Weekend forums at YSU on Maya Prophecy, end of the world

Weekend forums at YSU on Maya Prophecy, end of the world

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Maya Prophecy and predictions of the end of the world will be examined at special presentations 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Ward Beecher Planetarium at Youngstown State University.

The presentations are free, open to the public and feature Matt O’Mansky, YSU associate professor of Sociology and Anthropology, and Pat Durrell, associate professor of Physics and Astronomy.

Titled “The Maya Prophecy Explained,” the presentation focuses on the significance of Dec. 21, 2012, both as to the origin of the Maya calendar and the people who created it, and an exploration of the many astronomical and other “doomsday” predictions that have been suggested to occur on that date.

The long-count Mayan calendar, which spans roughly 5,125 years starting in 3114 B.C., reaches the end of a cycle on Dec. 21, 2012, and many have predicted that the world will end on that day.