How the world's Mayan apocalypse believers are waiting for the end

Around the world, believers are preparing for Doomsday this Friday - with a senior Chechen politician saying, "Candles won't help you," to a panicky populace.

In China, dozens of believers have been arrested, and DVDs of 'apocalyptic propanda' seized.

Hotels near a Serbian mountain have seen hundreds of booking requests from believers who think a buried UFO might save them from doom on Friday.

In America, 'doomsday preppers' have fled to underground shelters - while TGI Friday is offering a 'Rib Eye to End All Rib-Eyes' as part of a special 'End of the World' menu.

In Britain, of course, most people have kept calm - with the AA advising motorists to allow extra time for their journeys as the end of the world approaches.

Here's how countries around the world have prepared for 'the end'.

 

Beyond 2012: Why the World Won't End

Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know, however, it will be another winter solstice.

Contrary to some of the common beliefs out there, the claims behind the end of the world quickly unravel when pinned down to the 2012 timeline.

Below, NASA Scientists answer questions on the following 2012 topics:

End of the World'Prediction' OriginsMayan CalendarTotal BlackoutPlanetary AlignmentNibiru/Planet X/ErisPolar ShiftMeteor StrikeNASA ScienceSolar Storms

Question (Q): Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.

Answer (A):The world will not end in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.

Will the world end on 21 Dec 2012: Five doomsdays that never happened

According to internet conspiracy theorists, the world will end this Friday - a prediction based on an incorrect interpretation of Mayan theology, and a strange mix of New Age beliefs.

December 21 marks the end date in the civilisation’s “Long Count” calendar - and this date has become associated with wild predictions of alien visitations and apocalyptic events.

"December 21 will be just another Friday morning," says Dr Andrew Wilson, a University of Derby academic who has studied the origins of the December 21 myth.

But this bizarre theory is not the first to have people believing their days are numbered. Here are some of the other predicted doomsdays that never happened:

Rapture, May 21, 2011

Those terrified by this Friday’s predicted doomsday would do well to remember last year’s flop forecast of the Rapture by Evangelical preacher Harold Camping.

The now notorious 91-year-old American radio broadcaster was so certain that Jesus Christ would return to Earth and that billions of apparent ne’er-do-wells would perish in flames that he spent $100million advertising the event.

Former New York Subway worker Robert Fitzpatrick, 61, even sank his $140,000 life savings into warning that only 200million faithful - or 2.8% of the world’s population - would be saved

When May 21 last year passed and nothing happened, Camping revised the date of the Rapture and end of the world to October 21. Again, the date passed without infamy.

After months of silence, Camping, who had also once predicted the same fate for September 1994, “humbly” admitted: “We were wrong.”