December 24th is a special day. For Irene Geiger-Schaller from Oberhaching it is for two reasons: the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran parish of Zum Guten Hirten in Oberhaching has her birthday on Christmas Eve. Even as a child, the mornings were hers. The whole family gathered for the birthday breakfast, everyone was there for her. She then celebrated the children’s birthday party in the summer together with her two-year-old brother, it was always a “big children’s party”. As a teenager, she celebrated her birthday with many friends on the evening of December 23rd. “But we didn’t really let it rip, we still wanted to experience the 24th”, says the 54-year-old lively. They would also have visited friends on their birthdays. It has never been the case that she only celebrates once a year.
“I’ve always been a Christmas kid and loved this day madly.” You always have to wait a whole year for the next big party, but it was particularly nice and “because everyone thought I was missing out, I always got a lot of presents,” she says. Today it is important to her to really enjoy the two hours in the morning. In order for it to succeed, all Christmas preparations must be completed the night before, the food prepared, the presents wrapped and the sermons written. It puts a lot of pressure on her and her husband, but on the twenty-fourth in the morning they are all very relaxed.
So she can celebrate the services at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. in true joy about the birth of Jesus, after that she is free. Because her husband Karsten, who was parish priest in Oberhaching for nine years and now works in the regional church in the department for life support, holds the service at 10 p.m. “He gives me that as a gift,” smiles the local pastor.
Geiger-Schaller remembers one birthday in particular: After graduating from high school, she spent a year in Palestine. On December 24, 1987, the volunteers who worked in various institutions celebrated in the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem and then walked to Bethlehem at night. “That was still possible back then, there was still no wall around the birthplace of Jesus,” the experience still echoes. So for her birthday she wishes “peace on earth, that this world comes into balance, even if it sounds flat”. She says it and smiles, her name is Irene, which is derived from the ancient Greek word for “peace”.
In the series “My number” from December 1st to Christmas Eve, the SZ presented people every day in whose life a number has a special meaning – from 1 to 24 like in an Advent calendar.