Writing at the festival of Epiphany, just before returning to Bossey after the Christmas and New Year break spent in the UK, seems a good moment for reflection on December’s highlights.
December First Sunday of Advent, gave most of us a chance to get away and explore different and distant parts of Switzerland. Spending your visit to a Swiss parish in a german or romansch speaking Canton was probably like journeying to another land altogether! Avril, from Australia, had high hopes of having a foot (or three feet!) in 3 countries on her visit. Enchanted by the concept of being in a country which actually has borders with other countries, (unlike Oz) her ambition was achieved on her placement in Basle…which is at the geographical meeting point of Germany, Switzerland and France.
A thrilling but cathartic 30 minutes for Linda as European representative of Student body, recorded with Father Ioannes and Pastor Fritz-Gerald for Radio-Cite, Geneva. We were talking (or was it grilled) about the Institute’s 60th birthday. Will we get air time we wonder or were we rubbish! Don’t see a DJ or ‘thought for the day’ career on the horizon at all!
The weekend of Advent 2 was kicked off by the European cultural evening organised by the European students at Bossey. With Advent season common to us all it was an obvious thematic approach; hence the title ‘essence of Europe …in the Spirit of Christmas’ on our invitations. Fabulously the Menu was devised, prepared and cooked by the East European men…(.lots of pictures taken to prove it….. and their excellent example was not entirely lost on those from even more patriarchal cultural contexts!). The women and Andrej concentrated on the entertainment. Linda’s many years’ experience mulling wine for her MU branch came in useful. Anna’s second-to-none PR&PA and organisational skills were invaluable. She ran the night on a tight and effective schedule without which the essence of Europe would have perhaps have been more elusive.
So what did we eat you ask? For nibbles and starter while watching a power point projection of images from our European homelands,(Croydon was ably represented by Parish Church, trams and shopping alongside Royal family and scenic views from all over the UK), Bulgarian cheesy Banitza and Swiss fondue with mulled wine. Main course was Romanian Sarmale (meat in cabbage leaves), Greek, Green and Slovakian salads. For Pud; Russian blini followed by British mince pies.
Part of the ‘interactive’ entertainment involved how to enjoy Christmas crackers. A great British tradition seemingly unknown elasewhere in the world, lessons were given about how more fun was to be experienced when two people pull a cracker together, rather than d-i-y holding each end yourself, high over your head, with eyes shut tight or undoing the ends and seeing what falls out.
More interactive fun being taught a variety of ‘national dances’–whirling Greek and Hungarian numbers and more sedate Gay Gordons and English country dancing. Marvellously talented musicians, who has definitely been hiding their ‘lights under bushells’ surprised us. Nora, our pastoral Vicar on saxaphone and flute, Kirsie,( a volunteer Blue Angel from Finland) and Katharina, (a PHd student from Germany) on grand piano and accompanying the scratch ‘european choir’ in their rendition of ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’ (with unintelligible references to ‘figgy pudding’ for some of us) and ‘Silent Night’ (with unusual references to a child with ‘golden hair’ for more of us). Most amazing performance came from Russian orthodox seminarist Andrej with his tremendous strong bass voice. The applause was loud and long at the end of his piece.
Fete de l’Escalade Geneva or Geneva’s independence celebrations. Rev Marianne from Celigny parish introduced us to the traditional chocolate shaped ‘marmite’ or cauldron associated with this festival and explained what it was all about during the European evening. On the night of 11/12th December the Savoyards (now Italy) scaled the walls of Geneva hoping to take the city by stealth and surprise. They were discovered and all the citizens joined the desperate and bloody batttle to repel them…literally pushing them off their scaling ladders (hence the french escalade=scale or climb).
Vegetable soup was bubbling away nicely in the cauldron when it was pressed into service as offensive weapon. The lady making the soup emptied its boiling contents over the parapet onto the invaders, scalding and repulsing them. To commemorate this piece of folk-lore the chocolate ‘marmites’ (which vary from full life size costing over 400 swiss francs, to weeny token ones) form centre pieces of celebratory meals. After dinner they are ceremoniously smashed by the youngest and oldest person at table. You can even have ‘marzipan vegetables’ inside for authenticity! Then Geneva’s ‘national anthem’ is sung (completely unintelligible to most of us being in local dialect french). Prof Konrad Raiser, former Secretary General of the WCC and Rojen, our second Blue Angel volunteer ably performed the rite…smashing the cauldron to smithereens!
Geneva dresses up ‘en fete’ and lives 1602 style for the whole weekend nearest the 12th December. Sights not to be missed were the canon firing lesson (final instruction was; ‘Now cover your ears’ for good reason), musketry, and the small fife and drum bands who marched around the Old Town all weekend in costume playing most of the time-no mean feat. As a finale, all the townsfolk involved process around Geneva in a large circuit at dusk on the Sunday. Authenticity is paramount; from dispensing ‘gluhwein’ using handcarts to flaming braziers carried over the shoulder on long poles; pikemen with vicious real pikes (reminiscent of the UK Civil War Society’s Trained Bands) and masses of young people and children in the correct costume for 1602. Rounding a corner and coming upon a ‘dead ringer’ for Calvin was just a little disconcerting! Most impressive was that the cortege halted in several principal locations around the town to formally proclaim and interpret the story of December 1602. This sort of ‘midrash’ reminded me of the importance of telling our stories, for it brought alive the scenario as it must have been 400 years ago. It did double duty teaching the young people their heritage and promoted their obvious delight in engaging with that heritage.
In the run up to the Third Sunday in Advent (by which time many planned to be home for the Christmas break) it was down to earth with a bump and a handful of ‘bumph’ about University of Geneva regualtions for submission of research papers and examinations! Linda completed the course work requirement for the two modules she is taking with a presentation on the history, structure and missiology of the ‘Church of England’ and took a session of the weekly Bible Study for the community on John 3:1-21. Many students are completing their research and getting down to writing module papers. The midnight oil will surely begin to burn!
Wishing all a blessed, peaceful healthy and happy 2007.
