by Dian Obligacion | Jan 13, 2014 | Mayan Superstition and beliefs
When the year 2012 reared its head almost two years ago, everybody was in awed anticipation. Is the end of the world really at hand? Blame it on the so-called “Doomsday Mayan Prediction”. For sure, everybody still remembers that, right? According to a Mayan calendar, the end of the world will be on December 21, 2012. Now, I won’t have to go into details about how that calendar was discovered, who discovered it, etcetera, etcetera, blah blah blah. No, I won’t do that here. But, there is just one question that lingers on my head and I’m sure it is also lingering on a few individuals here on Earth:
“Was the Mayan prediction a hoax or did someone misinterpreted it?” And this question leads to another one almost relative to the first: “Were the Mayans incorrect with their prediction?”
First of all, since it is already the year 2014, we all already heaved a sigh of relief and safely say that that prediction of the Mayans was entirely a hoax. Many people were duped into it. Some even went too far or overboard by constructing their own bunker and stuffed it with provisions that can last decades for their respective family’s consumption. There were even a lot of different websites all over the internet that are telling a lot about “2012” like the history of that Mayan prediction to different tips on what to do before, during and after the whatever is coming, that is, if they have survived and even went money-crazy by selling survival kits, water tanks, books on how to survive the Armageddon and a lot more.
Millions of dollars were wasted on these things alone. Now, since we have all “survived” the “Armageddon”, what will they do with all of those provisions? Now, ask yourself once again: “Was it a hoax or did somebody just misinterpreted the Mayan doomsday prediction?”
So, if somebody miscalculated or misinterpreted the calendar, then, that means to say that the calendar was actually right to some few points. According to Ann Martin, a doctoral candidate in Cornell University’s department of astronomy, the Mayan calendar was or is cyclical. The long count of that calendar was really meant to end on December 2012 and that means that it is the end of great calendar cycle in Mayan society. If you try to look at it, it’s much like our modern society celebrated the new Millennium, the new beginning for everyone.
So, that explains it, basically. But, don’t think that there will be no end of the world. There will be and it depends on how one will look at it, right? As for the Mayan prediction, let us just say that “it is doing away with the old” and it’s the same as New Year’s Resolution.
by Dian Obligacion | Jan 10, 2014 | Mayan Artwork
Long even before all people of the world knows about the Mayan calendar of doomsday, which everybody already know was not true, a lot of people are already fascinated very much by the cultures and tradition of the Mayans. Well, that is not surprising because, the fact of the matter is, the Mayans is one group of a race that has been considered as the cradle of civilization and it can be evidently seen on everything that the Mayans have like their arts and crafts.
Even today, people from many different places are searching for hard-to-find Mayan arts and crafts. Whey, there are even other people who will pay a lot of money just to get their hands on these artifacts. But, frankly speaking, these hard-to-find items are really, well, hard to find.
One of these unique and rare items is a Mayan sacrificial knife. The ceremonial knife, with a jade handle and obsidian blade, was used by Mayans, especially their religious leaders for sacrifices. Sacrifice was a part of Mayan religious practice and most of those that they offered to their gods are their enemies and slaves.
If anybody have seen the movie by Mel Gibson, “Apocalypto”, that is how these Mayans have carried out their sacrifices. The worse thing is, when they are in the middle of a famine, they will be sacrificing more human lives which usually went on throughout the day because they believe that if doing so, the Mayan gods will spare them from the famine and will bring about rain to make their harvest bountiful. But, of course, this kind of tradition was cut off when Spaniards came.
The real sacrificial knives that were used by Mayans are made out of stones. The knives that were found by archaeologists during their diggings have traces of muscle, tendons, skin and even hair on these sharp obsidian knives which were dated back at around 2,000 years ago. These knives found proved that, indeed, sacrifices really took place when the Mayans were still at the top of the civilization.
The findings were authenticated through forensic samples and sacrifices were believed to be carried out 1000 years before the Aztecs. For many years, it was debated whether this kind of act is just an urban legend. Researchers in Mexico have proven that this urban legend is no legend at all. Another evidence which is considered indirect types of evidences were the human skeletons found in the areas where Mayans used to lived have cuts marks on their bones.
Because these artifacts or ancient Mayan items were considered as an important part in knowing the cultures and traditions of ancient Mayans, both local and foreign tourists are looking far and wide for the authentic obsidian knives. Most of them have found on areas where these sacrifices took place or at nearby cities where they are being sold. But, there are others who are satisfied with replicas of ancient Mayan sacrificial obsidian knives.
by Linda McManus | Jul 10, 2013 | Mayan Artwork
The Mayan artwork is very distinctive when it comes to style and the medium they were using during the time their civilization were in power. It was during the later Pre-classic period, which is 500 B.C. to 200 A.D., that these art works of the Mayas have started to take shape as it evolve. However, Mayan art work later bloomed into something that can be considered as epic during the seven centuries of the Classic period which was from 200 to 900 A.D. Unfortunately, with the discovery of this ancient New World, most of the art work of the Mayans such as their paintings, sculpture and wood carvings were destroyed by the Spaniards because they were considered as items of idolatry. However, a few Mayan art works have survived the “art work holocaust” and even survived the test of time paving the way for the interest of our modern civilization for the ancient Mayan artworks. (more…)
When the year 2012 reared its head almost two years ago, everybody was in awed anticipation. Is the end of the world really at hand? Blame it on the so-called “Doomsday Mayan Prediction”. For sure, everybody still remembers that, right? According to a Mayan calendar, the end of the world will be on December 21, 2012. Now, I won’t have to go into details about how that calendar was discovered, who discovered it, etcetera, etcetera, blah blah blah. No, I won’t do that here. But, there is just one question that lingers on my head and I’m sure it is also lingering on a few individuals here on Earth:
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