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highly constat literally the city of saints. and the people here do indeed celebrate a long tradition of christianity and some of the rituals practiced here go back hundreds of years. on palm sunday the sunday before easter catholics from the central german town gather in precession to bear witness to the sufferings of christ. then 50 men carry these larger than life wooden figures through the town. on the 4th bearer and are from right from you grandfather was the 1st then my grandfather and my father my father. were not for us a highlight for the whole town. sense 1581 catholics have been

staging this holy week procession and highly. it resembles a passion play each palm sunday they carry huge figures around the town center portraying the sufferings of christ. jesuits introduced the tradition as part of their strategy to subvert the attraction of the protestant reformation in the region. deposited some muslims put on the list the procession is really remarkable because it has survived told a vicissitudes of history you were stunned in like moment secularization and superiors that the pope described as godless dictatorships. it's a very strong christian. unwitnessed from a small region at the heart of germany in bushland. today the passion procession of highly constat is one of the largest in the country. this will represent the mount

of olives where jesus prayed the night before his crucifixion here in central europe olive trees are a rare commodity. so the builders make do with the branches of few trees. we traditionally use your trees because there's lots of them growing around here they are also very decorative they're nice and green. which include. the more than . the huge tree branches that represent all of branches from the holy mountain are a popular keepsake. do you were everyone wants to take one home and it's an old tradition to which the palm sunday branch is behind the crucifix in your sitting room they stay there all year this sometimes leads to a regular free for all with people fighting over the last branches so we make sure to put lots of them on our display day when we dismantle everything they'll be none left. the figures are stored in the attic of the old jesuit

college the depicting the virgin mary holding the body of her dead son was replaced 120 years ago. some of the other figures date back to the 16th century they are carefully preserved and have been spared the ravages of time. most of my mic on the 1st time i took part in the early 1980 s. they had predicted rain that had rained so hard when we carrying the figures we can't really take a step to the side so we just marched straight through all the puddles on the music got so wet you could hear our shoes squelching what a mess that's. been there is retiring this year his sunday shot is said to take over his role in the procession that's the tradition here but 1st he needs a top hat off to do them all. over do you happen to have a spare top hat for our son ben. also for the yo-yo to look through what

we've got now found 3 if you go for. all platform bearers wear their sunday best black suits and top hats those. this is a top hat my grandfather used to wear. over par with seen a few downpours isn't it boys it's too big for me you keep slipping around on my head oh this is what it is too big line it with newspaper at the drive. and but it doesn't fit richard we have to find another one. here not on. the thought of i believe it belonged to my wife's grandfather. you know it's too small for me but i think it should fit richard they're going to think you know which of us will issue or in this case hat fit. this is where the procession is set to start on sunday bowden knows the way he will

be in the front row carrying the 1st figure your good invest will head up that way towards the 1st intersection. and then turn right towards vilhelm stars and. through. it's the same route the procession has followed for centuries one and a half kilometers through the streets of had a constat. and here i think this is bill himself will be coming from up here in procession and head this way across getting us taza on to linden l.a. . and then back to our starting point where the closing service takes place. another palm sunday tradition and highly constat at the little boxes that held a shot of paints. this is so often that it's a very old custom here in that we always give to each of the little boxes after the palm sunday for session will be a pity if that custom disappeared from. the boxes our beloved souvenirs from

highly constat next to the one she painted herself to also keeps many historical examples in her museum. though and these were painted between 1008 in 1910 individual kept very simple. this autumn was covered with thinned paint. these symbolize palm fronds and each box was decorated with a bouquet of flowers and a little saying. 40 years ago she brought this half forgotten tradition back to life. do you mean. young men would present responses to this week. when the girls approval that way and parents would give them to their children in that case there will always sweet sayings on the box like god bless you wish them. though it's so lovely here to share in. the museum has visitors year round the

motif of the easter lamb is a best seller held a shot of 1st painted a box like this for the late cardinal meisner archbishop of cologne. codea continental gave it to somebody and what it was. it's a moment i was for the look 1st i thought he didn't like it and i realized he wouldn't make a present of something you didn't like yourself. and then he told me he'd given it to his best friend cardinal ratzinger now you don't say. yes and then cardinal minds now received a new one requirement since then i've often painted the pascal lebanon there's no record of whether cardinal ratzinger took the box with him when he moved into the palace of the vatican as pope benedict the 16th either way helga shot is quite pleased. i was. still really just is the good shepherd and the good shepherd looks after history of people dimension and the lamb is both the sacrificial lamb

earns the victorious lamb. in recent years a novelty has crept in among the boxes. how did the luther rose find its way to this very catholic town. so i thought it wasn't cindy if english and ensue thousands of lutheran christians were formally invited to a palm sunday procession before that they generally ever been spectators. since then they join in so i thought that meant to be a special for the lutherans and that's why i had to sign this box and this week i pushed a little wish that it. meanwhile at the shrillness home we've gathered a few top hats let's see which of them fits you us 20 year old bill now wants to follow in his father's footsteps and assume the family's office as one of the ceremonial platform bearers suck. it's time to find out if one of the hats they

borrowed actually fits. this one's a bit too small isn't it. but for some 32 years carried the last figure in the perception the holy step of our formal dress has always been obligatory. finally the 4th that they try fits but it is father's will have to share it is once the entire. just as they'll share the route father falls plans to take over for his son on the 2nd leg of the procession . but he did not i think you'll manage until getting us toss a. downhill hamster and i'll carry it the rest of the way you'll see you'll be flagging by that. country's new community for the moment the youngster seems confident enough sports assume you're from someone some standing next the holy

settled or leaving the house to join the procession i think it will feel a little special i imagine what it must be like to walk through town while people point instead whisper to each other in reverence oh joke one of the barriers a sense of this in the air force the course you can tell when you're being stared at. it dressed in his finest sun or a shard is ready to carry on the family legacy. and. me feel proud is a fine thing and i think it's wonderful that you're doing this. his father is brimming with pride. as we look at how you've grown up. the whole precession is organized by families and highly can start like the spinners but there's one exception to the rule since 1943 men from the neighboring village of best housing have been responsible for the 4 metre high cross. best 1000 lies just 5 kilometers east of haile constat.

for decades your highness trialing and after him his son angle that have been cross bearers. just imagine help carry it across and mr film a day to those who served for us it's an honor to be part of the procession. the involvement of best housing was a result of the 2nd world war. many residents of highly constat were at the front and there weren't enough strong men left to carry the figures. so the dean wrote a letter to the parish priest at best house and asking for support the men from best house and volunteered to carry the cross years later when the men of highly can start wanted to take it back the volunteers were reluctant to hand it over. to new york. we had a meeting and discussed the situation and we decided we're not going to relinquish

the honor we received. the letter if we were good enough during the war we were good enough afterwards. to do that they. told us that the manifest how's and what dead against it and i'm glad they were or . 12 men are in our families we all agreed we should carry on bearing the cross and stead of giving it back. with. their determination paid off. that trialing took over the cross from his father in 1906 my father said he'd been carrying the cross for 40 years he also if i wanted to take it over of course i did you know. i stayed closer kept an eye on. that i was carrying it the right way it's not easy and fast you have to fall in line with the other bearers and take direction from the men who've been doing it for years. it's tricky when you're standing at the back trying to balance it out or

. growth across lanes to one side the people on that side have to push against it and you push against them this is and sometimes it's not the weight of the cross that's the hard part of the guy next to you pushing the wrong direction or war we never dropped it into. the procession was introduced by jesuits who were sent to the area over 4 centuries ago by the archbishop of mines ruler of the territory. these jesuits got creative as they went about spearheading the counter-reformation . media i will be your desire they took what we would call a multimedia approach they were the best instruments at the disposal of the catholic church and the passion for session was part of their program they turned it into a mass beck tical knocking them off. it was to be

a spectacle on good friday the day christ was crucified. but the locals objected to the proposed to date. that was a good friday is a holy day of obligation for catholics we eat one meal all day and we're not allowed mate so they couldn't sell sausages and the fasting rules forbade many other things of the day isn't suitable for a big public spectacle because it commemorates the sufferings of christ so the procession happens on palm sunday instead of the times wonderfully since the date was changed to palm sunday and 734 the procession has been enormously popular and to keep it that way the local people were prepared to defend their profession by all means at their disposal. the nazis forbade school children to accompany the holy sepulcher but 8 young boys defied the order. they. described this as the greatest disappointment of his life and caused by the very

people who were supposed to play a key role in constructing the 1000 year reich of the limited. people to defy nazi ideology the boys were sent to a hitler youth prison camp in bad data where they suffered physical violence and were interrogated. for heat away you could view this as a form of resistance in the 3rd reich as the utah position. but sized. and attempts to suppress the parade didn't stop there after the end of the war this was soviet occupied territory former provost paul you. tells an anecdote about his predecessor in 1946 when he feared the procession would be banned he turned to the soviet commander. the commander of been a theater director in russia. and so of course he was interested in drama. when the provost knew this would have played on the man simply describing the

procession as a holy play. he said it was no demonstration it was a melodrama. many participants he was asked 6000. commander was very impressed and how many acts yes if not accurate scenes was the answer. for. the day after the procession the man was summoned by the soviet commander. with his knowledge of the world the last thing the provost wanted before he left was a hearty breakfast they knew these appointments could take time and he wasn't sure whether he was going to be praised or reprimanded. he was praised. and the incident became part of highly constat history. afterwards the east german communists never dared to ban the procession. but they did punish those who

collaborated. especially the bearers. barsky between even through many of the people who held important positions had to decide for themselves whether it was worth taking part in the procession or not especially in the final years when east germany was particularly weak and pressure in the factories and collectives increased it with lead christians couldn't even get a master's certificate anymore. in those communist years taking part in the perception was a bold declaration of one's faith. to part for the 1st time in the mid 1980 s. despite the political repercussions he would face. it demonstrated that i was committed to my faith that i hadn't bought into socialism. procession let me show that

quite openly. but that meant that i wouldn't be allowed to study. or i wanted to become a forest ranger but all of a sudden i was cut off that's what i was pushed out of the system or and. in spite of the discrimination they suffered this small region remained a bastion of faith. 80 percent of the population is catholic. christian but whether in the 3rd reich or later under communism what is the perception always was an expression of resistance you know standing for this was their way of telling the regime that it hadn't succeeded in getting the whole region to accept the new ideology they didn't need anybody else's worldview they had their own given the choice between marx and god they chose god's record. highly constat on the sunday before easter the day of the passion procession its 12 noon how the shutter is

arranging the palm sunday boxes on her table. or to scram sunday is palm sunday is an important day for this region and even people from a fire away know about it many will come through the weather is perfect the sun is shining so that means even more than joining the given the whole is not nearly as often very. 1230 which had still not dresses for the procession today he will assume an honorary office in every sense of the word to march in the procession as one of the bearers of the holy sepulture her is a high accolade and high like and start. ryszard will inherit the office from his father as custom dictates. today he will become part of a 400 year old tradition. it's an emotional occasion. for. the man and formal dress will be the heroes of the day richard do you want to

begin from the 3rd or so carrie from the start it's ok here's how our share the load rich of all carry that wholly separate down. then i'll take over and go to guns taza and little gnarly collars done no. 1 o'clock thousands of pilgrims and tourists crowd into the town. by that that's all running according to plan and no change is the same as a. every year. the bears from best 1000 take up their positions at the cross it's not the heaviest load but it's the hardest to carry. the holy step occurs decorated with flowers the spill ners father and son are starting to feel the tension. of this service i hope i don't step on your feet by the way if you do after the 3rd time you have to polish my shoes afterwards. how

the shutters painted boxes are attracting potential customers. a colorful memento of a very special occasion that could have all of the time. on the stroke of 2 the procession starts with him and prayers the fateful march through highly constat. only after the 1st figures have covered a 3rd of the route is it time for ryszard to start. the holy step occur as the final scene. and weighing $320.00 kilos it's the heaviest. yeah i was one of the men that saves all kinds i'm dashed if one means we're removing all the guns i don't know coercing the old hymns the time to actually son in church anymore. and if you look at the people i'll see they're all very and

perhaps old and everybody is moving forward. when i see the procession see datsun as most impetus to want to fight back the tears with sophisticated from. the vast 1000 men are proud to be carrying the cross. and albert dryland has taken his father's place. with its uplifting when you see that you're part of this whole community. 8000 people have joined the procession today. another 4000 lined the streets. for the unretouched build their shoulders on the shoulders of 11 other men. the holy sepak are a heavy burden. his father is waiting to take over but young restart isn't ready to quit yet.

8 tenths of a kilometer now he's not handing over this is just a short pause. 1.2 kilometers hasn't he had enough. iraqi police to finish now there won't be any handover we want god with all my vote i knew he wouldn't give up i knew it all along he told me he wanted to see israel's. all. the passion precession is punishing for the bears but it's a burden they carry with pride across 1500 meters home but at some point i didn't want to hand over i told myself i had to finish i think he's even happier about it than i am. well richard. it hurts like sell out such as this story i would you know take over you want to exact stories to news

when i wanted to finish 1st so you did this now your worthy of the office. richard wants to take over permanently if the united over to me. all you got on. to. the palm sunday procession is more than a spectacle or a custom. for the people of halligan start it's a declaration of their faith. it was a short walk be about a procession is always the same that's the spirit of tradition it expresses a certain continuity when you see that christianity is still alive here there is still catholics here with the churches and not empty there are people who want to demonstrate their faith that is by the airport we are or by the fact that we've been chosen. just to carry the figures through the time. when i'm presenting them

to the people. is all they believe the procession will survive another 100 yes i'm certain of it just different but short sighted.

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a modern mental soon soon global $3000.00 on t.w. and all ma. ma ma. ma. ma. ma ma ma. this is deja news live from berlin is china facing a 2nd wave of corona virus infections concern is growing after a rise in new cases many involving travelers from abroad will bring you the latest from asia. will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week then they'll be a lot of death unfortunately. us.