If you were to believe the buzz on social media and in some of the tabloids, you’d want to clear your calendar to account for the impending end of the world on June 21.

Characteristic of this system is the cyclical nature, with the Mayan calendar featuring three common cycles: the Long Count, Tzolk’in (260-day) and the 365-day, solar-based Haab’.

In the Mayan calendar, the long calendar count begins in 3,114 BC and is divided into roughly 394-year periods called Baktuns. Mayans held the number 13 sacred and the 13th Baktun ends next year.