St. Stephen Among the Holy Innocents on Boxing Day

A merry Christmas and happy new year to y'all!  This blog sends our holiday greetings to the thousands of you (well, a few less than that) who read the blog. It is actually being written on Boxing Day (if you're in England), December 26, which would be a couple of days before the commemoration of the martyrdom of the holy innocents, and a day known in Central Europe as St. Stephen's Day.  So everything is closed in Bratislava. 

Much has gone on in Bratislava since our return from Lutherstadt Wittenberg (see the previous blog entry), but if the truth be known we haven't taken many pictures!  Many of our activities went on last year as well, with different participants, so I guess you'll have to conjure up images from previous blogs.

The Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt

Not too many days after we got back from Germany, we took a trip south of here by car to Eisenstadt, Austria, with Pastor Arden driving.  The Esterhazys, princes of the Hungarian Empire, made Eisenstadt their family home in the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries.  Eisenstadt was convenient for royal travel, since it sits about two-thirds of the way to Vienna from Budapest. The Esterhazys had a lot of money and a lot of influence, since the house fought for the Hapsburgs.  The palace is most famous for being the place where Joseph Haydn did most of his composing in the last part of the eighteenth century, and where he died (and so is doing most of his decomposing as well).  A local boy from Bratislava (or as it was known then, Pressburg or Poszony, depending on whether you were from Vienna or Budapest), Johann Nepomuk Hummel, succeeded Haydn.  And, we found out a couple of weeks ago, Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Mass in C Minor at the behest of an Esterhazy and premiered it in Eisenstadt in 1807.  The Prince didn't like it, Ludwig stormed out, and that, as they say, was the end of that!

We took time to go to Lutsmannsburg, just south of Eisenstadt.  That area, Burgenland, is noted for its red wine, and this year and last were especially good.  It so happened that we

The barrels of this year's harvest

came to Lutsmannsburg just on the Saturday of the wine festival.  Arden knows one of the families well, since they are active in the Lutheran parish there, and we were treated to wine (except for Arden, of course, who was driving) and a tour of the winery.

Paula went to a couple of stuzkovas (which, if you remember, are the fifth -year students' we-hope-for graduation parties at which they receive their stuzkas, or green ribbons which they wear for luck), and Jim got invited to one, too!  We found out this year that the parties and the ribbons are traditions only in Slovakia.  Like weddings, stuzkovas have gotten more elaborate (and expensive) over the years, but the students were dressed wonderfully, the food was delicious, the programs were good, and the dancing was... well, good when other people were involved.

Paula' centerpiece graced both parties

We got plenty of Turkey on Thanksgiving!  As with last year, there were two parties. The students took pity on their poor American teachers and put on a Turkey Party on Thanksgiving Day after classes.  The school chef (and she is one, too) did the turkeys, potatoes, and dressing.  Students and teachers provided the rest.  Then, on the next

Birds get carved....

Saturday, American teachers came in from the rest of Slovakia and Poland for another Thanksgiving.  Again, the school cooked turkeys and provided the setting, and the Americans (and

The Turkey Party spread

invited Slovak friends) celebrated and ate.  Later, the "It" game got a little wild... The International Church benefited the next day, too, since many teachers stayed over and provided extra music.

The Christmas markets started in Bratislava and Vienna, and of course we went. We added Budapest this year, but that's a long one-day trip!  We got to see the Oslo Philharmonic with Joshua Bell during the Bratislava Music Festival.  Oh, yes--teaching went on, too!  

We'll blog about Christmas and Trieste next time.  We leave tomorrow.  The reaction we get most often is, "Trieste!  How wonderful! Where's that?"  Our concern is that the main book is Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, by Jan Morris.  We'll see, and let you know.