Holy Week in Vienna

For all that sociologists — and even the Pope — decry western Europe’s secularism, I think they are missing big parts of the picture. My experience this Easter has been fascinating.

We attended the "Karfreitag" service (Good Friday) at St. Stephans Cathedral (or Stephansdom), the cathedral church of Vienna. It was standing room only, in the most ornate gothic church of Vienna, complete with the resident cardinal, and huge numbers of various levels of monsignors, priests, nuns, and what Dagmar said were the Knights of Malta. The music was the St. Johannes Passion by Schutz. I thought I would find the pageantry moving, but the music was not at all to my taste, I couldn't see much of anything from where we were sitting (unless I watched on the overhead LCD screens -- shades of rock concerts), and the huge line of ornately garbed male priests underlined the patriarchal nature of the rite. It was very difficult to worship much at all.

On the other hand, on Karsamstag (Easter Saturday) we took the bus up to Cobenzel and went to the Celtic tree circle where they were lighting a huge bonfire (actually, four separate fires). They have a wonderful sound system, and as night fell we sat in the circle, watched the fires, and listened to the Bach St. Matthew passion. The music was wonderful, the mountain top under the huge dark sky was gorgeous, and the crowds of people quiet and reflective. It was really powerful and beautiful -- perhaps one of the most moving Easter vigils I've ever a been part of.

Dagmar says that part of the reason people think Europe is so secular is that fewer and fewer people want to pay the church taxes (collected by the state), and so they "opt out" which takes them off the rolls. The NYTimes piece from this weekend suggests another issue might be that

“In America, people exaggerate how religious they are, and in Europe, it’s the other way around. That has to do with the situation of religion in both places. Americans think religion is a good thing and tend to feel guilty that they aren’t religious enough. In Europe, they think being religious is bad, and they actually feel guilty about being too religious.”

Whatever the case might be, sociologically speaking, we've been immersed in a variety of rich Easter practices this year. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to experience the season in Vienna. Happy Easter to everyone!