I thought that only American new-agey types were falling for the so-called Mayan Armageddon prediction, but it seems that the frenzy has jumped to the Russians, who appear to be prone to mystical thinking. Ellen Barry, in the Sunday NYTimes (12/2/12) reports on a “collective mass psychosis” that afflicted a woman’s prison and got so out of hand that a priest was called in to calm the inmates. Elsewhere, shelves have been striped of emergency supplies by panicked citizens. The problem has gotten so severe that the government has stepped in, issuing statements declaring that the end is not near and prosecuting those to spread the rumor that it is.

Apparently similar panics are affecting the French, who have closed off access to a mountain in the south, thought to be sacred by some, against a flood of people believing they will be safe there. But the situation in Russia seems to be more widespread than anywhere else. One columnist, Maria Elsmont, “argued that the government’s recent embrace of archaic religious conservatism set the stage for apocalyptic thinking.” At the trial of Pussy Riot last summer, writings by 4th and 7th century Orthodox clerics were referenced in the sentencing, and the State Duma is considering outlawing the violation of religious believers’ feelings. If the government brings back its archaic past, “why shouldn’t people living in a depressed town…not buy matches out of a fear of cosmic flares?” she wrote.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, few Mayas are concerned about the coming mystic date. In fact, in the Yucatan a festival is being planned for Dec 21 and may be renewed in 2013.

topics: culture