Phew, we survived! Deadline passes for Mayan apocalypse without raining fire or killer earthquakes (but it's tough luck for the chap who would have won £50,000 if we HAD all been wiped out)

Phew, we survived! Deadline passes for Mayan apocalypse without raining fire or killer earthquakes (but it's tough luck for the chap who would have won £50,000 if we HAD all been wiped out)

• Ancient Mayan calendar known as the Long Count ends today
  
• Across the globe believers are locking themselves in bomb shelters and preparing for the end
  
• Doomsday prophets have descended on Bugarach in France - said to be the best place to dodge extinction
  
• In Britain believers think the world will end - or change - at 11:11 GMT
  

Phew! The earth is still safely on its sphere despite Doomsdayer predictions of an impending apocalypse to coincide with the end of the Mayan age.

The human race has successfully navigated the 11.11am deadline on 21.12.12 - at least it appears so with no reports of the globe being besieged by raining fire or killer earthquakes.


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


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.

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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








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






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



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










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


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










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


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


VIDEO Thousands of revellers descend on Stonehenge to celebrate the winter solstice

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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.


Doomsday followers were convinced here will be no December 22nd for anyone except for those who make it to the hamlet, which has a population of 189 people.

It had swelled to around three times that amount today, with some 200 journalists joining mainly 'New Age types'.

But the 100 odd police set up road blocks and said no-one else would be allowed up until after Christmas.

'We've stopped five hippies so far, including one who was carrying a Taser,' said a local police spokesman, adding: 'All agreed to turn back from trying to get to the village, which is overcrowded enough as it is.


'There are a few more New Age types around - the kind you get at illegal raves - but they're not causing any problems.'




Ritual: Peruvian shamans perform a ritual at a beach to prevent the end of the world, in Lima





Ward off: Shamans performed several rituals to calm believers and ward off the end of the world predictions



Effort: A Peruvian shaman performs a ritual at the edge of the sea to stop the 'end of the world'

Nasa had tried to calm fears that doomsday was due with the release of a video of a senior scientist dispelling the various rumours of impending apocalypse.


David Morrison, a senior scientist and astrobiologist at NASA's Ames Research Centre, appears in the short film to reiterate the agency's belief that the rumours are just a 'big hoax'.

It is the second video this month Nasa has released in an effort to calm fears, after it was accused of tempting fate by releasing a film dubbed Why The World Didn't End Yesterday - ten days early.

However, that Nasa had seen fit to ask one of its most esteemed and learned scientists to answer the rumours showed the agency was taking seriously the possibility of mass panic.

Dr Morrison says: 'Nasa has received thousands of emails and calls from members of the public who are concerned, especially young people, so it seems only right that Nasa scientists should help to dispel these rumours.'






Preparation: Mayan priests place flowers for a ceremony at Iximche archeological site in preparation for the Oxlajuj B'aktun in Tecpan

In Merida, the celebration of the cosmic dawn opened inauspiciously, with a fumbling of the sacred fire meant to honour 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 fell from the ceremonial brazier on to the stage.

Still, he 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.

'It is a cosmic dawn,' he declared. '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 morning sun.



We're alive! Students in Taiwan jump together in front of a mock pyramid after the countdown time when many believe the Mayan people predicted the end of the world





Jubilant: In Britain believers think the world will end - or change - at 11:11 GMT

'The galactic bridge has been established,' intoned spiritual leader Alberto Arribalzaga. 'At this moment, spirals of light are entering the centre of your head ... generating powerful vortexes that cover the planet.'

Despite all the ritual and banter, few actually believed the world would end today - the summit was scheduled to run until Sunday.


Instead, participants said they were here to celebrate the birth of a new age.


A Mexican Indian seer who calls himself Ac Tah, and who has travelled around Mexico erecting small pyramids he calls 'neurological circuits', said he held high hopes for today.


'We are preparing ourselves to receive a huge magnetic field straight from the centre of the galaxy,' he said.


Briton Terry Kvasnik, 32, a stuntman from Manchester, said his motto for the day was 'be in love, don't be in fear'. As to which ceremony he would attend today, he said: 'I'm going to be in the happiest place I can.'



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






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






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'

At dozens of booths set up in the convention hall, visitors could have their auras photographed with 'Chi' light, get a shamanic cleansing or buy sandals, herbs and wholegrain baked goods. Cleansing usually involves having copal incense waved around one's body.

Visitors could also learn the art of 'healing drumming' with a Mexican Otomi Indian master, Dabadi Thaayroyadi, who said his slender hand-held drums were made with prayers embedded inside. The drums emit 'an intelligent energy' that can heal emotional, physical and social ailments, he says.

During the opening ceremony, participants chanted mantras to the blazing Yucatan sun, which quickly burned the fair-skinned crowd.




Violeta Simarro, a secretary from Perpignan, France, taking shelter under an awning, noted that the new age would not necessarily be easy.


'It will be a little difficult at first, because the world will need a complete 'nettoyage' (cleansing), because there are so many bad things,' she said.

But not all seers endorsed the celebration. Mexico's self-styled 'brujo mayor' or chief soothsayer, Antonio Vazquez Alba, warned followers to stay away from gatherings today.



Speaking out: A Turkish Muslim speaks to a crowd about doomsday in Sirince


Opportunity: Staff of the bar Carnegie's, pose as they hold a flyer for the 'end of the world' party, in Hong Kong


Party like no tomorrow: A Cold War bunker in Moscow designed to protect Soviet leaders in case of nuclear attacks will host the ultimate doomsday party

'We have to beware of mass psychosis' that could lead to stampedes or 'mass suicides, of the kind we've seen before', he said.



'If you get 1,000 people in one spot and somebody yells 'Fire!', watch out. The best thing is to stay at home, at work, in school, and at some point do a relaxation exercise.'

Others saw the gathering as a model for the coming age.


Participants from Asian, North American, South American and European shamanistic traditions mingled amiably with the Mexican hosts.


First past the post: 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



On stand by: Visitors and members of Naples amateur astronomy association 'Unione Astrofili Napoletani' stand by a telescope to dispute the world ending





Big talk: Massimo della Valle, the director of the astronomical observatory of Capodimonte delivers a speech on the end of the world


'This is the beginning of a change in priorities and perceptions. We are all one,' said Esther Romo, a Mexico City businesswoman who works in art promotion and galleries. 'No limits, no boundaries, no nationalities, just fusion.'

Gabriel Romero, a Los-Angeles based practitioner of crystal skull channelling, was so sure it was not the end of the world that he planned a welcome ceremony for the new age at dawn on Saturday, when he will erect a stele, a stone monument used by the Mayans to commemorate important dates or events.

The Maya, who invented an amazingly accurate calendar almost 2,000 years ago, measured time in 394-year periods known as baktuns.


Some anthropologists believe the 13th baktun ends on December 21. Still, archaeologists have uncovered Mayan glyphs that refer to dates far, far in the future, long beyond December 21.

Yucatan governor Rolando Zapata, whose state is home to Mexico's largest Mayan population and has benefited from a boom in tourism, said he too felt the good vibes.

'We believe that the beginning of a new baktun means the beginning of a new era, and we're receiving it with great optimism,' he said.

Thousands of tourists and spiritualists are expected for today's once-in-5,125-years event. 'All the flights to the city are completely full,' Mr Zapata said.






By Jill Reilly
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2251450/Phew-survived-Deadline-passes-Mayan-apocalypse-raining-killer-earthquakes-tough-luck-chap-won-50-000-HAD-wiped-out.html#ixzz2FhKtuKzb