Germany
Germany, facts and history in brief
Oberammergau
Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Oberammergau in Bavaria, now in
Germany, prayed that if God would spare
them from the effects of the
Bubonic plague ravaging the region,
they would perform a play depicting
the life and death of death of Jesus
Christ.
The play was first performed in
1634 and is the result of a vow made
by the inhabitants of the village
that if God spared them from
the effects of the bubonic plague,
then sweeping the region they would
perform a passion play every ten years.
The play is now performed in years
ending with a zero and involves over
2000 performers, all residents of the
village.
The Oberammergau Passion Play
In 1633 the inhabitants of
the village of Oberammergau in
Bavaria, now in Germany, prayed that
if God would spare them from the effects
of the bubonic plague, ravaging the
region they would perform
a play depicting the life and death of
every ten years.
They were spared, and the play was
first performed in 1634.
The play is now performed in
years ending with a zero,
and involves over 2000
performers, all of whom are
residents of the village.
The play has a running
time of approximately five hours,
and audiences come from
all over the world.
External Links
http://www.oberammergau.de/estart06.htm
http://www.passionsspiele2000.de/passnet/english/index_e.html
The Oberammergau Passion Play.
All text is available under the terms of the
GNU Free Documentation License.
Some Bible scenes cover
the outside walls of the
village's buildings.
Some of these painted scenes
date back to the 1600's.
Many people of Oberammergau
are wood carving artisans.
The village's
main source of income
comes from the tourist trade and the
sale of carvings.
Population is about 5 thousand.
Oberammergau is a very
popular tourist town.
My wife, Hui Chin and I
were rather disappointed
after reading the story
and finding the place very
commercialised.
We could not take photos or
videos and had to buy the
official ones.
We found the photos and
videos very restricted in
range and a tad pricey
compared with other places.
We expected the thanks giving
festivities to be held in
the town's streets,
in fact it is held and run
as a commercial theatre,
supposedly every
ten years, but I believe there
were some exceptions lately.
For extra cashflow?
One wonders.
The town is very beautiful,
so are the painted (murals, or
decorated) houses.
Talking about vows of
appreciations or thanks-giving,
I know at least two large
"votive" (offered or
consecrated by vow; given
in fulfillment of a vow:
Collins Dictionary) churches
in Hungary.
One is at Szeged and was
built after the city was
spared from a flood.
The other at Mohács
again built as a thanks
giving after the Turkish
occupiers were chased
out of Hungary.
There are probably others too.
These are strictly my own
views, but being a devout
Catholic, those expressions
of thanks reflect the
spirit of thanks-giving
much more appropriately,
in my view.
Who?
Me biased?
Never.
You can click on these photos for an enlargement.
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