This would be a sort of crazy money making event, and the first one would probably start on 2012, of course.
The basic structure would be none other than a full city-wide display of hellfire and brimstone that begins when the sun goes down with 100x100 ft holographic projections of angels and demons and thousands of light projections into the clouds that turn them blood red for dramatic effect. Huge PA systems located in many random spots project the booms and thunder of god himself as he picks and chooses who receiveths his grace. Vendors and musicians in chosen 'protected' town squares will make their money, too.
[this is my girlfriend's idea for the record]-- daseva, Sep 14 2010 Here's a bun for your girlfriend [+]! Put me down for three cubic yards of brimstone. It would look cool in my driveway...-- Grogster, Sep 14 2010 What's the current record?-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 14 2010 It should be a once-every-four-years thing, like the Olympics, with cities bidding to host the Apocalypse, all governed by a corrupt and incestuous International Apocalympics Committee.-- hippo, Sep 14 2010 + here's a really burnt croissant for your girlfriend's record!!-- xandram, Sep 14 2010 Bit scary - I don't know if I'd like it - Consider the atheist version where those spooky air-raid sirens start winding up all over the city, people start panicing, crashing their cars, jumping out of windows etc, and then finally, woomp - a great flash of light, and for a moment, silence...
Or we could have a Dinocalypse where the image of a huge, glowing asteroid is made to appear to get closer and closer...
For me, it needs to be more ritualised in order for it to make sense, I can deal with masks, costumes, festive foods etc, but I'm not so sure I want to go through the whole thing writ large, and I certainly don't want to have to explain to my non-Christian friends and colleagues exactly why it is we're doing the whole Book of Revelations thing again.
Perhaps we can enjoy Shiva the Destroyer at some other point in the year, and other such thought-provoking religio-centric apocalyptic imagery throughout.-- zen_tom, Sep 14 2010 Can we have bonfires? please?-- Voice, Sep 14 2010 Isn't that big World Serpent supposed to show up for this? Maybe Chinese Dragon style, but citiwide and cars underneath?-- bungston, Sep 14 2010 Thanks for the input guys! Changing the theme would be fun and practical especially when relevant to the chosen nation. The girlfriend is please with the buns as my head is still on my shoulders. Of course, the more stuff we can include in all this the better, so I'm going to say yes to the bonfires and world serpents. Good stuff. [zen_tom], the hope is that the people will bring their own ritualized flavor. The committee that runs the thing would just take care of the big stuff. Everything else would be fully independent.-- daseva, Sep 14 2010 Once a year? That only leaves us time for one, maybe two, celebrations, doesn't it? We better make it a good, big one.-- Boomershine, Sep 14 2010 What about the Druids ?-- 8th of 7, Sep 14 2010 Oh wow, *they* had an apocalypse, too? One can only imagine.-- daseva, Sep 15 2010 random, halfbakery