by: Joan Abigail Pelpinosas
“The end is nigh!” Didn’t we almost hear that “warning” everyday? Sounds familiar?
Since the dawn of time, prophets and sibyls (Greek fortune-tellers) have long predicted the “end of the world phenomena” also know as Doomsday, Armageddon or the Apocalypse. The well-known physician and astrologer, Nostradamus (1503-1566) was one of the first to predict the Doomsday prophecy beginning on the year 1550 where he started making his book Centuries which was published in 1555. In the book Centuries, Nostradamus presents his predictions in the form of a four-line rhyming verse called quatrains. He describes, in a vague language, the upcoming events from the mid-1550s towards the end of the world. He also noted that the year AD 3797 was the day that the “end of the world” phenomena will happen. However, Nostradamus’ predictions are not the only ones that people feared. Various scholars and historians who have been studying the writings of earlier prophets also concluded that the 2000 millennium was said to be the year of the upcoming Doomsday prophecy filled with great wars and strange global phenomena. Much to the people’s dismay, it never quite happened. But still, few others were “brave” enough to say “the end is still nigh (near)!”.
Recently, another prediction of the Doomsday prophecy was now linked towards the Mayan Calendar. The Mayas, one of the oldest civilizations to inhabit the world, devised a calendar which was believed to predict the end of the world set exactly on December 21, 2012. The “Long Count” calendar, which the Mayas called it, is the basis for their creation cycle where they wait for the coming of the winter solstice marking the end of the 1444, 000-day cycle of their creation date. According to Maya scholars, the calendar was said to consist 13 baktuns; and after the end of the 13 baktuns (which is said to be December 21, 2012), the end of the world will come. In relation to this, the Mayas also believed that the god of transition, Bolon Yokte’, will be a witness to a ceremony embarking this day by King Bahlam Ahaw’s descendants. But there was no mention of any Doomsday prophecy. The Mayas also made some predictions for the year 2012.
But contrary to this, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States of America have concluded that the December 21, 2012 predictions were a hoax and even tried to explain to the public that none of these events will ever happen (such as the predictions that the planets Nibiru and X would collide with Earth on the same day). On the other hand, the church also concludes that it may happen but that no one can ever predict the Doomsday phenomena but God Himself. The church advice to people is constant prayer and preparedness if such event will happen in the future.
People have different ideas on what will happen in the event the Doomsday prophecy comes into reality. Some would say hunger, war, and rise of great powers, diseases, massive chaos and destruction to countries, poverty and other unexplained global phenomena like climate change. Some would also say there would be a possibility that a dawn of a new virus that causes a zombie apocalypse would happen as seen in most science fiction films. The movie Deep Impact portrays the event where a huge asteroid collided the earth – dust cloud blocking the sun and 350-foot tidal wave flooding 650 miles inland, destroying major cities in the world. The world super power countries has deviced a plan to create their own version of Noahs Ark to save remaining lives on earth including animal and plant species.
Whatever the prediction, people seem to “cannot get enough” about the end of the world phenomena and no sooner that it became a viral on social networking sites and even in mainstream media. The propensity on the concept of end of the world may lead into a possible mass hysteria when people start misinterpreting the messages of the Mayan calendar and Nostradamus’ prophecies. But when it comes to public opinion, it is always the ‘half and half’. Half may dismiss it as a hoax and half may claim it could be true. But it may or may not come. Nobody knows for sure. Just like what the church says, be always ‘prepared’ and pray. No one can predict the end of the world as much as no one can predict when they will ‘end’ themselves.
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