Category Archives: Churches and religion
Museumsdorf Bayerischer Wald, pt. III: Faith of Our Fathers
Black Forest Pantheon
Not your Grandma’s Religion
One of my blog readers recently had a “culture shock” moment. He’s a nurse, and he was filling out a patient questionnaire with a German woman. When he asked her religion, she became upset. What went wrong? Religion and society …
Reminiscent Only of Itself
If this blog seems cathedral-heavy, that’s because I love cathedrals. Stunningly beautiful even in our day, cathedrals represented heroic effort and almost miraculous achievement in their day. Each one is unique. They’re not just buildings; they’re audacity and imagination in …
The Pillar of Angels
The most beautiful sight in the Strasbourg Cathedral is a tall, slender pillar surrounded by graceful statues. It seems impossible that such a delicate structure could hold up a cathedral roof, but this pillar, called the Pillar of Angels or …
Inside Strasbourg Cathedral
Cathedrals look like rooms. But they act like cities. Take the Strasbourg Cathedral, for instance. I walk inside the door, and I say to myself, “This is nothing but a very large room. It has the same thing cathedrals always …
A Prodigy of Grandeur and Delicacy
Did I say we would be going inside the Strasbourg Cathedral on Friday? I lied. It’s Monday, and we’re still lingering on the steps. But I can’t help it. The facade of this cathedral is one of the most beautiful …
The Capitol of Christmas
The doom and gloom of November is behind us now, and Advent season has arrived. All over the continent, thousands of Christmas markets are setting up: tiny ones in small villages and enormous ones in the great cities of Europe. …
11-11-11 (at 11:11 o’clock)
St. Martin’s Day (Martintag), November 11, kicks off the beginning of German carnival season, called Fasching, Fastnacht, Fastelabend, or Karneval, depending on where you live. But as soon as it’s begun, Fasching vanishes, only to reappear after Christmas. Why the …
The Month of the Dead
In Germany, November is the month of the dead, a special time to remember lost loved ones. German Catholics set aside the first two days for this purpose: Allerheiligen, the Feast of All Saints, and Allerseelen, the Feast of All …