Only Once Per Decade....

This is my very favorite Christmas heirloom. We bought it in Germany in the quaint, sleepy village Oberammergau. I bought a few pieces a year over the course of three years to be able to afford this hand carved set. Oberammergau is world renown for their fine hand carved and painted nativity sets and woodwork in general. But even more interesting, is the promise that the village made with God if he would save them from the bubonic plague...

"The town vowed that if God were to spare them from the effects of the bubonic plague ravaging the region, they would perform a play every ten years depicting the life and death of Jesus. The death rate among adults rose from one in October 1632 to twenty in the month of March 1633. The adult death rate slowly subsided to one in the month of July 1633. The villagers believed they were spared after they kept their part of the vow when the play was first performed in 1634. The most recent performance was in 2000 and the next will be in April to September 2010.

The play, now performed repeatedly over the course of five months, during the last year of each decade, involves over 2,000 performers, musicians, and stage technicians, all of whom are residents of the village. The play comprises spoken dramatic text, musical and choral accompaniment and tableaux vivants. The tableaux vivants are scenes from the Old Testament depicted for the audience by motionless actors accompanied by verbal description. These scenes are the basis for the typology, the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, of the play. They include a scene of King Ahasuerus rejecting Vashti in favor of Esther, the brothers selling Joseph into slavery in Egypt, and Moses raising up the bronze serpent in the wilderness. Each scene precedes that section of the play that is considered to be prefigured by the scene. The three tableaux mentioned are presented to the audience as prefiguring Christianity superseding Judaism, Judas selling information on the location of Jesus, and the crucifixion.

It can be said that the evolution of the Passion Play was about the same as that of the Easter Play, originating in the ritual of the Latin Church, which prescribes, among other things, that the Gospel on Good Friday should be sung in parts divided among various persons.

The Oberammergau play has a running time of approximately seven hours. A meal is served during the intermission of the play. Audiences come from all over the world, often on package tours, the first instituted in 1870. Admission fees were first charged in 1790. Since 1930, the number of visitors has ranged from 420,000 to 530,000. Most tickets are sold as part of a package with one or two nights' accommodation.

There were at least two years in which the scheduled performance did not take place. In 1770, Oberammergau was informed that all passion plays in Bavaria had been banned by order of the Ecclesiastical Council of the Elector, Maximillian Joseph at the behest of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1780, the play was retitled The Old and New Testament. The new Elector, Karl Theodor, having been assured that the play was "purged of all objectionable and unseemly matter" approved the performance of the play. By 1830, the Catholic Church succeeded in halting the performance of all other passion plays in Bavaria. Only Oberammergau remained. Anton Lang played the Christ in the passion play three times: in 1910, 1920 and 1922."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberammergau_Passion_Play

I desperately hope that we will go back to Germany with the army and that I will be able to see the "Passion Play" in person. It would be a dream come true!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas....

I let the kids place the ornaments this year and I haven't even changed the placement! Imagine that! They did a great job, even if the sides of the tree are a little bare.

The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney with Care.... Last year, I finally broke down and bought everyone matching stockings. Don't you just love Pottery Barn?! I have to admit that every time I look at them they make me smile. Kaden and Lauren chose their own motifs. Of all things, Kade chose the Christmas Tree.

My dining room table. I saw a similar look at Crate & Barrel and fell in love with the blingy glittery trees. Looks pretty, but a little impracticable when we need to seat more than our breakfast nook can fit.

Our collection of nutcrackers and smokers from Germany. I had the dentist nutcracker and smoker custom made for Kevin by the cutest little German woodworker. He was truly a master at his craft! For those of you wondering what a "smoker" is, it is the little dentist guy up on the chest right in front of the "Home" sign. To learn the history of German Smokers and what they represent click here.

This is one of my favorite paintings of Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. It was painted by a very talented artist and my dear friend Megan Rieker. It is part of her religious series "Women of Inspiration". She has many beautiful paintings and her prints are available on her site.

I actually had the pleasure to sit for Megan as a model for one of her paintings titled, "Mother: a Precious and Chosen Vessel". My Kaden is the little boy seated with me on the sofa. I am also 38 weeks pregnant with Lauren in the painting, hence the large, beautiful belly! :)

"This painting made it into the competition held every 3 years by the Museum of Church History and Art and was subsequently displayed at the museum in 2006 and printed in the August edition of the "Ensign" magazine.

The painting, although belonging to the "Women of Inspiration" series, differs due to the fact that it portrays an ideal instead of a specific woman in the history of religion. The concept being portrayed is that women - and especially mothers - are constantly giving of themselves. The term "A Precious and Chosen Vessel" is taken from the description given of Mary, the Mother of Christ, and is used here to show that those who choose motherhood are precious tools for our Father in Heaven.

There are other side-stories in this diptych ( a double painting ) that the viewer can read in many ways. In the biblical portrait, there is a man drawing water in the background, and in the modern day portrait, there is a painting of Christ with children. There is also a single light source coming from the window that reaches through both paintings, and also there is the fact that the families, although slightly different, are in a mirror image of one another, although one is dealing with physical sustenance and the other with spiritual sustenance. Throughout time the role of "Mother" has remained constant: a nourisher, comforter, teacher, and caretaker. She is the vessel through which God may do his work - be it physically or spiritually, in so many ways she will be his hands on earth. This is why women must choose to partake of only the best... so they, in turn can give the best to others..." http://www.meganrieker.com/