In three hours and one minute, the Earth will make a celestial alignment with its moon, its Sun, and its neighbouring planets across the Great Divide of the Milky Way to the gates of Xibalba, which will then open and release the Elder Gods to end the Sixth Cycle of Mankind.
Got all that? Short version: it's the end of the world, no fooling. All those things we like: wristwatches, chocolate, sex, breathing, SNAP! Gone. My wife has to work tonight, so I am left to face Armageddon with my blog and the bottom part of a bottle of Glenfiddich. I made sure to kiss her goodbye extra-nice, though.
Let's back up a step. The Mayan calendar, the Long Count version of which runs 5,126 years and change without needing to be flipped over, has been keeping track of time since the beginning of time. Since today, December 21, 2012, is the final day on that calendar, this means that it has been running accurately and without adjustment since 3,114 BC, roughly the same time the ancient Egyptians were developing their first techniques for writing. The Mayans (Mesoamericans) calculated that the world began the same day that the Long Count calendar started on Day 1. Logically, then, the world should end on Day 1,870,990. Tomorrow. Three in the morning, Pacific Time Zone.
As things work out, there's a planetary convergence for December 21, the Winter Solstice. You may have noticed some bright points in the sky lining up with the Moon in recent days. The Mayans reasoned that the planets and moon would line up across the galaxy to the doors of Xibalba, "The Land Of The Dead", which would in turn allow the twelve Elder Gods who reside there to come directly to Earth from across the Great Divide, the cloud of non-reflective gases that cuts through a third of the Milky Way.
Apparently, the Elder Gods have visited Earth six times already at the interval of the Long Count. Man has been judged and found lacking each Age, which caused the Elder Gods to re-start the universe and begin everything all over again. How the Mayans figured this, I do not know. Still, I am counting on the seventh time being the charm. While the wonders of the cosmos would continue to be utterly amazing if the Elder Gods re-set the universe, I am all the same not looking forward getting dumped yet again by my girlfriend on Day 1,863,571 or facing the car wreck on Day 1,870,666.
The Mayans have a different concept of the end of the world than we do. They believed in a continuum of life and death, and of creation and destruction, with much more overlap between those domains than we contemporary folk allow for. Looking at their amazing calendar gives us a glimpse into that ancient world, but it also reminds us of our responsibility for the future.
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