As of: March 29, 2024, 6:43 a.m
By: Sandra Sporer, Bettina Menzel
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Many people find the ban on dancing on Good Friday no longer appropriate. For example, there was a demonstration against the ban in Munich on April 6, 2023. (Archive image) © Alexander Pohl/aal.photo/IMAGO
It is well known that dancing is not allowed on Good Friday. However, further bans apply on this day. However, there is debate about how contemporary these are.
Munich – Only about half of all Germans are Christians – and the trend is falling. Younger people in particular can no longer do much with religion. There are still strict rules for everyone on Good Friday in Germany. The bans are justified by Christian tradition - but for many people they seem out of date. But what is actually forbidden? In fact, more than just dancing.
Good Friday bans: Cinemas are not allowed to show all films
As a reminder: On Good Friday, Christians commemorate the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross. It is one of the most important holidays of the church year - but that was not always the case. In some areas, the Friday before Easter has only been a holiday for a few hundred years. Today it is one of the so-called “quiet days”, which means that people in Germany – regardless of whether they are religious or not – are banned from concerts, dancing and sporting events.
Cinemas are even told which films they can show on Good Friday. “The regulations [...] go back to regulations from the Weimar Republic,” said the Voluntary Self-Regulation of the Film Industry (FSK) to the German Press Agency. The organization is also responsible for age ratings in Germany; in this country, the FSK includes films such as “Ghostbusters” and the horror classic “Scream”.
Streaming providers are exempt from the film ban - but so are more and more films
The origin of the film ban also explains why streaming providers or television channels can show whatever they want: When the regulation came about a hundred years ago, these services did not yet exist. After all, the requirements for cinemas have apparently been relaxed over the years.
While in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s over half of all feature films were classified as “non-holiday-free”, the percentage fell continuously to a third in the 1980s and only 3.8 percent in the 1990s, he said the FSK continued and added: “So far in 2024 there has not been a cinema film without a public holiday release.” In the past, for example, films such as The Life of Brian and The Knights of the Coconut in 1980 and 1976 were not released.
Good Friday dancing bans vary depending on the federal state: Bavaria is particularly strict
In Bavaria, which is traditionally more conservative, the Good Friday bans are implemented particularly strictly. There are penalties of up to 10,000 euros for breaking the rules. However, the organizer has to pay this, not the visitor. For comparison: In Berlin the maximum fine is 1,000 euros, but usually significantly less.
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The ban on dancing in Bavaria begins on Maundy Thursday and only ends on Holy Saturday. In Berlin, however, the dance stop applies from Good Friday at 4 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m. Tradition can be debated: According to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, the ban on dancing in Bavaria was only enshrined in law after 1945.
Dancing ban on Good Friday in the various federal states – an overview:
Baden-Württemberg |
Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday |
Bavaria |
Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday |
Berlin |
Good Friday 4 a.m. to 9 p.m |
Brandenburg |
Good Friday 00:00 a.m. to Holy Saturday 4:00 a.m |
Bremen |
Good Friday 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m |
Hamburg |
Good Friday 5 a.m. to midnight |
Hesse |
Maundy Thursday 4:00 a.m. to Holy Saturday 24:00 midnight |
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania |
Good Friday 00:00 a.m. to Holy Saturday 6:00 p.m |
Lower Saxony |
Maundy Thursday 5:00 a.m. to Holy Saturday 24:00 midnight |
North Rhine-Westphalia |
Maundy Thursday 6:00 p.m. to Holy Saturday 6:00 a.m |
Rhineland-Palatinate |
Maundy Thursday 4:00 a.m. to Easter Sunday 4:00 p.m |
Saarland |
Maundy Thursday 4:00 a.m. to Holy Saturday 24:00 midnight |
Saxony |
Good Friday 00:00 a.m. to midnight |
Saxony-Anhalt |
Good Friday 00:00 a.m. to midnight |
Schleswig-Holstein |
Good Friday 2:00 a.m. to Holy Saturday 2:00 a.m |
Thuringia |
Good Friday 00:00 a.m. to midnight |
Protests against the ban on dancing on Good Friday – young people fight for their right to celebrate
Not everyone thinks the ban on dancing is up-to-date these days. Young people in particular often find it annoying. Because: The ban on dancing is probably one of those bans that tend to affect younger people in Germany.
The Association for Freedom of Thought (bfg) called for protests in Munich, Regensburg and Nuremberg. There should be a “club revolution” in which participants celebrate against the dance ban under the motto “Holy Shit - Let us dance!” In a ruling from 2016, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that “exceptions are possible on Good Friday and all other eight ‘Silent Days’” “if festivals and celebrations are an expression of an ideological demarcation from Christian creeds.”
This applies to the bfg's events and parties, argued the chairwoman of the bfg Munich, Assunta Tammelleo. However, the administrative court in Ansbach has now put a stop to the protest, at least in Nuremberg. The applicant had “not credibly demonstrated that her fundamental rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of religion had been violated,” it said in the justification for the decision by the Ansbach Administrative Court
(spo/bme with dpa).