It’s Good Friday, which means that in Germany you are officially forbidden to have fun. I’m not joking (that would be illegal), there is a “ban on dancing”: No public dancing (clubs must be closed), no frivolous movies.
Coincidentally, it’s also my grandpa’s birthday today, he would be 98! So instead of mourning a fictional character, let’s celebrate a wonderful man who was a humanist and socialist, always fighting for justice. And the best grandpa of all as he gave us the most precious gift a grandpa can give: time.
Taken in 1993. By the look of the garden and the fact that he’s wearing a dress shirt it could even have been his birthday.
©Giliell, all rights reserved.
The smile you see usually spelled mischief. He never lost that boyish joy. I swear he even cheated at chess and that’s a whole other level.
So, here’s to you, grandpa!
It’s also my uncle’s 60th birthday tomorrow and to celebrate with the solemn seriousness the occasion deserves, we made him a piñata:
©Giliell, all rights reserved.
He wants money for a new motorcycle helmet and we’ll make him work for it.
So, get the party started!
Happy Birthday to your grandfather, who sounds like a wonderful man (My Opa gave me the gift of time, too) and to your uncle. I’m a bit concerned that there might be smiling and possibly even laughter at your party. Perhaps you should draw the drapes and play dirges on the stereo to drown out the sound of illegal fun. ;-)
Did you make a cake?
Heppy Birthday to your grandpa and that is about as mischievous as it is possible for a smile to get!
Also,
are you fucking serious? This is official, by law?? If so, it’s the best reason to have a party every Good Friday. I just hope they don’t fine you too much for laughing. :P
Yes, it’s true! No dancing, no overtly joy. It is the law. But most people do not care and I hope we can overcome this sillyness in coming years.
I broke it by having a laughing flash for nearly 10 minutes yesterday while boardgaming with friends.
Actually, there’s an organization somewhere around here that’s been trying for a while to get a court case going over this, to eventually get it inspected for constitutionality.
To this end, they keep asking for permission to do something that violate this rule.
They’re a bit upset that they always get that permission -- this year I think it’s for some kind of indoor disco (with music and dancing, anyway).
So if you really want to do something like this, it seems the way is to make the authorities believe you’re willing to sue until the highest possible court.
Now I’m curious.
-What exactly does the law say?
-Have there been any attempts to change what is clearly a religious law? Wasn’t Germany supposed to be secular? How can they possibly have a law that clearly favors one religion over all the others?
-What is the punishment for people who simply disobey this law. Have there been no attempts for various non-Christian groups to simply break the law? Have there been any precedents with some club organizing a party and getting punished?
Back when I was living in Germany, I was already super pissed off about all the shops being closed on Sundays. Government shouldn’t have a right to tell their citizens on which days they are allowed to go shopping. But this Good Friday thing goes even further. I have heard this law about Sundays being justified with secular excuses like protecting workers from overworking (that’s a silly excuse; instead you can just make a law that nobody can work more than 40 hours per week) or having this one day per week when all the family members can be together. That sort of excuses. But it’s simply impossible to make up a secular excuse for why people cannot dance or watch funny movies on some day.
There are some number of religious privileges enshrined in our constitution. For example, religions can have an “organization of public law” and that can actually tax their members. And given that there are a number of Christian holy days that are official public holidays (which one being determined by if there are more Catholics or protestants in the area), is the closed Sunday any surprise? Hell, we even pay the salary of Catholic bishops as reparation for taking away some Catholic property over a century ago!
We have recurrent debates if Islam should have similar constructs, the main problem being the lack of a centralized church to fulfill that role. And recently, there’s been talk about if we should have Islamic holidays if a community should have an Islamic majority. (It seems the Jews are not even interested in this.)
Those “silent” holidays are very few, actually.
What irks me a lot more is that churches don’t have to follow many workers rights legislation, and that they nominally run lots of schools and kindergartens, where most of the money comes from the state, but they still get to make the rules. Though court cases don’t always go their ways on this.
We officially have no state church, but the position of the Catholic and the larger protestant churches are pretty close to being one.
Here there were Prayer Sunday and Prayer Saturday dance and entertainment bans, that were in force in Finland before 1969 and which were abolished totally in 1984. In 1960s, there were some youth riots due to the dance bans, for example in Rovaniemi in Easter Sunday 1968, 200-300 young people threw rocks at cop cars, broke windows and lit trashcans on fire. It took cops about two hours to get the mob to disperse.
We have two National Churches here that are mentioned in constitution, the Evangelical Lutheran and the Orthodox Churches (the latter is affiliated with the Patriarch of Constantinople) of Finland. They do have rights to tax their members and have some other privileges, like in Germany, but at least the State has no Concordats with any church that I know of.
khms,
Where I live the government funds the Catholic school system from kindergarten to high school. If you attend one of those schools you are required to take religious education classes which means Catholic education. It’s been this way for so long that no-one really questions it anymore. There is some difference in public education tax rates if you choose a Catholic school, but it’s nominal. I think it’s ridiculous in this day and age to fund any type of religious education, but at least we aren’t paying the salaries of bishops. I think you got the short end of that stick. Will you be paying them in perpetuity?
Andreas,
I never understood the celebration of Good Friday or the contemplation of the torture of Jesus. The edict to be serious and contemplative and avoid fun is absurd. I also wonder how it could be enforced and what type of punishment would be meted out. In Canada all businesses are closed on Good Friday by law (except for variety stores and some restaurants), but people are free to use the day as they wish with no prerequisite seriousness.
The funny part is that the catholic high school that I went to were quite liberal -- we had a decent sex education starting with grade 7 (with emphasis on abstinence but with a good overview of all (most?) other methods, and an excellent review of venereal disease), religion class included talking about sexual assault and something resembling consent, also discussion of mental illness (but not as a curse of god), homosexuality (and not in a BAD! way, in a ‘here are some statistics and they are people too’ kind of way; grade 11 was exclusively a World Religions course (compare/contrast with Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, pagan religions, etc.), grade “13” was not a religious class but you had to collect something like 40 or 100 hours of community service by graduation. There was still the idea of learning christian-based ethics and morality, but talk about the greatness of god was surprisingly few and far between -- I’m having trouble recalling any specific god discussions besides I think it was grade 10 when every Friday we went as a class to talk to the chaplain (about general teenage issues and a little about Jesus). A lot of religion-class activities were about learning to be more understanding of others and to be helpful and things like that. Wow, we even studied a story called “Bebe X”, about parents raising a gender neutral child and how everyone takes issue with this but the point was to realize that it’s not important because you have to support your baby and let all children enjoy their own interests not those dictated by society!
Anyway what a walk down memory lane. I don’t know how much of that was school- or teacher-specific (I had different teachers different years), but we certainly had very little of actual religious (catholic) knowledge imparted to us (my dad was devout so I learned in church every Sunday). Of course the idea was there and you couldn’t avoid knowing this was a catholic school, but there was more of that outside of religion class than within (at least in the French Immersion program).
Also this isn’t to say that religion-based schools are all okay, just my one school in eastern Ontario was quite advanced.
In Latvia, there are no laws about when businesses should be closed. Everybody gets to decide for themselves. All the grocery stores that belong to larger chains are open every day year round. Most other stores either close on weekends or at least have shorter business hours. During holidays like Easter, many shops either have shorter hours or are closed all day. It is up to managers of each store to decide for themselves. Many businesses do choose to close on weekends and holidays, because otherwise they would be required to hire extra employees. This is how I believe it ought to be—people ought to have a right to decide for themselves when they want to work. States shouldn’t be enforcing any religious holidays. Of course, the state should also make worker protection laws that mandate the maximum amount of hours an employee can work per week, etc. limitations. For example, in Latvia every worker is entitled to 4 weeks of holidays every year (as in “paid holidays”). Parents are also entitled to paid leave in specific situations. And so on.
Obviously, there are also no laws that mandate people to be serious on any specific days.
I was born in 1992. I never had any religious education at school. I did learn about Christianity in history lessons while talking about the relevant time periods, I also had to read Parable of the Prodigal Son in Literature lessons. But there weren’t really any attempts to portray Christianity as true; my history teacher didn’t treat it any differently than Greek or Ancient Egyptian mythology.
Children who are younger than me weren’t all as lucky as I was. My cousin (6 years younger than me) had to experience Christian indoctrination when she was 7 years old. Nowadays first grade children (who go to state schools, I’m not talking about private schools here) have to take either ethics lessons or lessons about Christianity. Catholic and Lutheran churches both lobbied to be given access to children who are as young as possible. After all, indoctrinating a 7 years old child is much easier than dealing with somebody who is already grown up.
Andreas Avester
Except it does -- for example, Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays for government employees, as defined by law. So is Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day. Also Midsummer’s Eve and Midsummer (Feast of St John the Baptist), although that one gets a far more pagan bent when celebrating. And if you read the Preamble to the Satversme, christian values are included right there in the text (as amended only a few years ago because someone decided the Satversme needed a preamble that emphasized christian values). See also: tikumība rules for teachers. Priecīgas Lieldienas!
rq @#11
You use the word “enforce” differently from what I meant. In Germany there are laws that ban shops (and private businesses in general) from being open on Sundays. In Latvia, if I owned a shop and I wanted to work on Sundays, that would be my free choice. Same goes for Easter holidays. As somebody who isn’t a government employee, I am free to choose to work during Easter. The government isn’t forcing me to abstain from working at any specific day. Giving holidays to government employees on specific dates is an entirely different issue than banning private businesses from staying open on the same dates.
That being said, I do dislike how some dates are declared as “national holidays” for very bad reasons. And I’m also aware how this isn’t fair towards everybody who doesn’t belong to the correct Christian denomination. So, yes, there is plenty of room for improvement.
I hate that damn preamble. I hate it so much. I also hate 2 euro coins with that prayer on them. And I hate the national anthem. I already wrote about Latvian anthem several years ago here -- https://www.satori.lv/article/mits-par-to-ka-latvijas-himna-celusies
Maybe so, but state-enshrined religious-based holidays don’t give people much choice, either -- in my opinion, a matter of degree, not kind. The only difference is whether you extend the ‘holiday’ to everyone, or just those on the government payroll. The essentials are still there in the law, and they’re based on religion.
I agree on the Preamble. Also I have a special hate for the amendment of 2005 that finally explicitly defined marriage, rather than leaving the open interpretation originally written.
Andreas
Sorry, got to disagree here. Weekends and holidays make sure that people get some rest and families get to spend some time together. This is a benefit independent of the religious background of some of the holidays.
Back in the day, Shops used to close at 6 during workdays and at 12 on Saturdays and nobody starved. When the government loosened these regulations in the 90s a couple of things happened:
1. Acceleration of the concentration of the market in the hands of a few chains. Small, independent businesses couldbn’t keep up anymore.
2. Biggest loss in regular jobs in retail. The fact that stores now had longer times to staff didn’t mean more jobs and many jobs became “450€ jobs”, i.e. jobs with no social security, paid holidays, paid sick leave.
3. Massive loss in family time for people who work in retail. My mum in law still worked in retail back then and her weekends were basically non-existent anymore. Sure, she had a day off during the week, but the rest of the family didn’t.
No, we don’t need to make 24/7 available for consumerism and capitalist exploitation. If anything, the German model shows that even within capitalism you can have a strong economy and still catch some breath. Government mandating how to spend the holiday is a different thing, of course.
Giliell @# 14
Yes, days off are beneficial for everybody. This is why a country can pass a law which states that every worker is entitled to a certain number of days off every year, the law can just say that it is up to each person to choose when to take their days off. Thus everybody gets their free days when they want them rather than whenever Christians have some religious holiday.
A country can pass laws specifically banning or severely limiting “450€ jobs.” The fact that we want to avoid creating “450€ jobs” doesn’t mean that we must enforce religious holidays.
I am not trying to discredit the validity of your experience, but you ought to be aware that other people have different needs and preferences. Currently I am self-employed. I always choose to work on weekends, and I take my days off when everybody else is working. I have multiple reasons:
1. I’m currently living together with my family, because that saves money. If I was rich, I would just rent my own home and live alone. Unfortunately, I cannot afford that. Thus I am forced to tolerate the presence of my family members every single day that I’m at home. I don’t dislike my family, they are nice people, it’s just that spending lots of time with them makes me very tired. When I’m taking a day off for relaxing, I want to get away from my family. I already see my relatives every evening. That’s more than enough for me. I really don’t want to spend entire days with my family. A family weekend would be a nightmare for me.
2. I and my boyfriend live in different cities. I visit him once per week, always on weekdays. Just like me, he’s also saving money by living with his family. When I visit my boyfriend in order to have a sex party, the last thing I want to see there are his family members. I prefer to visit him when the house is empty. The last thing I need are nosy kids banging on the bedroom doors at the wrong moment. When my boyfriend’s brothers are at work and their daughters are at school, the house is empty, and I’m free to have some entertainment. I never ever visit my boyfriend on weekends, then there are simply too many people around.
3. If I want to go somewhere, let’s say to a swimming pool, I prefer to do that on weekdays. Then it’s empty. On weekends every place is too crowded.
Back when I had a real job (Monday to Friday, from nine to five), I was really miserable. Saturdays and Sundays were useless for me. On those days I couldn’t do anything I wanted anyway. I desperately need the flexibility to choose my working hours. If ensuring your mother’s happiness makes people like me miserable, then I don’t like it. People’s family circumstances differ, same goes also for their preferences.
Just like you, I also want countries to create laws that prevent capitalist exploitation. I believe that a law which says that everybody is forbidden to work on Sundays is the wrong approach. If some capitalist wanted to exploit their workers, it would be possible to force them work 12 hour shifts for six days per week. “No work on Sundays” regulation is clearly insufficient to prevent capitalist abuse.
Here are some alternatives I’ll propose:
—Nobody has to work more than 40 days per week.
—Employees are free to choose their working hours. Employers aren’t allowed to force somebody to work on Sundays against their will.
—Everybody is entitled to have a specified number of days off every year.
—“450€ jobs” jobs with no social security, paid holidays, and paid sick leave are banned or severely regulated.
As for consumerism, as much as I might dislike it, I believe that each person ought to be free to choose for themselves how they live. Just because you dislike something doesn’t mean that you ought to have a right to ban it. Incidentally, closing shops for one day per week isn’t going to change shopaholics’ behavior. They will just go shopping on other days. Does it really matter for you whether somebody else goes shopping on Saturday or on Sunday? If you don’t want to go shopping on Sundays, you are free to stay at home with your family. How you live your own life is your choice. How other people live their lives is not for you to decide.
I think you’re completely missing the power angles here. Power lies not with the individual worker. They cannot freely choose their working hours, while their employer holds considerable power.
Uhm, you do realise that your convenient arrangement with your boyfriend replies exactly on the kind of routine you are raging against?
And taking away from people their freedom to even try to negotiate flexible working hours is somehow supposed to empower them?
If you are not OK with your family member being forced to work on Sundays against her will, then why are you OK with me being forced to work on any specific weekday against my will? What if I want to be free on Tuesdays. Why are my preferences less important than those of somebody who wants to be free on Sundays?
No. My convenient arrangement depends upon the country giving me the freedom to choose my own weakly schedule as I see fit. I usually visit my boyfriend on Tuesdays, because that’s when the house is empty. If his family happened to work on Sundays, I would be perfectly happy to visit him on Sundays instead. I don’t want to visit him on any specific day per se, I just want to be free to visit him whenever the house happens to be empty. I don’t care which day it is. My boyfriend doesn’t have that many relatives. Thus I can easily adjust my own weekly schedule based on whenever my boyfriend’s brothers happen to be at work.
A routine isn’t what I’m unhappy about. What disturbs me is a central government taking away a liberty from the citizens. A government has no right to enforce any specific weekly or daily schedule on people. How people choose to schedule their daily lives ought to be private decisions not mandated by a government. I inherently dislike superfluous government laws that unnecessarily limit citizens’ freedom. Once the laws are gone, I don’t particularly care what other people happen to choose. Where I live, many people happen to privately choose to not work on weekends. I’m perfectly fine with this. As long as it’s a privately made decision not mandated by some law, I am willing to respect other people’s choices. I only have a problem with the government taking away from people the right to choose for themselves.
Incidentally, if I was unable to work on weekends due to my employer’s practical considerations, I would see what I can negotiate with my employer, but I wouldn’t be that pissed off. Practical considerations for why some business chooses to organize their work in some way is something I can accept. Whenever there’s teamwork involved, people have to make compromises and negotiate a schedule that’s acceptable for everybody. What I cannot accept is the government ordering me around for no good reason.
I’m pleasantly surprised to hear that your religious education was that broad. I attended public school and there were no religious classes offered at all. I think a world religion class would have been interesting and useful if taught like the one you describe.
voyager
From what I hear about catholic school elsewhere, I’m also quite surprised -- so I don’t know if it’s a school board policy thing, a school thing or simply a teacher thing. As I said, I was in the Immersion program, we were a small group (about 20 students out of 200 -- 250 graduating?) and we had quite forward thinking teachers, for the most part. I don’t know how it was in English religion, those people were like a different species to us, because they were so many and until grade 10 we shared very few classes with non-Immersion folks (taking math for the first time in English was veeeery interesting!).
I’m old enough to have gotten used to the no shopping thing on Sundays (or Saturday evenings, or late at night ever, as it used to be), and I’m a boring enough person to care if I’m not supposed to party on some holidays.
I could do without hearing the jingle of the ice cream truck, any Friday, as it crawls around in my neighborhood. It’s been a thing for many years, though this was the first year I remember having heard it on Good Friday.
rq @ 19
Are there any math terms you pronounce the French way? With my experience on French-language educated Professors (whose mother tongue may or may not be French) speaking English, words like voltage, j-omega and cosinus (cosine) are bound to be pronounced in French. (Finns on the other hand seem to be quite adept at replacing double-yoo (w) with vee (v).)
Ice Swimmer
Not so much pronunciation as the terms themselves -- for example, the teacher kept saying “integers” and I think it was a couple of months before I really understood what she meant.