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More smiles than fear greet world’s possible end

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Napa Valley Register, December 19, 2012 – For a quarter century, various believers in alternative faiths have marked Dec. 21, 2012 as a possible end point, or the coming of a new era, for the universe. On Wednesday, various Napans treated the day less as a fateful occasion and more as a humorous thought experiment.

“I’d be with my family — not really doing anything, just enjoying each other’s company,” Kathy Cabrera of the Downtown Joe’s brewpub said about her plans for her final day, be it Friday or another time. “Or I’d be laying on the beach in Hawaii!”

While other world’s-end predictions have sprung from living ministers and spiritual leaders — such as the Oakland radio evangelist Harold Camping’s promotion of May 21, 2011 as the end of days — the 2012 phenomenon stems from interpretations of a calendar used by the Maya, a Mesoamerican people whose cities flourished from the fourth to the 10th centuries only to be almost completely abandoned.

The Maya’s method of tracking time included units from 18 days to 144,000 (more than 394 years), the latter known as a baktun. Two inscriptions at Central American archeological sites reportedly refer to Dec. 21 as the closing of the 13th baktun, a span of 5,125 years. However, no other Maya-era carvings mention the date, and the significance of the day in Maya lore is unknown beyond its place as a “round” number in the ancient calendar, somewhat like the year 2000 in the modern Gregorian calendar.

Some believers in the Dec. 21 apocalypse have conflated the Mayan calendar with a belief that a planetary catastrophe looms on that day, such as a meteor or an allegedly undiscovered planet’s collision with Earth, NASA said in a website the space agency posted about 2012-related theories.

Perhaps because of the idea’s links to long-vanished peoples and civilizations, the occasion has seemingly brought more smiles than fear, as well as an extra pretext for holiday revelry.

Events set for Friday range from numerous parties in major cities to special late-night hours at the Griffith Observatory above Los Angeles, which is staying open until 12:01 a.m. Saturday to debunk any notions of an apocalypse.

Inside the Napa Smith Brewery’s tasting room south of Napa, some 200 guests are expected to mark the day with pints of microbrewed beer, a live band and more than a little levity. The event starts at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

The brewery’s mock-apocalyptic theme arose a year ago during an unrelated exercise, according to Ellen Sutton, the brewery’s pub room manager and organizer of the event.

As some of Napa Smith’s 14 employees brainstormed names for a new India pale ale, one man suggested the “Hopageddon” moniker as an emblem of the brew’s punch, then realized the idea could fit more than just a new beer formula.

“It’s a tongue-in-cheek thing; we even have the fiery hops falling onto the city” in Napa Smith’s handbills, she said Wednesday inside the tap room. “It’s not like we’ll be handing out survival packs or anything.”

Elsewhere in Napa, various residents and visitors met the story mostly with smiles — but also declared hopes to surround themselves with family and friends on their final day, whenever it might be.

“I’d definitely spend the whole day with my 8-month-old son,” said Jeannie Kobert of Napa. “Something simple; he likes the swings in the park.”

At least one downtown visitor, though, planned on raising a different kind of toast to the supposed end of time if it comes.

“Probably I’d be drinking wine,”  said Derek Bideshi, who had come from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to tour the county. “If I was in Napa, I’d make it a nice cabernet sauvignon — and I’d try not to worry about it being the last day,” he added, laughing.


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