Not everyone knows that Santa Claus will give a speech at a birthday party. But Johanna Wach’s cousin recently enjoyed it – after all, a little practice doesn’t hurt if you have to speak in front of a few hundred people a few days later. But the dress rehearsal went well, the 18-year-old rewrote the end of her speech a bit, now she feels ready to ring in the Advent season at the Ebersberg Christmas market this weekend.
The fact that Johanna Wach is allowed to embody the Christ Child this year is certainly primarily due to her positive, cheerful charisma. But also a bit because she is a member of the Ebersberg Kolping Youth. Alternating with the traditional costume association, this provides the Christ child, as tradition wants it to be.
The young woman from Ebersberg, who graduated from high school in Grafing in the spring, is currently doing an internship in the human resources department of an insurance company and wants to spend the next year abroad – preferably in France – has always admired the performances of her predecessors since she was a child, just like her told. She sees it as an honor that she is now standing in her place – but she does not hide the fact that the thought of stepping onto the balcony of the town hall in festive garb and addressing hundreds of people with her speech sometimes makes her pretty nervous. Although she has already been on stage twice for the Alte Kino and is of course used to speaking in front of people from her presentations – but she has never known such a large audience before.
But she is well prepared. She has already tried on her heavenly costume – a white robe with a golden bodice that is passed on from Christkind to Christkind: “It fits like a glove.” Above all, however, there is talk. Together with her parents, she put a manuscript by former mayor Walter Brilmayer into poem form, and her grandfather, who had brought the speeches from all the previous Christkindeln with him, also helped. The 18-year-old says she wants to talk a little bit about the situation in the world and the bad events that are unfortunately dominating the news at the moment. But it shouldn’t be too thoughtful either, above all because many children are listening too, who should be looking forward to the pre-Christmas period. That people should treat each other well and take care of each other – that is the appeal that Johanna Wach wants to bring to the people.
Johanna Wach can be seen at the Christmas market four times over the weekend: on Saturday, November 26, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., and on Sunday, November 27, at 12 p.m. and 6.45 p.m.