Oberammergau Passion Play

Okay, thanks to allisona I’ve been introduced to a fantastic thing: The Oberammergau Passion Play.

For those, like me, who haven’t heard of it before:

In the Bavarian Alps, there is a small village – Oberammergau. During the plague in 1632-1634, they began to lose a lot of population – over a fifth of the village died. They prayed to God to be spared from the plague, and vowed that if he would spare the rest of the village, the whole village would perform Passion Plays in his honor every 10 years.

Well, from that moment on, no one else in the village got sick or died. So they kept their vow!

They did the first Village wide performance the following year, in 1634. Since then, they’ve adjusted the schedule so it’s now in every year ending with a 0, and the text has been updated a bit to eliminate some anti-judaism, but they’ve been producing the play every 10 years since 1634!

I’m amazed at this! Follow the links, and check it out. The last one was in 2000, and the next will be 2010. I want to learn the language and GO!

6 thoughts on “Oberammergau Passion Play

  1. Awesome!
    Hey Tony!! It’s Debbie Dolney from EMU. Found your journal through jj’s and carla’s hope you don’t mind.
    The Passion Plays sound really cool. I’ll have to look more into them. Hope all is well with you,
    Debbie

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