( CNN ) -- It 's the end of the world as we know it . And yet the world feels fine . Friday was supposed to be the day life on Earth ceased to exist . The predicted apocalypse -- which spawned a disaster movie `` 2012 , '' a TV show tracking `` Doomsday Preppers '' taking extraordinary measures for the end-of-a-lifetime event and numerous jokes on social media and elsewhere -- stemmed from the end of an important phase of the ancient Mayan calendar . Founded around 2000 B.C . and still active , though its numbers and influence have waned significantly over the past several hundred years , the Mayan civilization measures time in cycles called `` baktuns '' of 394 years each . The winter solstice that occurred Friday marks the end of the 13th baktun . 2040 looks good , too : Asteroid is going to miss us . `` It will happen ! '' a CNN.com commenter using the handle Robert Lawless predicted cheekily . `` All credible Mayan historians will agree , the Mayans predicted the World would end the same year Twinkies went extinct ! HOW DID THEY KNOW ? ? ? ? '' Some took the possibility of the day of reckoning much more seriously . Ryan Croft in Asheville , North Carolina , for instance , said he was teaching his family how to subsist on alternative sources of nourishment like algae , roasted mice and earthworms , as well as making a one-of-a-kind assault rifle -- a hybrid between an AR-15 and AK-47 -- to deal with signs of doom lurking around the corner . `` I taught about economic collapse and how it actually looks on the ground , '' Croft told CNN affiliate WHNS , noting he was n't expecting the world 's total obliteration but rather a more gradual slide into chaos . `` People want to act like it ca n't happen or does n't happen , and it happens around the world . There are places on fire right now . '' But not even modern-day Mayans bought into the coming apocalypse . They view the calendar as portending the end of one era and heralding the start of a new one , not the death of all the world 's species . `` It 's an era . We are lucky to see how it ends , '' said wood carver Santos Esteban in Yaxuna , Mexico , a sleepy village of fewer than 700 Mayans . End of the world still makes for fun movies . True to Esteban 's less-than-dire prediction , Friday came and went in countless locales around the world -- from Sydney to Stockholm , from Kathmandu to Capetown -- without any epic calamity . That 's not to say Judgment Day is n't coming , and possibly soon . Some who study the Mayan calendar say the date for the end of the period is not Friday , but Sunday . And numerous groups , through the years and all around the world , have prophesied the end of the world on specific days . They 've all been wrong -- so far . CNN 's Greg Botelho , Nick Parker and Ben Brumfield contributed to this report .
Pointing to the Mayan calendar , some said life would end on the winter solstice . Yet Friday came and went for billions worldwide , without any epic calamity . Some Mayans say the day marks the end of one era and the start of a new one .