Catholic or Protestant? In view of the loss of importance of the churches and the high number of people leaving, this question is basically of little relevance. But on one day a year in Bavaria it is. Because whether August 15 is a holiday depends on whether more Catholic people live in the community or more Protestants. If the proportion of Catholics predominates, Assumption Day is a public holiday. If there are more members of the Protestant Church, the day is a normal working day – for example in Franconian cities such as Nuremberg, Erlangen, Hof, Bayreuth or Coburg.
The figures from the 2011 census are decisive, as explained by the State Office for Statistics in Fürth. On this basis, it is decided whether it is a public holiday or a working day. In 1,704 towns and communities people are free, in 352 they are not. Authorities, shops and production facilities are open there as usual. Many people from the Catholic Upper Palatinate use the day to do extensive shopping in Nuremberg. And from the predominantly Catholic Bamberg you can discover the shops of Coburg or Bayreuth. In Franconia in particular, if the supermarket on your doorstep is closed, the one in the neighboring community may be open.
The State Office for Statistics not only holds because of these complicated conditions an overview map available online, but also a database for the public holiday question. The Catholic Church celebrates the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on this day. And that is also quite complex from a theological point of view. The Bible does not explicitly mention when and how Mary is said to have got to heaven. The solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, which is the official title, has its roots in a Marian festival that developed in what is now Syria at the end of the fourth century. According to the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising, it then spread throughout the East and developed into a celebration of the homecoming of Mary.
This is how the festival found its way into the Roman liturgy. In 1950, Pope Pius XII. the dogma that Mary was “taken up body and soul to heavenly glory after the completion of her earthly life”. This is often interpreted in connection with the belief in the resurrection, which is expressed in the creed of the Catholic and Protestant churches. Various customs have developed in the Catholic Church on the Assumption of Mary; most well known today is the binding of herb bushes with a range of medicinal herbs, ears of grain and flowers. The bouquets are blessed in the services. The festival is celebrated particularly big in the pilgrimage town of Altötting or in the strictly conservative Maria Vesperbild in Swabia, where the former Pope’s secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, is expected