Does Anyone Still Practice the Mayan Religion?

[American_Jihad]

Does Anyone Still Practice the Mayan Religion?

If the world ends Friday, someone should get to take the credit.

By Brian Palmer|Posted Wednesday,
Dec. 19, 2012

Residents of Merida, Mexico, many of whom trace their ancestry to the ancient Maya, say their forefathers’ religion does not predict an apocalypse this Friday, contrary to Internet rumor. Do people still practice the religion of the ancient Maya?

Sort of. In a modern Mayan religious ceremony, the faithful typically scatter the floor with pine needles and burn incense, filling the air with fragrance. A holy man—known as a “day keeper” for his knowledge of the significance of various days in the 260-day Mayan calendar—recites incantations to the gods of the earth and sky. Lay people do not typically participate in the recitation but stand or kneel around an altar. The faithful place a variety of offerings to the gods on an altar, including chocolate, candles, perfumes, and alcohol. At the end of the ceremony, participants usually pass around a container of corn- or sugar-based liquor.

---
End of world 2012: Do people still practice the Mayan religion? - Slate Magazine

 

[konradv]

Any practioners would undoubtedly be modern adopters. The Spaniards had a very strict "convert or die" policy.

 

[waltky]

Granny gonna get Uncle Ferd to take her to the airport so she can watch all Hari Krishners scurry around onna last day of the world...

In Mexico, New Agers hope Dec. 21 brings new era
Dec 20,`12 -- The crystal skulls have spoken: The world is not going to end.

American seer Star Johnsen-Moser led a whooping, dancing, drum-beating ceremony Thursday in the heart of Mayan territory to consult several of the life-sized crystal skulls, which adherents claim were passed down by the ancient Maya. The skulls weren't the only inheritances left by the ancient civilization that have been making waves this week: The supposed end of the Maya long-count calendar on Friday has prompted a wave of doomsday speculation across the globe. "This is not the end of the world, this is the beginning of the new world," Johnsen-Moser said at a gathering of hundreds of spiritualists at a convention center in Merida. "It is most important that we hold a positive, beautiful reality for ourselves and our planet ... Fear is out of place."

The supposed 5 a.m. Friday doomsday hour had already arrived in several parts of the world with no sign of the apocalypse. 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." In Merida, the celebration of the cosmic dawn began with a fumbling of the sacred fire meant to honor the calendar's conclusion. Gabriel Lemus, the white-haired guardian of the flame, burned his finger on the kindling and later had to scoop up a burning log that was knocked out of the ceremonial brazier onto the wooden stage.

Still, the white-clad Lemus was convinced that it was a good start, as he was joined by about 1,000 other shamans, seers, stargazers, crystal enthusiasts, yogis, sufis and swamis at the convention center about an hour and a half from the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. "It is a cosmic dawn," said Lemus. "We will recover the ability to communicate telepathically and levitate objects ... like our ancestors did." Celebrants later held their arms in the air in a salute to the Thursday morning sun. "The galactic bridge has been established," announced spiritual leader Alberto Arribalzaga, who led the ceremony. "At this moment, spirals of light are entering the center of your head ... Generating powerful vortexes that cover the planet."

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See also:

Global doomsday hot spots draw believers, revelers
Dec 20,`12 - Though the Mayans never really predicted that the world would end on Friday, some New Agers are convinced that humanity's demise is indeed imminent. Or at least that it's a good excuse for a party.

Believers are being drawn to spots where they think their chances of survival will be better, and accompanying them are the curious, the party-lovers and people wanting to make some money. Here are some of the world's key doomsday destinations and other places marked by fear and fascination.

MEXICO

About 1,000 self-described shamans, seers, stargazers, crystal enthusiasts, yogis, sufis and swamis are gathering in a convention center in the city of Merida on the Yucatan peninsula about an hour and a half from the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, convinced that it was a good start to the coming "New Era" supposed to begin around 5:00 a.m. local time Friday. These are not people who believe the world will end on Friday: the summit is scheduled to run through Dec. 23. Instead, participants say, they want to celebrate the birth of a new age. Meanwhile, Mexico's self-styled "brujo mayor," or chief soothsayer, Antonio Vazquez Alba, who warned followers to stay away from all gatherings on Dec. 21. "We have to beware of mass psychosis" that could lead to stampedes or "mass suicides, of the kind we've seen before," he said.

Star gazers are planning to welcome in the new era with a dawn ceremony Friday at Uxmal, the only major Mayan pyramid that has rounded edges. Others will spend the day at the more famous Chichen Itza archaeological site. Also, organizers of Yucatan's broader Mayan Culture Festival saw the need to answer some of the now-debunked idea that the Mayas, who invented an amazingly accurate calendar almost 2,000 years ago, had somehow predicted the end of the world. The Yucatan state government asked a scientist to talk about the work of Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland to debunk the idea it could produce world-ending rogue particles.

FRANCE

According to one rumor, a rocky mountain in the French Pyrenees will be the sole place on earth to escape destruction. A giant UFO and aliens are said to be waiting under the mountain, ready to burst through and spirit those nearby to safety. But here is bad news for those seeking salvation: French gendarmes, some on horseback, are blocking outsiders from reaching the Bugarach peak and its village of some 200 people. One believer, Ludovic Broquet, a 30-year-old plumber, made his way to the mountain after a year of preparation, hoping to find a "gateway, the vortex that will open up here (at) the end of the world." Local residents, instead, are skeptical - and angry at having their peace disturbed. "What is going on here is the creation of an urban legend," fumed resident Michele Pous, who blamed those who spread Internet rumors. "They created a media frenzy, they created a false event, they manipulated people."

RUSSIA

 

[Staidhup]

Lets hope not, otherwise human sacrifices are set to increase within the next few hours!

 

[American_Jihad]

12/21/12
1:34 am

I'M still here watching stinking msnbc's last word with that-------slow------talking------Laurence O'Dildo...

 

[Cammmpbell]

Does Anyone Still Practice the Mayan Religion?

If the world ends Friday, someone should get to take the credit.

By Brian Palmer|Posted Wednesday,
Dec. 19, 2012

Residents of Merida, Mexico, many of whom trace their ancestry to the ancient Maya, say their forefathers’ religion does not predict an apocalypse this Friday, contrary to Internet rumor. Do people still practice the religion of the ancient Maya?

Sort of. In a modern Mayan religious ceremony, the faithful typically scatter the floor with pine needles and burn incense, filling the air with fragrance. A holy man—known as a “day keeper” for his knowledge of the significance of various days in the 260-day Mayan calendar—recites incantations to the gods of the earth and sky. Lay people do not typically participate in the recitation but stand or kneel around an altar. The faithful place a variety of offerings to the gods on an altar, including chocolate, candles, perfumes, and alcohol. At the end of the ceremony, participants usually pass around a container of corn- or sugar-based liquor.

---
End of world 2012: Do people still practice the Mayan religion? - Slate Magazine

What difference does it make. One load of primitive horse shit is just as effective as another.

To me their calendar ending yesterday and nothing new is simply another failed prediction and you can bet your ass when a person ends their life on this earth they will not rise from the grave, join some ghost floating on a cloud, fly off to paradise to live in eternal bliss while folks who don't believe in ghosts and fairy tales roast like chestnuts on an open fire....one load of ignorant, ancient, primitive bullshit is the same as another.

 

[waltky]

Granny says the thirteenth anythin' ain't good...

'Mayan day of apocalypse' arrives
21 December 2012 - Ceremonies in Central America to mark the end of the Mayan calendar

Thousands of people have gathered at ancient sites in Central America and elsewhere in anticipation of what they believe will be the end of the world. The date - 21 December 2012 - is, some believe, the end of the "long count" calendar of the Mayan civilisation. In China, police have arrested hundreds of members of a Christian group who apparently believe the prophecy. Last year, experts said a new reading of the calendar showed that it did not in fact predict the apocalypse. Many believe the date instead marks the start of a new era in the calendar.

Among the believers of the "apocalypse" themselves, there are different accounts as to when exactly the world should end. Some said it would end at midnight on Thursday, while others gave the deadline of just after 11:00 GMT on Friday. Both predictions have failed to materialise. Another group of followers said they were waiting for Friday's dawn, but that has also come and gone. The misconception about the "prophecy" is not the only myth circulating about the Maya, the BBC's Will Grant in Mexico reports.

Many believe they were wiped out shortly after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th Century, our correspondent says. But, in fact, the descendants of the people who built Chichen Itza, a Unesco World Heritage Site, are still here. They are the second-largest ethnic group in Mexico, with between 800,000 and a million native Mayan speakers. The ancient Maya flourished in modern-day Mexico and parts of Central America between 250 and 900AD.

'Galactic bridge'

See also:

Mexico's Maya heartland greets dawn of new era
Dec 21,`12 -- Dec. 21 started out as the prophetic day some had believed would usher in the fiery end of the world. By Friday afternoon, it had become the punch line of countless Facebook posts and at least several dozen T-shirts.

At the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza, thousands chanted, danced and otherwise frolicked around ceremonial fires and pyramids to mark the conclusion of a vast, 5,125-year cycle in the Mayan calendar. The doomsayers who had predicted apocalypse were nowhere to be seen. Instead, people showed up in T-shirts reading "The End of the World: I Was There." Vendors eager to sell their ceramic handicrafts and wooden masks called out to passing visitors, "Buy something before the world ends." And on Twitter, (hash)EndoftheWorld had become one of the day's most popular hash tags. For the masses in the ruins, Dec. 21 sparked celebration of what they saw as the birth of a new and better age. It was also inspiration for massive clouds of patchouli and marijuana smoke and a chorus of conch calls at the break of dawn.

The boisterous crowd included Buddhists, pagan nature worshippers, druids and followers of Aztec and Maya religious traditions. Some kneeled in attitudes of prayer, some seated with arms outstretched in positions of meditation, all facing El Castillo, the massive main pyramid. Ceremonies were being held at different sides of the pyramid, including one led by a music group that belted out American blues and reggae-inspired chants. Others involved yelping and shouting, and drumming and dance, such as one ceremony led by spiritual master Ollin Yolotzin. "The world was never going to end, this was an invention of the mass media," said Yolotzin, who leads the Aztec ritual dance group Cuautli-balam. "It is going to be a good era. ... We are going to be better."

Ivan Gutierrez, a 37-year-old artist who lives in the nearby village, stood before the pyramid and blew a low, sonorous blast on a conch horn. "It has already arrived, we are already in it," he said of the new era. "We are in a frequency of love, we are in a new vibration." But it was unclear how long the love would last: A security guard quickly came over and asked him to stop blowing his conch shell, enforcing the ruin site's ban on holding ceremonies without previous permits. Similar rites greeted the new era in neighboring Guatemala, where Mayan spiritual leaders burned offerings and families danced in celebration. Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina and Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla attended an official ceremony in the department of Peten, along with thousands of revelers and artists.

Despite all the pomp, no one is certain the period known as the Mayas' 13th Baktun officially ended Friday. Some think it may have happened at midnight. Others looked to Friday's dawn here in the Maya heartland. Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History even suggested historical calculations to synchronize the Mayan and Western calendars might be off a few days. It said the Mayan Long Count calendar cycle might not really end until Sunday. One thing, however, became clear to many by Friday afternoon: The world had not yet ended.

MORE

 

[Sallow]

Any practioners would undoubtedly be modern adopters. The Spaniards had a very strict "convert or die" policy.

How Christian of them..

 

[American_Jihad]

Does Anyone Still Practice the Mayan Religion?

If the world ends Friday, someone should get to take the credit.

By Brian Palmer|Posted Wednesday,
Dec. 19, 2012

Residents of Merida, Mexico, many of whom trace their ancestry to the ancient Maya, say their forefathers’ religion does not predict an apocalypse this Friday, contrary to Internet rumor. Do people still practice the religion of the ancient Maya?

Sort of. In a modern Mayan religious ceremony, the faithful typically scatter the floor with pine needles and burn incense, filling the air with fragrance. A holy man—known as a “day keeper” for his knowledge of the significance of various days in the 260-day Mayan calendar—recites incantations to the gods of the earth and sky. Lay people do not typically participate in the recitation but stand or kneel around an altar. The faithful place a variety of offerings to the gods on an altar, including chocolate, candles, perfumes, and alcohol. At the end of the ceremony, participants usually pass around a container of corn- or sugar-based liquor.

---
End of world 2012: Do people still practice the Mayan religion? - Slate Magazine

What difference does it make. One load of primitive horse shit is just as effective as another.

To me their calendar ending yesterday and nothing new is simply another failed prediction and you can bet your ass when a person ends their life on this earth they will not rise from the grave, join some ghost floating on a cloud, fly off to paradise to live in eternal bliss while folks who don't believe in ghosts and fairy tales roast like chestnuts on an open fire....one load of ignorant, ancient, primitive bullshit is the same as another.

That's what I been trying to tell them progressive/lib-tarts that utopia dreamland will never happen...

 

[percysunshine]

One hour left before the end of the world.

Now is the time to get in all those posts you wanted to make, but did not because of the fear of comebacks...

 

[American_Jihad]

One hour left before the end of the world.

Now is the time to get in all those posts you wanted to make, but did not because of the fear of comebacks...

You go ahead, will watch...

 

[varelse]

The Maya Today

 

[percysunshine]

Another urban legend bites the dust...

 

[PretentiousGuy]

Any practioners would undoubtedly be modern adopters. The Spaniards had a very strict "convert or die" policy.

Those are the lucky ones sometimes it was "convert then die"

 

[AVG-JOE]

Does Anyone Still Practice the Mayan Religion?

If the world ends Friday, someone should get to take the credit.

By Brian Palmer|Posted Wednesday,
Dec. 19, 2012

Residents of Merida, Mexico, many of whom trace their ancestry to the ancient Maya, say their forefathers’ religion does not predict an apocalypse this Friday, contrary to Internet rumor. Do people still practice the religion of the ancient Maya?

Sort of. In a modern Mayan religious ceremony, the faithful typically scatter the floor with pine needles and burn incense, filling the air with fragrance. A holy man—known as a “day keeper” for his knowledge of the significance of various days in the 260-day Mayan calendar—recites incantations to the gods of the earth and sky. Lay people do not typically participate in the recitation but stand or kneel around an altar. The faithful place a variety of offerings to the gods on an altar, including chocolate, candles, perfumes, and alcohol. At the end of the ceremony, participants usually pass around a container of corn- or sugar-based liquor.

---
End of world 2012: Do people still practice the Mayan religion? - Slate Magazine

What difference does it make. One load of primitive horse shit is just as effective as another.

To me their calendar ending yesterday and nothing new is simply another failed prediction and you can bet your ass when a person ends their life on this earth they will not rise from the grave, join some ghost floating on a cloud, fly off to paradise to live in eternal bliss while folks who don't believe in ghosts and fairy tales roast like chestnuts on an open fire....one load of ignorant, ancient, primitive bullshit is the same as another.

At least the Mayans were decent enough to put an actual date on the event so we can now move on.

Most of the 'Sacred' bullshit filtering down to us out of the Ancient Creation Stories & Prophecies ended up politically astute enough to just say "Wait indefinitely for it!"

 

[Mad Scientist]

Any practioners would undoubtedly be modern adopters. The Spaniards had a very strict "convert or die" policy.

By the time the Spaniards had shown up, the Mayans had already weakened themselves tremendously through Human Sacrifice.

The Spaniards just "mopped up" what was left.

Throughout History, ancient civilizations started out poor and oppressed, threw off the chains, became prosperous, then decadent and committed suicide. By the way I'm convinced that the US is in now in that "Decadent Suicide" portion of our evolution as a country.

The Mayans were in the process of committing suicide when the Spaniards showed up. If not for the Spaniards, it would have been some other opposing civilization.

 

[Katzndogz]

I know that mexicans in Los Angeles practice Aztec religions. Never heard much about Mayan religions.

In 2005 Juan Manuel Alvarez parked his car on the metrolink tracks. 11 people were killed in the crash. After watching the crash, Alvarez danced an aztec dance of victory.

 

[konradv]

Any practioners would undoubtedly be modern adopters. The Spaniards had a very strict "convert or die" policy.

By the time the Spaniards had shown up, the Mayans had already weakened themselves tremendously through Human Sacrifice.

The Spaniards just "mopped up" what was left.

Throughout History, ancient civilizations started out poor and oppressed, threw off the chains, became prosperous, then decadent and committed suicide. By the way I'm convinced that the US is in now in that "Decadent Suicide" portion of our evolution as a country.

The Mayans were in the process of committing suicide when the Spaniards showed up. If not for the Spaniards, it would have been some other opposing civilization.

Human sacrifice was not common in Mayan religion. You must be thinking of the Aztecs.

Sacrifice in Maya culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Human sacrifice in Aztec culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia