at the Tikal archaeological site, Peten departament, 560 kms north of Guatemala City

World wide web: A man holding a calendar with a Mayan temple on for 2013 and right, Game of Thrones starring Sean Bean

Patience: Doomsdayers and prophecy believers have tied the prediction to the extraordinary date of 21.12.12 and are now waiting for 'the end'

In the spirit: A painting, left, was been placed at the foot of the Bugarach mountain in anticipation of the apocalypse while Sylvain Durif, right, presenting himself as the messenger of God and Christ, played panpipes

Block: The 100 odd police set up road blocks and said no-one else would be allowed up until after Christmas

People react as they see the sun starting to rise on the horizon before its light hits them, while Druid leader Arthur Uther Pendragon, right, looks up

Without wishing to sound too smug, I think we can predict the menu for the next five years at Robert Bast’s ‘Survive2012’ Australian hideaway: tinned beans, tinned beans, bottled water and more tinned beans.

The same goes for thousands of others who had expected to be the only remnants of today’s scheduled termination of the human race. Like Bast, a well-known ‘survivalist’ and online prophet of doom, they have been leaving nothing to chance.

But it’s always the same with this blasted Armageddon business. You take all the right precautions, you abandon your job and go to an enormous amount of trouble to set yourself apart from the common herd in the confident expectation that you are a Chosen One.

Bubble wrap: American Phil Burns is selling air-purifying masks amid predictions the world will end

And then, well, you end up looking a prize twit the following morning. Those blasé neighbours who never bothered to stockpile so much as a box of matches give you a patronising wave as they set off to work as usual.

What’s more, you’ve got a garage full of baked beans, bottled water, spare batteries and duct tape.

Oh well. You can usually console yourself with the thought there’ll be another catalclysmic prophesy along soon. Better have another flick through the works of Nostradamus . . .

Today’s end of the world comes courtesy of the ancient Mayans (or ‘Maya’ as the BBC likes to call them). For almost 2,000 years before Christ, they ruled much of what is now Mexico, Belize and Honduras. And they followed a calendar which had been carefully mapped out from 3114BC to December 21, 2012.

Now, the Mayans did not get into hours and minutes and so did not spell out our precise closing time. Perhaps, it may come to pass later today, in which case I will be the one feasting on humble pie (posthumously, of course). But if you’re reading this, the chances are that we have not been vaporised or consumed by some omnivorous intergalactic black hole.

Floating Dutchman: Pieter van der Meer prepares the old Norwegian lifeboat he keeps in his back garden in Kootwijkerbroek, Holland

Close encounters of the French kind: One local in Bugarach is hoping to make any invading aliens who emerge from the nearby mountain feel at home

Pod almighty: Liu Qiyuan with one of his steel and fibreglass balls which, he says, can enable 14 people to escape any sort of apocalypse

I have yet to fathom quite why we should be so alarmed by the navel-gazing of Central American Iron Age elders for whom human sacrifice was the height of sophistication. But as much as ten per cent of the world’s population are said to have been ‘anxious’ that today would be their last.

Yet the mood is surprisingly upbeat in Mexico where the tourist board of Yucatan state has been promoting ‘end of the world’ tourism to its spectacular Mayan ruins. A small fortune has been spent on a new museum of Mayan culture which has yet to open — suggesting that these particular Mayan aficionados are not expecting annihilation today.

Down in Guatemala, another part of the old Mayan empire, crowds have been gathering near the ancient city of Tikal where several Mayan temples still stand.

The last time Tikal had this much excitement was when film director George Lucas shipped his entire Star Wars production down there and used the temples as the location for the fictional planet, Yavin 4. Yesterday, locals reported an intriguing blend of Mayan disciples and Star Wars enthusiasts descending on the site.

Few places have been busier than the tiny French village of Bugarach on the edge of the Pyrenees. The Mayans had never even heard of the Pyrenees and yet Bugarach is supposedly the best place to dodge extinction because of the strange mountain which looms over it.

According to assorted New Age shamans and internet conspiracy theorists, the Pic de Bugarach is housing a collection of UFOs and aliens who were supposed to emerge today, gather up any locals and whisk them off to a new life as Earth implodes.

‘I’m here to welcome the great alien monarch who will rise from the mountain when the world ends,’ explained Sylvain Durif, 43, from neighbouring Arques, (but born, he says, on Venus). ‘Anyone who wants to be saved must come to Bugarach.’

Grab and go: Bill Poteat has been doing a roaring trade in buckets of freeze-dried food at his Southern Survival Supplies store in Morgantown, West Virginia

Around the village, Doomsday prophets are outnumbered by international camera crews who have come from as far as Toronto and Tokyo to gawp. Jean Prior, owner of the Ferme de Janou restaurant, is enjoying a busy trade in apocalyptic wine with the label: ‘End of the World — I Was There’.

Another favoured spot for riding out the global storm is the Turkish hill town of Sirince, singled out by New Age mystics for its ‘positive energy’.

And the Mayans have been great for manufacturers of survival kit. In China, farmer Liu Qiyuan has produced a set of steel and fibreglass balls which, he claims, can each accommodate 14 people through every sort of Biblical eventuality.

In Montebello, California, Ron Hubbard has seen a last-minute run of orders for his £46,000 bomb-proof survival shelters, complete with leather sofas and plasma screens (tuned in to what, one wonders?).

And in France, survivalists have been restoring old Maginot Line bunkers. These concrete fortresses might have failed dismally when they were supposed to keep the Nazis out in 1940. But there are those who believe they will keep the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at bay in 2012. While a lot of the Armageddon talk is tinged with comedy, it is worth remembering that apocalyptic forecasts can have tragic consequences.

Two months ago, Brazilian police foiled an end-of-the-world suicide attempt by 100 members of a doomsday cult, moments before the killer cocktail was to be handed round.

The situation is certainly tense in some parts of the world. While Moscow socialites are paying $1,000-a-head for tickets to an apocalypse-themed party in an old Cold War bunker near the Kremlin, many provincial Russians are terrified.

Line of defence: World War II historian Marc Halter at the Maginot Line's Schoenenberg bunker in Alsace, which will need to do better than it did in 1940

There have been reports of panic-buying, especially of torches, Thermos flasks and kerosene lamps. The city of Novokuznetsk has seen a run on salt while the Siberian city of Tomsk has enjoyed a roaring trade in ‘survival kits’ which include rope, bandages and a can of sprats.

Even President Vladmimir Putin has stepped in to calm things down. ‘I know when the end of the world will come,’ he told a Moscow press conference yesterday. ‘It will be in 4.5 billion years approximately.’ Explaining that the sun will eventually run out of steam, Mr Putin continued:

‘Everything will end and the reactor will go out — that will be the end of the world.’
Other voices of international calm have included the Vatican’s official astronomer and the space agency, NASA. ‘I hear from kids who say they can’t eat, they can’t sleep, they’re considering suicide,’ said NASA’s David Morrison.

Quoting a poll which suggested that 25 million Americans do not expect to see Christmas, he went on: ‘I worry about those people. There’s nothing that’s going to happen to the Earth, no cosmic catastrophe. It’s a little scary to think of millions of people who are storing up guns and machetes. I just hope they stay in their hole and don’t come out and make a mess.’

In China, the authorities have arrested more than 600 members of the ‘Almighty God’ cult for spreading rumours of an upcoming catastrophe. One leaflet reads: ‘Advice before catastrophe: Satan’s men will be extinct. Only the Almighty God can save man. Anybody who resists God will go to Hell.’

For many end-of-the-worlders, though, it is simply a case of ‘always look on the bright side of life’. Dating websites have seen a surge in people seeking apocalyptic dates and even ‘end of the world sex’.

As New York model Niki Ghazian has informed the New York Post, she plans to go out with a party and, she hopes, a romantic encounter: ‘If I die, I don’t want to die on a dry spell. Everybody should go out feeling satisfied. If the world’s gonna end, why hold back?’

Waiting game: Natives in Guatemala are pictured hosting celebrations marking the end of the Mayan age - foretold in bygone times as the signal for the end of the world - at the Tikal archaeological site

But now there may be a few sheepish looks in a corner of south-east France, which was cited as the only safe spot, unless of course that UFO did turn up and they just haven't told us about it.

And one gambler was left red-faced after putting a £10 bet on the apocalypse, standing to win £50,000 if the world had ended today.

Martin Muller, a 26-year-old, from London, made the bizarre bet at odds of 5,000-1 after hearing of the Mayan Prophecy that the world would be destroyed, or changed, today at 11.11am (GMT).

He made the bet with friend Rob Moss after telling him there was more chance of the world ending than his bicycle courier business being a success.

Mr Muller said: 'I told Rob there was more chance of the world ending than his company getting off the ground.

So I thought as a joke I'd make the bet, I'd heard of the Mayan prophecy about December 21 being the apocalypse so thought what have I got to lose?'

Not such a safe bet: Martin Muller was set to make £50,000 after placing a £10 wager on the coming of the apocalypse with betting firm Paddy Power

Mr Muller's prediction for the business has already proved inaccurate as the courier service has proved so successful he has joined up himself.

With Australia one of the first countries to see the sun rise on what is supposed to be the end of days, Tourism Australia's Facebook page was bombarded with posts asking if anyone survived Down Under.

Yes, we're alive,' the organisation responded to worried users.

Scientists in Taiwan also had their tongues firmly in cheek, setting up a two-story replica of a Mayan pyramid and planting an electronic countdown timer on top, drawing crowds at the National Museum of Natural Science.

'This is not the end of the world. This is the beginning of the new world,' Star Johnsen-Moser, an American seer, said at a gathering of hundreds of spiritualists at a convention centre in Mexico's Yucatan city of Merida, an hour and a half from the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza.

Good time: Men disguised in 'martian' outfits drink beers on the streets of France. Doomsday followers were convinced there will be no December 22nd for anyone except for those who make it to the hamlet, which has a population of 189 people

Alien fun: Women with their faces painted in green walk in the French southwestern village of Bugarach, near the 1,231 meter high peak of Bugarach - one of the few places on Earth some believe would be spared

Salvation: Backpackers arrive in Bugarath, the small village in the foothills of the Pyrenees.Five 'hippies' including one brandishing a Taser gun were turned back by French police as they tried to enter the mountain village

Draw: Bugarach, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, is said to contain a mystical UFO garage which will ferry people off planet earth as the Mayan Calendar runs out

'It is most important that we hold a positive, beautiful reality for ourselves and our planet. ... Fear is out of place.

'As the appointed time came and went in several parts of the world, there was no sign of the apocalypse.

Indeed, the social network Imgur posted photos of clocks turning midnight in the Asia-Pacific region with messages such as: 'The world has not ended. Sincerely, New Zealand.'

Five 'hippies' including one brandishing a Taser gun were turned back by French police as they tried to enter a mountain village tipped to avoid the end of the world today.

Rejoice: More than 5,000 people have gathered to mark the winter solstice at Stonehenge as the date coincides with the end of the 5,125-year "long count" cycle of the Mayan calendar

Double celebration: Winter solstice celebrated at Stonehenge with revellers, Druids & Pagans. More than usual congregated at Salisbury Plain as the date coincides with the end of the Mayan calendar

Mass appeal: Druids and pagans are among those who head to Stonehenge each December to watch the sunrise on the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere