Ascension Day

So, we did wind up naming our pigeons.  The one with the rainbow neck is Hans and the other is Anna.  How do we know one is a girl?  Well, last Tuesday morning we found all the evidence in the world.  I went out one morning onto the balcony to find an egg in our empty flower pot.  We have seen both birds brooding on the egg.  Diane just read that the male will sit on the egg during the day and the female at night (the night shift).  This picture was taken this evening.  It is Anna. It takes about 17-19 days to hatch the egg.  Hopefully we can start using our balcony again in a few weeks.

Today was “Ascension Day." Our offices, like everywhere else in Germany, were closed.  It was a day off for us.  Ascension Day is a German holiday in recognition of Christ ascending to heaven after tarrying with His apostles for several days and then going up to His father.  I was told that today is also “Vater Tag” (Father’s Day).  It was explained to us that Mother’s Day is an official day of recognition and that as an afterthought they decided to squeeze a day of recognition to fathers.  So it was combined with Ascension Day, without having to create a new holiday.

We went to Dom-Rӧmer.  It is the historical part of town.  What a wonderful time we had looking at centuries-old-looking architecture and walking in some of the old churches.  Most of the buildings in the area were destroyed in WWII and were rebuilt to look original. One cathedral and one building survived--we saw both of them. One church we went in was having a service.  It was Ascension Day, after all.  The priest and his assistance's were waving a smoking thurible around an alter to incense the holy sacrament and the congregation.   I found it fascinating, but the organ had a very eerie, almost scary, sound to it.

Outside there was music and entertainment.  We were warned to be careful today because a lot of people get drunk and are very rowdy.   We didn’t see much of that until later in the day.  I must admit the rowdy people didn’t appear dangerous.  They appeared very happy.

This evening we stayed in.  We arranged to have the sister missionaries over to teach a young man they have been working with.  It was a great visit.  He even stayed for a while longer after the Sisters left, just to talk.

It's been a great Ascension/Father's Day.