Christmas is traditionally the time of the year, also in Demmin. If you rummage through the Demminer Zeitung image archives, you will come across photos of festively decorated halls full of festively dressed children, of kindergarten groups being driven to the Christmas market by tractor, of socially celebrating senior citizens. The people of Demmin could look forward to their Christmas parties, as they were fixed dates in the city’s calendar.
But the tradition, from which Christmas lives like no other festival, has to be broken in many places this year. Moving closer together, at least in a spatial sense, is undesirable in times of pandemics. The Christmas market, Christmas parties and public Christmas tree decorations will therefore not take place this year.
Demmin’s treasurer Ronny Szabó and lawyer Stefan Tabbert (UWG) find it a disaster, especially for the youngest. In order to bring at least some pre-Christmas joy to the children, Tabbert and the Demmin entrepreneur Steffen Beetz had an idea: If the children cannot redeem their carousel free rides at the Christmas market, the carousel should come to them. “The owner is also shaken by Corona, as are the daycare children,” explains Tabbert. “We wanted to bring both of them together.”
Another attempt at Easter is conceivable
The carousel, which is otherwise on the Demmin Christmas market, should tour from day care center to day care center for several days. Beetz and Tabbert would have paid for the costs, and the daycare management had already been informed about the city as an intermediary. “They were on fire,” says Szabó. However, a general decree from the state ultimately made the plan of mobile pre-Christmas joy obsolete: “According to this, third parties are no longer allowed to enter the day-care center,” explains Szabó.
The visit from Santa Claus will also have to be canceled this year and the city’s Christmas surprises can only be delivered to the doors without contact. And the carousel, like the children, has to wait for better times.
Because the plan is not ticked off, as Szabó and Tabbert assure, the organizers want to keep their promise: As soon as it is possible again, the carousel should spin for the little ones free of charge. When that will be, however, the initiators are less sure. “Maybe for Easter or for Children’s Day,” hopes Tabbert. But one thing is certain: no matter how different the Christmas season is during the pandemic, “at some point the carousel will continue to turn,” Szabó is convinced.
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