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Churches in parts of Germany are up in arms about a proposed weakening of a law which bans public dancing on some religious holidays.
The regional government of Baden-Württemberg is considering relaxing the state’s ban on dancing during part of the Easter period and on other Christian holidays, reports The Guardian.
The holiday law – often called the Tanzverbot, or dance ban – is present in some form in all German states.
It is illegal to dance in public in 13 of the 16 states in Germany from Holy Thursday through to Easter Sunday, and in some cases the ban extends to Easter Monday.
The laws force nightclubs to close and in some cases they ban live music in rooms where food and drink is served.
Punishments vary, but violators can risk fines of up to NZ$2200.
City states such as Berlin have relaxed the law in recent years, but even it doesn’t allow dance events to start before 9pm on Good Friday.
Baden-Württemberg, a state with a higher Catholic population than most, is among the strictest states.
It also imposes the ban from Christmas Eve until 3am on December 26.
Even if the rule were loosened, churches, which would be consulted about the rule change, have insisted that Good Friday must remain holy.
“As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, Good Friday is not open to debate,” a spokesman for the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese told the Stuttgarter Zeitung.
Bavaria has already announced that it would not be changing its rule, and there has also been resistance to compromise in Hesse.
“Good Friday is a Christian holiday dedicated to remembering the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus. That does not go together with loud, boisterous celebration,” Uwe Becker, of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, told the Frankfurter Rundschau.
Peter James, chairman of the Stuttgart-based Club Kollektiv, was happy some are rethinking the rules.
He said Germany is a multi-cultural society and he didn’t want to be told how to organise his days.
Sources
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