Frankly... integrated  The Easter Bunny and the Twelve Apostles

Eid al-Fitr, Corpus Christi and Yom Kippur are major holidays for religious communities. Sineb El Masrar reflects on how different religious holidays impact everyday school or work life in Germany.

What do religions have in common? Their rituals and festivals can unite or divide. The driving force behind their divisive influence is not infrequently envy, which, as is so often the case, is out of place!
And yet religious holidays, which primarily means Christian holidays here in Germany, are seldom actually celebrated here at all. In many cases only when there are small children living in the household: the Easter Bunny may not be one of the Twelve Apostles, but for tradition’s sake, it still has to hide the chocolate eggs.

For several decades now, these holidays have served many workers as a break from the daily grind, a day to lie around on the couch, to head out into nature or clean up the mess at home. But sometimes Christians in Germany suffer from the same syndrome that afflicts Muslims, which I call “holiday envy”. I experienced it, too, as a Muslim in the mostly Protestant state of Lower Saxony.

Holiday Envy at School

Our Catholic classmates at school could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and the other kids in the class and I always envied them. On Corpus Christi, for instance, the feast of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This holiday is mainly about his vitality, rather than his corpse, although the name suggests the opposite. Anyway, on Corpus Christi, while we were doing dictation exercises in primary school or, later on, struggling to drum the periodic table of elements into our pubescent brains, this handful of Catholic kids simply got the day off. We were so envious! We wanted a day off too! The Catholics always got special treatment! Kids have a knack for repeating what their parents say at the dinner table.

As a child of Muslim parents, I was both the exception and the rule. All the public Protestant holidays applied to me, too. No extras, as in the case of a Catholic girl in my primary school, through whom I first learned that there are different brands of Christianity. For me as a Muslim, who fasted during Ramadam as a teenager, there was no exception. No day off when we Muslims all over the world celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, or later in the year Eid al-Adha, the “Feast of the Sacrifice”, for three days. My parents would never have let me take a day off, because: “School is important, child!”

This religious diversity is actually not a problem in the working world, but rather an advantage. Over the Christmas holidays last year, for instance, one of my journalist colleagues and his as well non-Christian co-worker simply took over the shifts over the Christmas period so that the other colleagues could celebrate with their families. And it works the other way round, too, so people of other faiths can by agreement take time off on holidays that are important to them.

Religious Diversity

There are over 80 religions and denominations in Germany. So people here can learn something new about diversity all the time. What was invisible is now becoming visible. Germany’s Christian history goes far back in time, and as we know from the German-Jewish anniversary celebrations in 2021, it also has a 1,700 years old Jewish history. If you think about it, public Jewish holidays should have been established here a long, long time ago. So envy is definitely not a good counsellor. Envy has caused too much suffering in the past. And besides, about 41 per cent of the German population are not religious anyway, and the actual figure is probably higher because some religious communities have a problem with anyone saying, “Hey, I'm out, guys! This sounds too implausible to me.”

Thanks to our democracy, we can accept the Christian heritage, which is reflected in public holidays, with religious diversity as well as the increasing non-denominational worldview. Everything’s possible once we kiss holiday envy goodbye.

Which brings us back to my Catholic classmate. Looking back now, I don't envy her at all: her parents sent her off to a Catholic boarding school at a very young age. Frankly, I'd rather have flexible holidays by arrangement with my co-workers.
 

May 2022