OBERAMMERGAU 2010

We are putting the final touches to Lightline’s Oberammergau 2010 Passion Play programme and brochures will be available around soon after the 14th of March 2008. We have planned a series of 8 and 10 day programmes based in a select choice of villages in the lakes and mountains of Austria plus an additional one or two nights in or near the village of Oberammergau.

History of the event

A play of life and death, promised in a moment of mortal threat - so began the history of the Oberammergau Passion Play in 1633. In the middle of the Thirty Years War, after months of suffering and death from the plague, the people of Oberammergau swore an oath that they would perform the "Play of the Suffering, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord" every ten years. At Pentecost 1634, they fulfilled their pledge for the first time on a stage they put up in the cemetery above the fresh graves of the plague victims. In the year 2000, the Community of Oberammergau performed the Passion Play they have preserved throughout the centuries with singular continuity for the 40th time.

The Play today

The Passion Play is performed in a purpose built theatre that can seat almost 5,000 people  comfortably.  The season lasts twenty weeks allowing approximately half a million people to attend. The play is performed in all weather conditions with the audience under cover, viewing the open-air stage with a breathtaking natural mountain backdrop.
The Play portrays the Passion of Christ from the entry into Jerusalem to the Resurrection. The presentation is so realistic that it is easy to imagine oneself at the foot of the cross or in the Garden of Gethsemane. The action is interspersed with tableaux from the Old Testament of Messianic prophesies and the whole performance is set to music and sung by a huge choir.
Today, more than 2,000 Oberammergauers, actors, singers, instrumentalists and stage technicians bring to the stage those events Christianity regards as its central source of life and hope in approximately six hours of playing time.

Attending the play

As it is not possible to stay more than one or two nights in Oberammergau during the Passion Play season we combine a visit to the Passion Play with a holiday among the beautiful lakes and majestic mountains of Austria.

The Oberammergau website can be viewed by clicking on this link - http://wwwoberammergau.de/ot_e/passionplay/index.htm