When I was 12, me and my schoolmates read about the “7 days of darkness”, an alleged catholic prophecy that describes how the judgment day will look. We were scared shitless and we’re too afraid to ask our teacher or parents about it for fear of getting yelled at. Though this could have been an incidental phenomenon.
What wasn’t incidental was hearing about the “rapture” every now and then. Had no idea what it was and it wasn’t really explained ever, but people would swear it was true and imminent. Wasn’t instilled as “the truth” but if you questioned it, people would be neutral, almost as if they were afraid to directly answer the question.
On top of that we had the doomsday prophecies of 2000 (Y2K) and 2012 (Mayan Calendar).
Was this mentality/talk prevalent in your countries?
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I remember the 2012 stuff, which was mainly joked about. Other than that, the apocalypse doesn’t fill much in the mentality of most Danes. The national church, the state-religious institution, with ~75% of the population as members, doesn’t really stress the apocalypse as an important theological point.
The Danish national church is Evangelical-Lutheran, and deeply influenced by the 19th century awakening movements. As such, the theology is very inclusive in salvation, including all who have faith. So the apocalypse is really not interesting, at least not compared to Christian denominations where salvation doesn’t come as easily.
Add on top of that, that a key part of the 19th century Evangelical awakening influence is the importance of Earthly life. The apocalypse is pushed even further out.
And finally add that the religiousity of most Danes is… nominal, at best. Often it doesn’t go much further than traditions and rituals, perhaps a belief in God or similar. So the apocalypse is really far from the mainstream culture.
No in fact generally I’d say we’re kind of over optimistic about the whole not flooding thing
Edit: I do know that the Eisinga planetarium was build in the late 18th century because there was a panic about planets aligning , where some protestant minister predicted Mercury Venus and Mars would collide and send the Earth off course.
we didnt rly have smth like that, atleast not that i know of, although 2012 was well a bit special. in the end it was more of a joke
not much apart from a few jokes, no one believed any of that stuff
2012 was famous for that but also have since 2014 a famous clown-prophet who announced the End of the World and stated than only a very random french village would be spared from it : Sylvain Durif, aka the Cosmic Christ, aka the Great Monarch. He got very popular in 2014 for some reason and became a meme on the french Internet afterward.
He’s clearly a crook and I’ve heard he fled to Senegal because he never payed his rent for years and abused vulnerable people for their money. But he’s very well known and has the look of a younger doctor Brown from Return to the Futur movies
Not at all. This rapture concept is non existent and the 2000 and 2012 were things people said jokingly.
I remember there being a lot of nervous joking around the 21/12/12 thing among younger kids and teens, and I vaguely remember actually not being able to fall asleep that night.
Other than that, not really, until now with Russia/Ukraine. Some people like to begin spouting WW3 any time there is any military action in any non third world country.
It still is prevalent, have you seen how some people stockpile ammunition?