Light and dark

Out skiing.
In the light snow.
And the darkness of my soul.
The days are short at this time of the year.
In an hour it's all dark.

(Picture taken in the mountains today)

So this was Christmas

And what have you done?

I haven't done much actually, except the usual not-so-interesting stuff. The weather was bad, windy and rainy, so the skiing was disappointing too.

On Christmas Day, I went to church, to watch and listen to the mass in our big medieval cathedral. The cathedral is visited by some 250.000 tourists every year. I've been there many times in the tourist way, to enjoy the architecture, the glass paintings, and the stone carvings, and to climb the stairs to the tower with the kids. But I have never attended a mass. This Christmas I did, just for fun.

I enjoyed the music, the two choirs, and the sound of the big Steinmeyer organ, which has recently been restored. When they read from the Christmas gospel, it came to my mind that this thing about fake news, that we heard about in the US election, is nothing new. Some fake news have been repeated for almost 2000 years, and there are still people believing in it.

I'm not a believer, and I hardly ever go to church. If I do, its only for weddings and funerals. When I was a kid, we had to go to church from time to time. It was part of Christianity class. We're mainly Protestants in this country. Martin Luther was supposed to be our hero. Now it's almost 500 years since the reformation, when the Catholics were kicked out, with their saints and confessions and indulgences. There's no doubt that Luther had a point.

Our protestant church got dull and boring. It seems like the congregations want more show, more like the Catholics do it. I think I noticed, in the Christmas Day mass, that Catholic elements are coming back. The service was performed by an army of clerics. They were parading proudly through the church, behind a guy in white robes carrying a tall pole with Jesus on the cross. There were four priests (two female) and the bishop himself, dressed in white and purple robes. I find it kind of funny that the bishop has the name of the Norse thunder god, Tor.

In our town we have always been somewhat schizofrenic about the Catholics. We have always celebrated our local saint, the king of the vikings, who was killed in battle 1000 years ago. It was noticed (according to the saga) that his nails and hair continued to grow after his death; the sign of a true saint.  Every summer there's a festival to celebrate the holy king, including rock concerts, to attract more people I guess.

Whatever, I have nothing against neither Protestants nor Catholics as such. Religion is just fairy tale to me, and rock concerts are great.

And a happy new year >:)

(I took this picture on New Year's Eve of the public fire works at the old fortress. Sorry about the poor quality. My cell phone camera isn't very good in this kind of conditions. )