"In the Maya conception, the zero day of this era-based calendar
        fell on 13.0.0.0.0 [note 38] of the Long Count, 4 Ahau 8 Cumku of
        the Calendar Round, and on a day when the ninth Lord of the Night
        was ruling.  Once these day names had been juxtaposed in this way,
        the calendar was set for all eternity.  All the simultaneous cycles
        that constituted time would now simply click forward one day at a
        time.  {...}  In our calendar, their zero day corresponds to
        August 11, 3114 B.C. [note 39]

      <p>  Above we talked of the turning of the millennium as one of
        our own milestones in time.  In the near future Maya time also
        approaches one of its great benchmarks.  December 23, 2012, will
        be 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau 3 Kankin, the day when the thirteen baktuns
        will end and the Long Count cycles return to the symmetry of the
        beginning."

<p>1}  Linda Schele and David Freidel, _A_Forest_of_Kings:_The_Untold_Story_
of_the_Ancient_Maya_, William Morrow and Co., Inc., New York, 1990, p. 82.