28. On the Performance of Our Popular Christmas Plays

In the last essay, I shared how I became familiar with the German Christmas plays that are performed every year at the Goetheanum in Dornach. These performances depict scenes that were shared by Karl Julius Schröer. Only in one instance this year did I try to act against the principle by making a small addition to bring something orally or in writing into the tradition. Something particularly characteristic of these plays was that the players, before presenting the content of what was being depicted, already stepped before their audience as a kind of choir. This choral element also occurs at many points in the plays, interrupting the progress of the action. In the traditional “Song of the Stars”, which preceded the performance of the “Birth of Christ Play”, an introductory chorus has been preserved in which the players greet everything they would like to relate to before they begin the performance. They greet everything that is close to their hearts at this important moment: from the Holy Trinity, to the individual categories of the audience, to the “little twigs” of their star, which the caroler carries. It is now certain to me that such an introductory chorus originally also preceded the first of the plays, the “Paradise Play,” and that it was very similar in form to the Star Song of the “Birth of Christ Play.” I have now ventured to try to provide such an introductory chorus before the Paradise Play as well, because I believe that, in doing so, I am acting in the spirit of tradition and recreating something that was approximately present, even if the oral and written tradition has lost it. The sentiments of the “Star Song” for the Nativity Play must be found there, somewhat differently.

I love my singing, come here friends,
Today is a day of great joy and celebration;
There sits before me this whole, lonely month,
Which I long to hear my singing with.
So gather round me in a circle;
You shall drive the people away with singing.
My dear ones, my singing, make eyes at me,
So that you may interpret the people well,
And see that singing is good for everyone,
And a heartfelt and strong voice.
But first we want to greet everyone,
Who has found their way into this hall today.
We greet God the Father on his highest throne;
And we greet his only Son;
We greet the Holy Ghost as well,
Who shows us the true way to follow;
And we greet the Holy Trinity:
The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost in unity.
We greet Adam and Eve in the Garden,
In which we would all like to be today. And we greet all the animals and birds as much as we are in paradise. And we greet very gently the wonderfully large and loud birds; we greet the whole firmament, That the dear Lord has placed at the end of the world.
We greet the officials of the firmament;
We greet the master today as always.
We greet the spiritual Lord,
Without whom we may have to learn.
We greet the Lord, his feast
With all his complaints for the best;
For the Lord has provided
What he so enjoys so much. —
And now, my dear ones, sing along,
In the middle of it all, a tree stands;
From that, a person must not eat,
When he wants to harvest the right thing:
The tree should be greeted,
And all the fruits that hang on it.
Eve, the wicked one, who ate of it,
And Adam, the foolish man.
They were cast out by God;
We want to hear it said.
We don't want to greet the devil,
From whom our dear God protects us;
We want to pull on his tail,
And rip out all his hair. —
My dear ones, you have all heard my singing,
What it once did for them in paradise.
Now we greet our teacher well
And greet the good Muot,
With whom we can sing in our groves
Without many beats. —
So, my dear singers have heard
Where an old friend of ours is celebrating.