When the Church avenges itself
While everyone talks about the “great event” on Friday, 9th of June, yeah the day of the soccer suckers, you might want to be a church sucker.
Vienna will celebrate the so-called “Die Lange Nacht der Kirchen” in 180 Christian churches (also in Linz), from the Catholic Church to Orthodox to Evangelical.
I know that the Viennese (the Austrians and the Western Europeans, in general) are mainly secular and not all zealots when it comes to their religion. Perhaps, there’s gonna be a few who are eager to make it a habit and a way of life. I mean, a number of public holidays in Austria are religious save from a few political ones. A month ago the Vatican was alarmed how it is easy to leave the Catholic Church in Austria.You just pay the remaining church tax fees/debts (if you have) submitting a few papers like the baptismal certificate, write a formal letter to your magistrate and pay a small fee for 15.10 euros (administratio costs, etc.), and voila, it is finished, you are out. I am still toying with the idea of giving it up but I am still not convinced.
Anyway there are interesting exhibitions, musicals and even performances lined up. Some will last till midnight, hence the word “lang.”
My favourite ones are as follows:
There is the “Totentanz,” in which you ca say how dark and morbid our church is. Another one is the Gregorian chants concert from the Hofburgkapelle.
And this is the highlight for me. All the while I never encounter many Filipinos having a nightlife in Vienna but you can see them in churches and in the malls. So if you are a wee bit interested to know the Philippine culture, I’d suggest “Tänze und Gesänge von den Philippinen” for a treat.
I only read until “soccer”. omg. fußball! FUSSBALL!
thank you so much for this posting! i just read about that event and was grumpy at myself for once again being clued in too late for suggesting it for a metblogs writeup — but then i looked over here and discovered it’s already posted. *does the little happy dance* in st. stephen’s cathedral you can visit the catacombs and the tower, all for free (both from 1900 to 2200), and they’re even putting on a special light show — very cool.
“You just pay the remaining church tax fees/debts (if you have) submitting a few papers like the baptismal certificate, write a formal letter to your magistrate and pay a small fee for 15.10 euros (administratio costs, etc.), and voila, it is finished, you are out.”
that might be pretty good for vienna, where you have to pull a number and wait for an hour if you want anything from your magistrate. when i did that in linz, i just stopped by the city hall, was immediately attended to by a friendly civil servant, showed an ID to prove i’m really me (and of course the all-important residence registration to prove i’m under their responsibility), signed a form, and was done. i didn’t pay anything. when the church wants money from you, all they really can do is ask nicely. and maybe they would have liked a letter explaining why i consider them inadequate, but that’s not my problem.
anyway, the gregorian chants concert seems to be a hot tip. the choir is entirely made up of ex-sängerknaben, which is somehow sad, but they’ll also be rocking the church organ bach style, yay.
oh, and one more thing: you can be a church sucker and a soccer sucker AT THE SAME TIME. when someone in the comments under the orf.at story mentioned live screenings of the opening match in participating curches, i thought it was a joke. i just found out that it’s true.
now if they just offered holy^Wfree beer with that, they’d fill up those churches faster than you can say an ave maria.