The greatest Christmas wish: peace

Created: 12/20/2022, 5:45 p.m

By: Michaele Heske

In Bavarian tradition (from left): Father Stephan as shepherd, Josefine Grünaug, Laurin and Emily Schaller.

© Michaele heske

The Trachtler von Stoaröslern get in the mood for Christmas at the "Bavarian Advent" in the parish church.

Traditional dates determine Christmas Eve in Dorfen.

Dorfen

- come your children - on Christmas Eve there are several nativity plays in Dorfen.

The first post-corona Christmas will also be traditional again in other ways: the church choir of Maria Dorfen sings the well-known pastoral mass by Karl Kemper at full strength on the first holiday.

The “Bavarian Advent” organized by the d'Stoarösler traditional costume association on Saturday got the mood for the upcoming Christmas days in Dorfen's Marienkirche.

Deacon Christian Marcon preached the gospel in dialect, the young and old in traditional costume performed Christmas carols, such as "When Maria went over the mountains" or "Geh Hansl pack dei Pinkerl zam".

And Father Stephan gave the Bavarian shepherds: "Maintaining the Bavarian tradition has become very important to me," said the city pastor.

The pews in the Catholic Church were well occupied - as if Dorfen's faithful these days wanted to take in more spiritual nourishment in addition to mulled wine and cookies.

"The greatest gift at Christmas is of course the child in the manger, not the things under the Christmas tree," explained Father Stephan.

His Christmas wish this year: that peace come to Ukraine.

A request that is also very important to Susanne von Nagell from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Reconciliation this year.

"The end of the war - that would be the good news," she said.

But regardless of all the global conflicts, she wished that "hearts would light up, like the many Christmas lights that are currently lighting up the city".

Von Nagell is jointly responsible for the annual nativity play on Christmas Eve, which Fridolin Meindl rehearses with 14 children.

Bernhard Waritschlager accompanies the classic Christmas story with pieces of music, so that a piece of music is played alternately and a passage of text is read.

The performances with church service take place at 3 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on the Unteren Markt.

Whether it's a nativity play for the little ones in the rectory on the Ruprechtsberg, in St. Georg in Oberdorfen or Christmas mass and Christmas services in all Dorfen churches - this year there are no distance rules.

"All members of the church choir can sing together again in the gallery," says Dorfen's church musician Ernst Bartmann, for whom Christmas is primarily a festival that should be celebrated together: "A festival of joy, peace and reflection after the mostly unsettled time in Advent."