As many of you probably have heard, the world is ending on Friday Dec. 21. It’s been nice knowing you all and I truly hope you’ve enjoyed your time here on Earth. If you’ve got things left on your bucket list, do them NOW since you only have a few days left to do so.

Alright, let’s hope no one reading this article actually believes that Friday is the end of the world. In fact, our world was supposed to end a few times already.

The world actually started ending in the 1990s. As the end of the century approached, a movement developed that believed the end of the century would bring countless disasters such as earthquakes, plagues, the city of Atlantis rising from the deep, continents sliding into the ocean and many more absurdities.

Jan. 1, 2000 came and went. True, there was the Y2K computer bug that made computers believe that it was the year 1900 again but other than a mechanical mistake in dates life on Earth carried on as usual.

Let us not forget that our world was supposed to be destroyed on Jun. 6, 2006– without the zeros that’s 6/6/6, the number of the Devil or Antichrist.

Even last year Harold Camping, a California-based Christian radio broadcaster, predicted that we had all undergone an invisible “spiritual judgement” and that the physical rapture,  the assent of the “chosen ones” into Heaven, would take place on Oct. 21, 2011. No such flights to Heaven were reported on that date.

This year it’s the ancient Mayans that are to blame. Their calendar stops on the equivalent of Dec. 21, 2012 so that must mean our world’s going to end… right? Or maybe they all perished before they could continue writing the calendar? Or maybe they just ran out of rock to carve? All of these are good guesses but none are actually correct. In order to figure out what’s actually happening on Dec. 21, 2012 in relation the the Mayan calendar, we’re going to have to do some math.

The Mayan calendar is based on several cycles of time, one of which is called a “baktun.” A baktun is equivalent to 144,000 days which is approximately 394 years. Many of the intervals of the Maya calendar are multiples of 20. An interval of 7,200 days (360 x 20) is known as a katun and it takes 20 katuns to complete one baktun (20 x 7,200= 144,000 days or one baktun). Knowing this, what’s happening Friday is that the thirteenth baktun of the Mayan calendar is being completed which is why the Mayan calendar will display the equivalent of a row of zeros on that date. This is not the end of the world– it’s the end of one cycle and the start of the next!

If I totally blew your mind with numbers just now, fear not for there is a mythological explanation for this occurrence as well. When I was in Cancún, Mexico last year for Winter Break I had the opportunity to visit the Mayan ruins of Tulum. While touring the grounds, our guide explained the architecture of the buildings, the Mayans’ beliefs and customs and much more about their ancient culture. Knowing that doomsday was about a year away (since I was there in December of 2011), our guide told us what the Mayans would have said about the calendar if they were still here.

The Mayans had many gods in their religion; one of which was named Itzamna, a creator god. Itzamna was credited with bringing the knowledge of the calendar and writing to the Mayans. Itzamna wrote the first calendar but then had to leave the people behind. He promised the people he would return to write the next calendar cycle which corresponds to Dec. 21, 2012.

Whether you believe the myths or you’re satisfied with the numbers, the Mayan calendar nor the world will end on Friday. So, get ready for the weekend. We so excited.