As we steadily creep forward through time, the Maya’s and their alleged predictions about the end of time  (December 21, 2012, in case you want to mark it on your calendar) rise to the forefront of prophetic discussions about the future. But it seems like there is a lot of misinterpretation going on.

Sure, the Maya’s were cool. Any ancient civilization that can boast the only complete written language system of pre-Columbian America has my respect. Their hearty contributions to art, architecture and astronomy aren’t overlooked either.

In fact, the Mayans, using a complicated three calendar method of tracking time - the most complex of which is the Long Count Calendar, detailing time as they knew it, from beginning to end  - predicted every single solar and lunar eclipse through 2012. And they determined just how long a year is, right down to the thousandth decimal point, one-uping the Greeks.

There’s even a few rumors that they predicted World Wars.

So yeah, they’re creepily credible.

But the truth of it is: the Maya’s don’t explicitly say what will happen on 12/21/2012. It’s just the last day they chose to record, for whatever reason. The Maya’s also firmly held to the idea that time was in fact cyclic, eradicating all “ends” by thinking of them as “new beginnings”.

Besides, any written record of their exact beliefs was likely destroyed by fire during the Spanish invasion, after which only a few scriptures survived.

One thing is for sure about that fateful December day, though. In the sky, far, far away, the sun will gracefully slide into a position that is the exact center of the axes of the Milky Way and the Galactic Equinox, forming a perfect alignment in the center of the galaxy. And it will stay there for a few moments, it being a Solstice and all.

This, too, sounds crazy; but it’s in fact a rare occurrence that happens every 25,800 years. Considering the Earth’s been around for 4.5 billion, it’s clearly survived it about 150,000 times.

As with all things open for interpretation, varied responses will bloom. The two most popular interpretations of the Maya’s prediction of ‘The End of Time’ are in fact opposites of one another:

1) optimistic New Age philosophers believe the end of 2012 will mark a divine transformation into the most peaceful, interconnected and positively spiritual state our world has ever known.

2) pessimistic Doomsayers claim that the world will in fact come to an end, citing probably apocalyptic events such as nuclear war, Biblical Judgment Day, or an all-encompassing magical “poof”, and we’re gone.

So what do you believe? Should we be stocking up on Tibetian Prayer Flags and Hummus in anticipation of the a peaceful, free-loving era or should be we building underground bunkers and stocking up on water in anticipation of … the end?

Honestly, I think we’ll all make it.