(Photo: The 27th Annual Winter Solabration will begin with the Grand March led by a flourish of Pipes and Drums – Will it mark the end of the world as we know it and the beginning of a new era as the old Mayan guys claimed?)

Barring any cosmic chaos in the Human time-line, Denver’s iconic cross-culture holiday festival, Winter Solabration, will continue in it’s 27th year Saturday, December 22nd at the Temple Events Center, 1595 Pearl Street in Denver. The Yuletime celebration of Christmas and Solstice customs From Europe and America are scheduled from 6 pm to Midnight. Event Founder Chris Kermiet explains below how there is little worry whether the Mayan Calendar prediction about the end of the world is right or wrong as there will be some form of joyous community gathering at the Temple Events Center.

This winter solstice — will it be the End-of-the-World-as-We-Know-It?  And the beginning of a new earth?  A new creation?
Well, yes … at least, according to the old Mayan guys.  The Mayan long count calendar runs out on 13.19.19.19.19 — December 21st, 2012.  And then starts over on December 22nd — 1.0.0.0.0 — the first day of a new era.  Or, as the Mayans believed, a whole new creation.
Some people are getting all excited about this.  And predicting the end of the world.  Certainly a new creation often involves the destruction of the old.  But not necessarily.  The Mayans didn’t predict destruction and chaos.  But many others are.
The Aztec calendar also ends in 2012, and the ancient Cherokee calendar as well.  Several preachers have predicted the arrival of the Antichrist in 2012.  (But they’ve predicted this almost annually for the last 30 years or so).
Can there be a new world?  A restart?  The hopeful part of me wants to see a new world — a new beginning.  An end to divisions and quarrels and an era of peace and unity.  Maybe an end to global pollution and climate change as well.  If an ancient Mayan God can come down and do that, I’m all for it.
The skeptical side of me thinks it’s probably not going to happen.  Although there’s a prediction about the end-of-the-world just about every year, the idea seems to take hold in the public consciousness about every 10 or 12 years.  Remember all the hullaballoo about Y2K?  All the computers would stop working, the power grid would go down, and the earth would be plunged into darkness?  Then all the millennialists got into the act and predicted the rapture, the Second Coming, the end of the world, etc., etc.  I lived through that one.  In fact, the year 2000 came and went terribly uneventfully.
The big one before that — the Harmonic Convergence — remember that one?  Do you remember where you were on August 24th, 1987?  When there was supposed to be a great shift in the earth’s planetary energy from warlike to peaceful?  Been plenty of wars since then.  Not much change, I’m afraid.
I’m not expecting much change on 1.0.0.0.0 either.  But I’m still hopeful.  At any rate, it’s a good excuse to celebrate.  The end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it just might happen!
 I’m still hopeful about our planet — but we could celebrate the beginning of a new era
on December 22nd!  Happy New World!  

Winter Solabration, , December 22nd, 6P-MIdnight at the Temple Events Center, 1595 Pearl Street,Denver. Features storytelling, a Mummer’s Play, the Maroon Bells Morris Dancers, Traditional Southwestern Fandango Dances with Lorenzo Trujillo, Breathless in Berthoud, the Solstice Sword Dancers, and Bryan Connolly Extreme Juggling, along with community singing, wassail, and traditional American community dances for all, and ends with the mysterious Abbot’s Bromley Horn Dance at midnight.
Parents are encouraged to bring your kids,  however, parents must be responsible for their children’s behavior.
Adult advance tickets are $27 (if purchased one week prior to the Solabration),
Adults $33. Teens/Students $19, Children (6-12) $9, under 6 free
Bring a snack or dessert potluck to share. Tickets and more information at wsolstice.org
or call 24 hour info/message machine for ticket availability at the door, 303 571-9112.