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As World Doesn't End, the Parties Remain the Same

Ceremonial fires burned as dawn broke over the steps of the main pyramid at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itzá Friday, marking what many believe is the conclusion of a vast, 5,125-year cycle in the Mayan calendar.

No one was quite sure at what time the calendar would cease to mark the days. Many interpreted the moment as doomsday despite the insistence of archeologists and the Maya themselves it meant no such thing. Fears of mass suicides, huge power cuts, natural disasters, epidemics or an asteroid hurtling toward Earth had circulated ahead of Dec. 21, 2012.

One thing became clear by Friday morning: The world had not ended.

Australia was one of the first countries to see the sun rise on December 21, and Tourism Australia's Facebook FB -1.07 % page was bombarded with posts asking if anyone had survived Down Under.

"Yes, we're alive," the organization responded to fretting users.

For the hundreds gathered early Friday in the ancient Mayan city the moment marked the birth of a new and better age.

After 'Doomsday,' Still Standing

Genaro Hernández stood with his arms outstretched to the morning light, all clad in white, facing the pyramids' gray stone, to welcome the new era.

"This world is being reborn as a better world," said Mr. Hernández, a 55-year old accountant who wore an expression of bliss.


Whatever the details, the chance to mark epochal change seemed to be the main concern among celebrants around the globe.

In Turkey, thousands of tourists flocked to Sirince, a picturesque village east of the Aegean Sea that believers in a potential cataclysm had said would be spared on Friday. In Bugarach, France, a village that was said to be harboring an alien spacecraft in a nearby mountain that would enable people to survive an apocalypse, authorities cordoned off the area, fearing an influx of doomsday believers. But on Friday journalists and partygoers outnumbered the survivalists.




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