Introductions for Traditional Christmas Plays

GA 274 — 14 December 1923, Dornach

Introduction

Today we would like to present to you two plays from ancient folklore that belong to the series of plays that were often performed during festive seasons in ancient Christian folklore in the Middle Ages and in many regions.

We must be clear about the fact that from the 12th or 13th century until the last century, until the middle of the last century, the great festivals of the year - Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and some others - were extraordinarily significant events in the year in Christian areas. And just as the Christian year is marked by everything that permeates consciousness, so at special times the human heart is virtually called upon to permeate these memories with that which in turn are the greatest facts in religious life and in religious consciousness.

There are Easter plays, Pentecost plays, Corpus Christi plays, and plays for other holy festivals. The most endearing of these festivals, the ones that most touch the soul, were the Christmas plays. These Christmas plays have been preserved for us particularly from the times when the Middle Ages were coming to an end. And the two plays that we are presenting to you today also come from the late Middle Ages. They were still being performed everywhere in the 16th century, even in the surrounding areas. As is pointed out, they were performed in the areas around here. You can see from this that these plays originally came from a region along the Rhine. But the plays that we are presenting today were not found here in these areas; they were discovered by my old teacher and friend Karl Julius Schröer in the middle of the last century in those areas of Upper Hungary that were actually still truly German at the time, but whose German character has long since faded, giving way to Slavic and Magyar elements. German colonies were scattered throughout these areas, as they were throughout Hungary. In the area around Bratislava, north of the Danube, and further over, south of the Carpathians, along the so-called Hungarian highlands to Transylvania; and again down on the lower Danube, in the so-called Banat. In the latter area, the Swabians have settled, who emigrated from Germany; in the areas of northern Hungary, in the areas from which these plays originate, we have Saxon colonists. But those who have cultivated these plays are probably even of Alemannic origin and were originally settled in the areas that comprise Alsace and are located north of the Rhine, which forms the northern border of Switzerland. These Germans emigrated and settled in the area around Pressburg, north of the Danube, the so-called Oberufer region, and brought these Christmas plays with them as a precious souvenir of their old home further west.

Every year, when Christmas approached, the Christmas plays were rehearsed in the village. Actually, they started rehearsing as soon as the grape harvest was over. Then the person who kept these Christmas plays in his family would gather the others around him; it was a well-respected family in the individual villages that had written down these plays, and again the most respected and oldest of the family was the so-called teacher. He gathered the boys around him as soon as the grape harvest was over, in October. Only boys were allowed to play at that time. He gathered the boys he found suitable, not only in an artistic sense, in a folk-artistic sense, but also in a moral and religious sense. Even while studying and preparing, the boys were required to lead particularly pious lives, so that when they performed at Christmas, they would be able to advocate in the right way for what was contained in these plays, through their whole attitude. Then they studied from week to week and it was strictly observed that everything that was around was really observed in these old plays. In fact, everything was laid down, including how each individual was to behave. After these plays had been prepared for a long time, as Christmas approached, those who had been instructed by the teacher for many weeks prepared themselves, and at Christmas time they first went around the village, then went to the inn that had been chosen for the performance. In a simple inn, and with the simplest of means, the story that you will see in today's two plays was performed. These are two examples of how the Holy Story was presented.

The first play depicts the story of the Fall of Man, the temptation of Adam and Eve. The second play shows Christ appearing to the shepherds in Bethlehem and everything that followed.

Two things, my dear audience, can be seen from these plays. Firstly, how deeply Christianity had penetrated the mind with genuine, honest piety. And on the other hand, how all sentimentality was still alien to these simple people in those days. A sentimental nature, which is always somewhat untrue, something falsely mystical, was not at all connected with this genuine, honest, popular piety.

I myself was deeply moved when I, as a very young lad, got to know these Christmas plays through my revered teacher, Karl Julius Schröer, at the end of the 1770s, beginning of the 1780s of the last century, and I then occupied myself with them a great deal. And so I would like to try to present what, in my opinion, has been celebrated with honest, elementary piety for centuries in German-speaking areas of Central Europe around Christmas time, and which was then brought as a faithful heirloom to the former German colonies in Hungary, as it was presented in those ancient times. Of course, you can't do it quite so primitively. But you have to do it as well as possible. And we do it here in such a way that you get a good idea of what it was like at Christmas in these German colonial villages. So — bringing up a piece of Christian German folklore — these Christmas plays should now appear before you in an unadulterated form.

You will see how everything is geared towards making the presentation something intimate that the entire audience - it was, after all, a simple village audience - experienced. So you will see the caroler entering to introduce the whole thing. You will see how he actually forms the bridge from the players to the audience, so that everything can have an extraordinarily affectionate, intimate and heartfelt expression. What I have said to you, which can only cause one to love these traditions from ancient folklore, has led to the fact that we, within our anthroposophical movement, have made it our task every year to perform these old folk plays, and we will do so again this year. And that is why we have invited you.

Especially in the second half of the 19th century, so much of these old things disappeared, and we should actually be grateful that a man like Karl Julius Schröer, who was a scholar in folklore, went to the teachers himself and had them tell him what the teachers or those who were fellow players had in their memories. Because they told him something that is truly centuries-old, sacred property. And so it has been preserved. Unfortunately, folklore is only present today in very isolated areas, where, by the way, attempts are being made to preserve it unadulterated. A piece of old folklore comes to life when we immerse ourselves in it, as it can be done through a presentation that is as unadulterated as possible, as we are now attempting. It is with this in mind that we kindly invite you to view this old folk tradition with us.

After the two performances of the “Paradeis-Spiel” and the “Christ-Geburt-Spiel” in Dornach on Friday, December 14, 1923, the group of actors traveled to Schaffhausen for a rehearsal on Saturday, where the two plays were performed on Sunday, December 16, 1923. Rudolf Steiner arrived on Sunday and gave a speech, of which no transcript has survived. He then traveled on to Stuttgart. Marie Steiner was in Berlin at the time. —- In the book published in 1967: Rudolf Steiner/Marie Steiner-von Sivers “Correspondence and Documents 1901-1925,” Rudolf Steiner writes several times about this guest performance in preparation.