I went off today with some doubt to one of the public universities where I teach. I needed to pick up exams to grade, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get in. I suspect many years ago, when I first arrived in Vienna, that the university would have been closed through Three Kings Day (January 6). Today I used my key card and got in with no trouble. From the lights visible in offices I could even see I was not alone. Quite a surprise for me.
Tag Archives: holidays
The Third Day of Christmas
27 DecWhat a surprise it was to step onto the street today shortly after 8 a.m. for the first walk of the day and find people and cars and open shops and simply activity in general!
For many, my surprise will be incomprehensible. Was it really so quiet the last few days? Yup. Shops usually close in Vienna at midday on Christmas Eve and remain closed for Christmas Day and the Feast of Saint Stephen (known in the UK as Boxing Day). This year, however, Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, when most shops are closed all day anyway, which meant that we have had three days of wonderful peace and quiet (and a most unusual abundance of free parking spaces) with the Viennese enjoying one of their favorite things–Ruhe (also known as peace and quiet).
Five
5 May5ºC (about 40ºF) here this morning on the 5th day of the 5th month. I think the ice saints may have arrived early this year, like everything else. 😉
The Easter weekend is coming
17 AprAnd Mylo and I took advantage of the fact that many people (e.g., clients) are out of town to go for a walk in Türkenschanz Park this afternoon. Here is some of what we saw.
January 7th in Vienna
7 JanToday the city came alive again. The 12 Days of Christmas are over, and everyone is going back to work. I, for one, am glad. I spent the holidays home by myself nursing a badly injured little dog and feeling very alone. Vet’s office closed for days in a row as I worried about whether the latest development warranted calling the emergency number and getting the vet away from her celebrations and, on top of that, many friends out of town. Now life is getting back to normal. And the sun is coming up noticeably earlier. It was already bathing the park in a rosy pink at shortly after seven this morning.
Christmas greetings
24 DecSome things, thank goodness, never change–or at least they haven’t changed yet.
I am in the process of sending out my Christmas and New Year’s greetings by e-mail and am getting a slew of auto-replies back. Almost all of them say that the recipient is out of the office until January 7. Apparently, people are still honoring the twelve days of Christmas here. What a wise folk! 😉
The Wiener Linien
1 NovThe Wiener Linien is the public transport authority in Vienna and true to form they are running extra trams on this All Saints holiday to accommodate those people who can’t afford a car or simply choose not to drive to the cemetery for their traditional visits to the graves of late loved ones. Classic Vienna.
State holiday
26 OctAbsolutely perfect fall weather (see below) for the Nationalfeiertag today and a record number of people in the Vienna Woods to make the most of it. What does Austria celebrate on its state holiday? Many Austrians themselves are not sure. A quick look at the German-language Wikipedia shows that it is Austria’s return to sovereign state status when the last occupying troops (Brits in the province of Carinthia) left. The Austrian parliament then immediately enacted a law ensuring Austria’s eternal neutrality, a point that is now viewed with some skepticism given Austria’s EU membership. So today Austria celebrates its sovereignty and its neutrality. True to Austrian custom there is no extra day to make up for the holiday even though it falls on the weekend. On Monday we all have to go back to work. In the meantime we get to enjoy this:
Ascension
9 MayMay is the month of many holidays, Austria still being a Catholic country. Today was Ascension, which means we still have Pentecost Monday and Corpus Christi to go. What to do on a holiday in May when the weather is perfect? I opted for lunch at the Palmenhaus in the Burggarten with a friend. A good choice.
May Day, a personal memory
1 MayIt is many years ago now that I found myself in a sun-flooded, absolutely gorgeous meadow in the Vienna Woods (like the one below) doing the first of what was to become a regular reflection on this May 1st holiday on the state of my life and business.
After I had put my notebook away and was simply lying back on my picnic blanket enjoying the warmth and the sweetly scented air I suddenly heard in my head Richard Strauss’s “Morgen” and was overwhelmed with well-being. Something about that experience has never completely left me.
Text:
And tomorrow the sun will shine again
And she will reunite us, happy ones,
On the path that I go along
In the middle of this sun-breathing earth …
Onto the wide, wave-blue, shore
We shall quietly and slowly descend
Mute we will gaze into each other’s eyes
And be enveloped in the profound silence of happiness.
– John Henry MacKay
(my translation of what was probably already a German translation of his original)
If you want to hear it, here is a recording of Gundula Janowitz, a member of the famous Mozart ensemble at the Vienna State Opera in the 1950s and 60s and one of my favorite Austrian sopranos, singing with wonderful simplicity:
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