Easter meeting in Niederalteich abbey 2018
Easter meeting in Niederalteich abbey organised by Junge Aktion where students from Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia meet to celebrate Easter together.
Easter is the most important holy day for Christians and is celebrated by millions of people every year. These people celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, who was the first and only one that overcome dead, there is probably no Christian society that does not appreciate this holy day. The celebration unites believers all over Europe, too, and brings a great number of them to the Vatican, irrespective of nationality or language. It is also the reason why Junge Aktion brings young people together to celebrate this holy day.
The celebration of Easter is the Junge Aktion's oldest event, and dates back to 1954. Until 2012, the celebration used to take place in Rohr Abbey and then moved to Niederalteich abbey. Students from three countries took part in this event: Germany, Slovakia and Czech Republic. It took place from 28th March to 2th April and the theme was: “The seductive Pied Piper” – manipulation in this world. The seminar also covered methods used in social media, TV, newspapers etc. to manipulate information.
Last year everyone was truly surprised, especially the organizers, as to the number of participants. Based on previous years they expected about 40-50 participants; in fact, there were 72 participants. If the organizers are included, 78 people attended the event at the abbey this year. The number of participants was a challenge for organizers, but they were undeterred by this and set to work.
The participants arrived in the evening of Wednesday 28th March and the program started with dinner. To get to know each other better icebreaking games were played after dinner, which was a lot of fun. However, everyone was so tired after the long journey to Niederalteich that everyone went sleep quite early.
Easter Thursday was spent listening to the lectures on the theme of the event. The day commenced with a fake lecture in that told participants a story only then to tell them than that it was only fake. “I was quite confused. I had certain doubts about the truth of the lecture but since serious history journals were quoted that I thought a moment it could be true,” said one of the participants. The following morning, a speaker came from Brno from Zvolsiinfo in the afternoon that talked about fake news on the internet and showed how easily people can manipulate with information. In the evening, a pub quiz was played.
On the Good Friday participants went on a trip to Passau. They exchanged an Easter egg for everything. They had to carry out different task in the city, too, and everything was then evaluated in the evening. Afterwards, the participants took part in the Stations of the Cross, which meant bearing a cross to the twelve stations where readings were made from the Bible.
On Easter Saturday, began with the “Olympic Games” so the participants could release their energy and do a little sport. Because not only energy, but also creativity must be released, the rest of the day was spent in creative workshops; the participants could choose one of several workshops in which they wanted to take part. They could choose, for instance, first aid, creating masks or decorations for the final party, incredible machine etc. No-one can have failed to find a workshop they liked, and everyone had a lot of fun. The participants went to bed quite early; and for good reason, too.
Easter Day began already about 3 a.m. because all participants went to church to attend a service. Easter services were attended throughout the event so the last and biggest of them could not have been missed. The service lasted about three hours and was followed afterwards by a big breakfast. Most of the day was then spent calmly resting until the evening when both the participants and organising team started to prepare for the last evening. The last feast was truly immense. The participants were divided into pairs in a game and then the party began. The participants truly had great fun during the night. There was a great deal of food and drinks and modern music, so the party went until dawn. It was also one of the reasons why was waking up so difficult. The second reason was the fact that the participants had to say goodbye.
The last year of the Easter meeting of Junge Aktion was truly successful. The number of participants exceeded expectations and all aspects of the organisation went well. I had never attended this event before, but I was so enthusiastic about it that I will definitely take part this year. The atmosphere, program, organisation, and indeed everything is truly amazing and I can hardly imagine a better way of spending Easter.
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