German embassy marks start of Christmas celebrations

Islamabad : There were these three groups of cute little school children, singing and dancing in front of a select gathering to mark the advent of Christmas season and kick off the celebrations and festivities.

It was a warm little gesture initiated by Ms Christine Rosenberger, the Head of Press and Cultural Section of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Islamabad on Wednesday evening at the Germany Embassy in the Diplomatic Enclave.

Ms Rosenberger took to the piano and was joined by Ms Antje Tiedemann, a colleague of her in the embassy on violin, as they sang the traditional 200 years old Christmas carol:

‘Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!

Alles schlaft, einsam Wacht

Nur das traute, hochheilige Paar,

Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,

Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh,

Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh.’

And the audience present on the occasion joined them!

“This is exactly 200 old German Christmas carol, which originated in German speaking part of Austria back in 1818. In fact this year is the 200th anniversary of this particular Christmas carol,” Ms Rosenberger said.

“This event we have arranged here in the German embassy in Islamabad in fact marks the start of Christmas celebrations. Now the people in Germany will be busy arranging the traditional Christmas table. “They will light a candle on the first Sunday of December and then they will continue to add another every next Sunday and there will be four candles by the last Sunday of December. Every night the families will sit for dinner around the table, they will light this candle, which is a tradition,” the Head of the Press and Cultural Section of the Germany embassy explained.

Earlier, the children from the Roots School Systems DHA-1 Ivy and those from the Roots Millennium campus donned traditional German dresses, black, white and red for their performances while the children from the Station School No. 2, Rawalpindi, helped by the ‘Open Hands Global’ teachers were in the public school uniform of sky blue kameez/shirts and white ‘shalwar’.

In the first performance, five young students, 3 boys and 2 girls, from the Roots School DHA-1 Ivy, performed a traditional German dance, most probably popular in the Bavarian region of the country. Three young boys, smartly dressed in traditional black waistcoats, frilled white shirts, golden waistbands and black pants along with two young girls, also dressed in the traditional German dress of black waistcoats, smoked white blouse, black skirts topped with red aprons, danced rhythmically on the tunes pouring out of the audio system. The boys jumped up and down, twirled and twisted and were soon joined by the girls and all five danced in harmony.

The performance was followed by a Christmas song ‘Our God is a awesome God’ presented by a group of 6 students from the Station School no. 2 supported by their teachers, Mr Lawrence, the vocalist and Mr Klawrence, on guitar. Both Lawrance and Klawrance are brothers from the ‘Open Hands Global’, working with the Station School No. 2 children.

And finally a group of young ladies from the Roots Millennium performed a traditional German dance. Attired in pretty multi-layered frocks, the young ladies swirled and swayed, clapping own and each other’s hands, bouncing on their toes and tapping and stomping in an almost perfect rhythm as they moved round and round on the floor.

Ms Christine Rosenberger gave away special Christmas gifts to the three institutions as well individual gifts to the children who took part in the performances. She enthusiastically appreciated the children and the efforts put in by their teachers to prepare for the occasion.