Rudolf Steiner received his initial impressions of Christmas from the festive atmosphere of the Austro-Hungarian villages in the latter nineteenth century of his childhood. As Christmas approached, these neighborhoods were suffused by a mood he later described as magical breath that filled the homes and streets with joyful, hopeful anticipation. Even the poorest peasant householders would dedicate a corner of their dwelling to a crèche populated by wooden figures they carved themselves to represent the Holy Family and its pastoral or regal visitors, and above the scene always hovered an ingeniously suspended angel protecting the domestic setting of miraculous newborn.
As a boy, Rudolf Steiner enjoyed repeated opportunities to view such humble vignettes when visiting his neighbors. In light of Steiner’s towering cultural innovations, we can easily forget that the rural working-class comprised the social milieu of his upbringing. As an adult, he spoke of his sympathy (which today we might term empathy) with the proletariat as a natural result of having grown up among them.
The villagers of Steiner’s childhood went further than decorating their homes to welcome Christmas, celebrating the Nativity not only in consecrated space but also in dramatic time: The peasants enacted traditional seasonal pageants centered around the two archetypal narratives; every Christmas Eve they re-enacted the biblical stories of the Creation of the World, the Temptation of Adam and Eve, and the Expulsion from Paradise, and on Christmas Day the story of the Shepherds as recounted in the Gospel According to St. Luke.
As a boy, Rudolf Steiner enjoyed repeated opportunities to view such humble vignettes when visiting his neighbors. In light of Steiner’s towering cultural innovations, we can easily forget that the rural working-class comprised the social milieu of his upbringing. As an adult, he spoke of his sympathy (which today we might term empathy) with the proletariat as a natural result of having grown up among them.
The villagers of Steiner’s childhood went further than decorating their homes to welcome Christmas, celebrating the Nativity not only in consecrated space but also in dramatic time: The peasants enacted traditional seasonal pageants centered around the two archetypal narratives; every Christmas Eve they re-enacted the biblical stories of the Creation of the World, the Temptation of Adam and Eve, and the Expulsion from Paradise, and on Christmas Day the story of the Shepherds as recounted in the Gospel According to St. Luke.