A global day of light-hearted, doom-themed celebration and superstitious scaremongering culminated at the ancient temples of the Mayan people in Guatemala, whose calendar sparked the latest rumours of an apocalypse.
December 21 marked the end of an era that lasted 5,200 years, according to the Mayan “Long Count” calendar. Some believe the date, which coincides with the solstice, marks the end of the world as foretold by Mayan hieroglyphs.
But “No, no,” scholars and native elders said – it just marks the end of the old Mayan calendar and the beginning of a new one.
That didn’t stop thousands of people from gathering at ancient Mayan stone pyramids in the Guatemalan jungle, where actors in costumes and head-dresses staged elaborate dances to a mournful soundtrack of pan-pipe tunes.
Unfortunately the crowds were too much for one of the ancient structures – officials said parts of one temple at the Tikal archaelogical site had been damaged by party-goers.
“Sadly, many tourists climbed Temple II and caused damage,” said Osvaldo Gomez, a technical adviser at the site, which is located some 550 kilometres north of Guatemala City.
“We are fine with the celebration, but [the tourists] should be more aware because this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site,” he told local media.
In the village of Sirince in Turkey, about 500 villagers and roughly the same number of disappointed journalists watched the clock tick past the appointed hour for the End of Days, with no whisper of a Last Trump.
Doomsayers had identified Sirince as a safe haven that would be spared destruction, and local merchants had laid on extra supplies of wine to cope with the expected demand.
Some villagers were bemused by the whole thing: “We have no clue why people thought we would have thousands pouring into Sirince,” said Ali Gulumser. “To me it sounds like a hoax invented by the media.”
“I heard from a Turkish car driver that Tom Cruise was here,” said Ina Teichert, a 47-year-old German tourist visiting the town.
“The world will continue tomorrow and after tomorrow. But we thought maybe we could come here and meet Cruise.”
Crowds also flocked to Alto Paraiso, a small town in central Brazil built over a crystal quartz formation that mystics have long associated with special energy.
But the authorities there were prepared, because in 2000 the town was also swamped by outsiders preparing for a previous end-of-the-world that didn’t happen.
In the southern French village of Bugarach – another of the few places rumoured to be spared the pending apocalypse – journalists from across the world were bitterly disappointed at the lack of New Age adherents to interview.
Police had wrongly anticipated a mass influx of visitors and blocked access to the village and the mountain, which some claimed would open on the last day and aliens would emerge with spaceships to save nearby humans.
Elsewhere in Europe, a record numbers of visitors flocked to a pyramid-shaped mountain in Serbia believed by some to be a source of electromagnetic waves that could shield it from catastrophe.
In China, the United Nations was forced to issue a denial that it was selling tickets to an exclusive “ark” designed to withstand the coming apocalypse.
“The United Nations sincerely has not issued any boat tickets,” said a post on the UN’s verified account on Sina Weibo – a website similar to Twitter.
Novelty tickets titled “United Nations 2012 China Tibetan Noah’s Ark tickets”, were widely available on Chinese auction websites, retailing for around 10 yuan (B50) – although their face value is 10 billion yuan.
One ticket stated that ark boarding would take place “at the departure port 15 minutes before the close”.
The apocalypse predictions were widely discussed in China, thanks in part to the success of the Hollywood film “2012”, which depicted a Chinese-built apocalypse ark.
But there has also been a darker side in China, with authorities arresting some 1,000 people in a crackdown on a Christian sect that spread doomsday rumours.
Australia was one of the first countries to see the sun rise on December 21, and Tourism Australia’s Facebook page was bombarded with posts asking if anyone had survived Down Under.
US space agency NASA was been contacted by thousands of worried people asking what to do. In a web page devoted to debunking the Mayan prophecies, it reassured them that the world will not end in 2012.
“Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than four billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012,” it said.