Silent holiday: What is actually allowed on Good Friday? – Region & Country – Schwarzwälder Bote
Silent holiday What is actually allowed on Good Friday?
Marius Lang March 28, 2024 – 6:04 p.m. On Good Friday the disco ball has to rest. There is a ban on dancing. Photo: dpa/Jonas Walzberg
Dancing is forbidden on Good Friday. Our editorial team explains why this is so and what else is taboo on the Christian holiday.
Anyone who wants to dance on Good Friday will probably have to accept doing it in secret for the time being. There is still a strict ban on dancing on this holiday. This is regulated in the public holiday law of the state of Baden-Württemberg.
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Good Friday is therefore considered a quiet holiday. Special rules apply to these. In addition to Good Friday, there are also All Saints’ Day (November 1st), Penance and Prayer Day (November 20th), Remembrance Day (on the penultimate Sunday before the first Advent) and the Sunday of the Dead or Eternity Sunday (on the last Sunday before the first Advent). There is a ban on dancing in this country on all of these days.
No dancing until Saturday evening
However, on none of the silent holidays is the ban as strictly regulated as on Good Friday. According to the public holiday law, silence begins at 6 p.m. on Maundy Thursday and lasts until 8 p.m. on Holy Saturday. Until the end of 2015, the holiday law was even stricter. The dancing ban originally also applied at Christmas, Epiphany and Pentecost, among other things, before the rules were relaxed by the green-red state government at the time.
Further easing is currently not foreseeable. CDU Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of the current green-black state government, Thomas Strobl, is against lifting the dancing ban. He still considers the regulation to be contemporary and believes that Good Friday should not become a day like any other. In his opinion, it is good for everyone to consciously relax on Good Friday.
Church wants to stick with the ban on dancing
Strobl receives approval from the church in the southwest, among others. According to the Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Good Friday “cannot be reconciled with exuberant celebration and dancing” and the Protestant regional bishop in Baden, Heike Springhart, also believes that the ban on dancing on Good Friday is important: “For us, there are quiet days together Strength for a society and a democracy. If you relate the background of Good Friday to today, remembering all those who have fallen victim to war, oppression and violence makes sense.”
However, opposition comes from discos and restaurants, especially since the pandemic. The Baden-Württemberg Hotel and Restaurant Association (Dehoga) is calling for the ban on dancing to be abolished. “For the catering establishments, these regulations amount to a closure,” said an association spokesman.
Discos are fighting for survival
Disco operator Benjamin Blensberg, who runs the Donaueschingen discotheque “Okay”, also views the dancing ban with displeasure. Unlike before, his industry is currently so economically unstable that any further restrictions will hit discos hard. “In principle, we need every opening hour and every customer,” says Bensberg: “The industry is fighting for survival.”
In addition to the ban on dancing, sporting events are also prohibited on Good Friday in Baden-Württemberg. These are only allowed again on Easter Sunday from 11 a.m. Selected films are also not allowed to be shown in cinemas on Good Friday, but there are no restrictions on television and streaming services, said the Voluntary Self-Regulation of the Film Industry (FSK). This year, however, there will be no film without a holiday release.
Whether the bans on the holidays are still appropriate given the fact that more and more people are no longer or less and less Christian will remain a debate in the coming years. However, until the bans are lifted, you will probably have to wait until Saturday evening to dance.