The 620th Ouverture to the "Wiesenmarkt"

from r to l
Bürgermeister (mayor) Stefan Visotschnig
costumed representative of the then ruling Duke,
Arthur Ottowitz (Chief of the Cultural Department)
n.n.
The pole carried by the Duke's man
signifies the permission to open "Wiesenmarkt" festivities
within two weeks and to celebrate for three days.
It is surely interesting to note that at the top
of  this garland encircled staff, there is the iron fist of 
the Duke, holding a menacing sword.
I think the message was: 
"Go on and have some fun!
But  never forget who is the boss."

The ladies of the town's Trachtenverein ( costume club)

 

The Mayor and his Grandsons,surrounded by dignitaries and 
other citizens.

I am looking forward to the Opening Salvo of this great festival:
"The Wiesenmarkt"

The Party is over.....

Isn't this a sad picture ?

S U N F L O W E R S

Close to Bleiburg there are huge fields of sun flowers
inviting you to photograph them.

Sun flowers, green hill, church on top.
How can you resist ?

 

CASTLE BERNSTEIN

Bernstein Castle is idylically located
between the rolling hills of Lower Austria
and the plains (Puszta) of Hungary.
It, and a number of other castles fulfilled their historic duty
to defend the area agains invadors from the East.

 

 

The roof and chimny of the main house are reflected
in the vine surrounded bottle glass windows

 

Add to LIMBO

I received three e-mails responding to my question about Limbo.
Not one of them takes a position, Pro or Con to the issue I raised,  but all three tell me that the Bible is not to be taken literally. With this argument one can of course accept every bit of nonsense written anywhere.
Am I therefore to understand that Baptism is not necessary, because its requirement is not to be taken literally? How do Christians know what to accept because it is meant to be accepted, and what they may ignore because it is not to be taken literally?
So I am asking again: Were  new borne babies who died prior to being baptised consigned to hell until the 13th century when the Catholic Church simply invented Limbo ?
And this consignment, first to Hell and then to Limbo was done in the name of an "All Loving", "All Merciful" God????    Give me a break....

Quite frankly, I would prefer if readers who feel that they would like to comment would do so on the "comment" directly on the Blog, so that others who might be interested may also read  opinions other than mine.

Bertstravels

What is LIMBO ?

When I was at Kordi's Funeral Mass I could see, off to my left the "Baptismal Font".
It stood in a small niche and was fronted by a huge wall painting , showing Jesus Christ on the Cross and at the bottom were depicted human figures burning in Hell Fire.

For a moment I was stunned at the juxtaposition of the baptismal area and the eternal agony of hell.
Then it occurred to me: According to Catholic Teaching you will burn in hell forever unless you are "borne again of water." 
(John 3:5). 

Now you must wonder: Why do we all burn in hell forever unless we are borne again of water ?
It's "Original Sin", baby, we are all saddled with because Adam and Eve, or maybe it was Eve alone, when in the Garden of Eden, ate of the forbidden fruit. The Bible does not tell us 'why' the fruit of this particular tree was forbidden, it just was.
But now, the Catholics had a bit of a problem: What should they do with all the new-borne babies who died before they could be sprinkled with water? You cannot just let them burn in hell forever. It's not their fault that Eve listened to a talking snake, and it surely is not their fault that they could not receive the Sacrament of Baptism. So they came up with a wrinkle: They invented a place, I don't believe is ever mentioned in the Bible. They invented "Limbo" for those little innocent kids, and no lesser man than Thomas Aquinas assured the parents that there, although they would not see the Lord, they would be well taken care of and exist in a relative state of contentment.

So, all these innocent babies, who could not possibly ever have sinned themselves, are, nevertheless, punished by never reaching heaven.

Some "Just God" we are dealing with here.

Let's just step back a bit: God, who is "all-knowing" knows the Past, the Present and the Future.
He created man in His image, created Adam and Eve and imbued them with a strong sense of curiosity.
So, they Had To Taste the forbidden fruit and God knew that they would... and when they did, He punished them cruelly. And not just them, but all of their descendants, including little kids, right up to now and forever into the future.

For doing what they were programmed to do, they got kicked out of Paradise and saddled with Original Sin, whose forgiveness could only be obtained by Baptism.

This entire story sounds preposterous. It sounds downright silly.

Please note: I am not a Bible Scholar! 

I am just

Bertstravels.

KORDULA

When I was a kid, age 8 to 12 I would spend every summer vacation in Feistritz an der Drau, a small town in Upper Carinthia. My mother's mother lived there in a small house, a garden with various fruit trees in the back, a small brook running past it and on the other side of the brook, once you crossed a small wooden bridge, there lived my Grand Uncle. He had a carpentry store and a small farm. 
A loving Grandmother, fruit trees in the garden, a brook, a Grand Uncle, the smells of fresh wood, two horses in a stable and some cows. Isn't this close to Paradise for a small boy?

I loved everybody there. But the person I loved most was my Cousin Kordula, the daughter of my Aunt Elsa. 

"Kordi" was five years older than I was and naturally I considered her pretty "grown up".
When you are 10 years of age, a 15 year old is "all grown up", No?

Kordi even then was a very funny girl. I sought her out every chance I got and listened to her tell stories. When Kordi told a story, you just could not stop laughing. She was "a riot."
She knew a hundred or more "Gschtanzln" which are short dialect songs, mostly 4 liners and all funny, some of them a little risque. I learnt a lot of those from her.
As we grew older we met only rarely, both of us having all consuming interests of our own. But now and then, at a birthday celebration of one of our family, I would meet Kordi again. Once, I remember, my brother Sigurd and Kordi were there and double- handedly entertained the whole party. All Assembled were in absolute stitches.

Once I tried to call my sister Inge from Canada, but her line was always busy. Finally I reached her and said: "I've tried to reach you for almost an hour, but got nothing but a busy signal"
"Yes", my sister answered, "for the last hour I've been chatting with Kordi and I have not laughed so much in a long time."

Since 2009 I've been living in Bleiburg, in Lower Carinthia, and Kordi lived in Spittal. This means we were only about 200km from each other. In all this time I saw Kordi but 5 or 6 times and I will always regret this neglect of an old friendship.

Several months ago I visited her for the last time. She had come down with a serious illness which prevented her from swallowing and robbed her of the power of speech. But we still had a good time. I did most of the talking and she used a paper and pencil for her questions or comments.

The illness was not able to rob her of her will to enjoy life nor of her sense of humor.

Well, today, just about an hour ago, I've returned from Kordi's funeral.
She had passed away on 31st July and I am certain she did so with a smile on her face and maybe she still whispered a "Gschtanzl"....

Bertstravels