Have any plans for 2013?

Are student loans coming due? Got warranties on major purchases that are expiring? Big class reunion you would just as soon skip?

Relax, you have nothing to worry about. Not, at least, according to the ancient Maya, who developed an elaborate and complex calendar system of interlocking temporal cycles, all of which come to a screeching halt on Dec. 21, 2012. Or possibly Dec. 23. (When you are dealing with calendar cycles that last more than 5,000 years, you have to have a little wiggle room.)

The Maya, as you all know if you watched Mel Gibson's "Apocolypto," were an ancient civilization of pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America who built large cities, elaborate temples and developed an early form of the NCAA basketball championship in which the winners were ritually executed as a sacrifice to the gods.

All in all, Mesoamerica in Mayan times was a happenin' place to be. The Maya were also keen observers of the heavens and used their astrological calculations to construct their complicated stone calendars. They believed that the known world and everything in it had been destroyed and recreated several times and that they were on the downhill side of another cycle that would end in 2012.

(Of course, all this insight seems to have failed to prepare them for the arrival of a bunch of guys in helmets and beards who were looking for the wealth of the Indies, but would settle for stealing all the native's gold, plundering their civilization and establishing expensive locations for Spring Break.)

Today, the Maya legends have struck a chord with many deeply spiritual people who are concerned about the fate of the planet, have access to the Internet, way too much time on their hands - a search for "Maya calendar" produces nearly 1.8 million Google hits - and who are nostalgic for the "harmonic convergence" of the 1980s. Remember? That's when the planets were all supposed to align, ushering in an era of peace and love. And see how well that worked out?

The Maya prophecy has already inspired several books, including (really) an edition of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to 2012." And of course there's a "2012: The Movie" being rushed into production. (Producers had planned to release the film as a potential Christmas blockbuster in 2012, but they figured the end of the world would cut into the domestic gross. I blame the accountants.)

Now there are a few skeptics, who actually understand Mayan, who point out that the Maya cooked the books, picking an end date and then working backward, fudging numbers as they went.

Ah, what do they know, these experts? They probably weren't even ready for Y2K.

TOM REILLY is a Sun Chronicle news editor who passes along the really scary news that Mel Gibson is planning to produce another movie, but this time the actors will speak English. Be afraid, be very afraid. He can be reached at 508-236-0332 or at treilly@thesunchronicle.com. Read his blog at thesunchronicle.com/reilly.