As anthropologist Joe Awe explained to the guests who attended the unveiling ceremony held at Chaa Creek, the ancient Maya used the carved stone monuments to record important dates and events in their various city-states spread across the vast Maya empire, which covered all of Belize and parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Ms Fleming said that people from around the world have been converging at the Belizean eco resort for days of educational workshops and hands-on training in Maya skills such as tortilla and chocolate making, thatching with jungle palm fronds and the use of medicinal plants in preparation for the grand ceremonies that will take place on the evening of December 21 2012.

According the December 19 Sydney Morning Herald article (“China alert to doomsday rumours”), authorities in China have detained more than 90 people across seven provinces for spreading rumours about so-called Maya prophesies linking the 2012 Winter Solstice to the end of the world. According to the reports, theories posted on the internet and in the US film “2012,” which was hugely popular in China, have fueled fears of what is being called the “Maya Apocalypse” resulting in people scrambling to prepare for survival.

“We’ll be updating our posts throughout the week with information gleaned from the workshops, seminars and lectures we’re hosting, and will be compiling that information into one document to be released early next year. Besides hosting a great celebration, we’re hoping that renewed interest in this fascinating culture will be an outcome of the 2012 Winter Solstice,” Ms Fleming said.

Brion Young, assistant manager of the Chaa Creek NHC, which, among other activities, catalogues the Maya presence in Belize, was commenting on media reports that the Director of the Institute of Archaeology of Belize, Dr Jaime Awe, is suing the producers of the 2008 Harrison Ford film “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” for use without permission of one of Belize’s most iconic and controversial images, the Crystal Skull.

As international attention focuses on the Maya during 2012, it is important for the world to realise that the Maya people are still battling to preserve their culture, Brion Young, assistant manager at the Chaa Creek Natural History Museum in Belize said today.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, three deluxe packages for The Lodge at Chaa Creek’s 2012 Maya Winter Solstice celebration have become available, marketing administrator Larry Waight announced today.

I have planned to go to Belize with my boyfriend in December 2012 to be together for the apocalypse and to celebrate our love in the most romantic place ever. Daily routine makes us forget the best important things in life. The Winter Solstice Week of December is the perfect time to discover a wonderful country, a different and rich culture and especially forget stress and problems.

We’re very excited to celebrate a new era – our twins becoming teenagers and the Mayan Solstice – in Belize! Participating in Chaa Chaa Creek’s festivities would be a magically memorable, lifetime learning, and fabulously fun experience (note: we are already booked for the 4-day Christmas package but would truly jump for joy if we had the chance to extend our too-short-stay experience and/or invite the kids’ 82 year old Chinese grandmother).

Anticipation for the December 21 event has been building in popular imagination for the last few years, with the Hollywood blockbuster film “2012” and many articles, documentaries and internet posts giving conflicting and sometimes sensational versions of what to expect. Some people are anticipating a new awakening of human consciousness and outpouring of positive energy, while others predict that the completion of a major cycle of the Maya Long Count calendar, which occurs on December 21, will bring about the end of the world.

So, as the days will start to become longer and the nights will become shorter, it is time to revel in the moment. It is time to take it all in. It is time to take in the history, the culture, the nature, the weather, the good company, and the life changing memorable moments. Experiencing Maya winter solstice in Belize, heck, just spending a week at Chaa Creek during December 2012 would be a dream come true!

The Lodge at Chaa Creek’s annual festivities to honour both Halloween and the Day of the Dead will have a distinctly Maya flavour this year as Belize and the Mundo Maya region prepare to celebrate the completion of the Maya Long Count cycle on December 21, 2012, according to the eco resort’s Food and beverage manager Bryony Fleming.

After many years of hectic international living – mostly in the developing world – we have settled down a bit, and find ourselves cooking and growing many plants that were originally domesticated by the Mayans. So we have strong horticultural and ethnobotanical interests in their legacy. What better way to refine those tastes – and knowledge – than to experience the grand celebrations surrounding the end of the current cycle?

Can you just imagine how they did it? They had none of our technology but through means I cannot fathom, they studied the skies and predicted, tested then formed the calendar we now focus our attention to especially in this year 2012 The year of The Maya’s, based just upon the movement of the galaxy. I’ve heard of the solstices and always wanted to see and experience that mystical thrill of it all. So long I’ve wanted to, but never had the means to actually carry out with this plan. To celebrate with the Mayan people our beautiful Belize has nurtured and cared for, for several hundred years.

Chaa Creek is Belize’s first true eco resort, having made the transition from small family farm to opening their first guest accommodation in 1981, just as Belize was achieving independence. Since then Chaa Creek has grown into a 365 acre private rainforest nature reserve with a natural History Centre, Maya Medicinal Plant Trail and Organic farm, a butterfly breeding farm, hilltop spa, conference centre, pool, a highly regarded restaurant and other amenities.

Personally, I’ve been waiting for this for 30 years! I love the idea of the stela you’ve commissioned in observance of the date. I have a countdown clock on my iPad and a small Mayan Calendar on my keychain. I’ll be observing 13 0 0 0 0 no matter where I am, but the thought of immersing myself in the Mayan culture for a week! What an opportunity to share with my students!

“It’s an exciting time here at Chaa Creek as we’re preparing for the week long 2012 Maya Winter Solstice celebrations centred on December 21. It’s our most ambitious project yet, and we want to make sure we get it right, from the educational lectures and workshops through to the grand procession to the ancient Maya temple of Tunichilen on the night of the winter solstice.

Belize’s The Lodge at Chaa Creek has just announced an exciting competition whose winners will usher in the Maya 2012 Winter Solstice by taking part in an extraordinary weeklong celebration to be held in the Heartland of the ancient Maya Empire.

For several years world attention has been drawn to the 2012 Winter Solstice after a number of articles, internet posts and films, such as the Hollywood blockbuster 2012 highlighted the fact that the 13th Bak’tun of the Maya Long Count calendar completes its cycle on December 21 2012. The highly accurate ancient calendar, which gives the Maya a creation date of 11 August 3114 BC, has been a source of fascination for many scholars and, unfortunately, Ms Fleming said, for conspiracy and apocalypse buffs.

What we know about the ancient Maya comes primarily from early stone monuments known as stelae; large tombstone-like slabs of mostly limestone on which important dates and events were recorded using Maya glyphs; the written or carved characters considered to be one of humankind’s earliest forms of writing.