RETURNING TO PAGES TURNED DURING THE YEAR THAT’S ENDING.

IT'S AN age-old tradition of the press and media to look back on the old year as a new year dawns.

So, to welcome in 2021, your Impartial Explorer is focusing on a selection of themes that adorned these pages during 2020, which began relatively normally, with a report from Wiesbaden – the federal state capital of Hessen, in Western Germany’s Rhine-Main Region.

I sampled the city’s scrumptious chocolate, famous around the world since 1898, and visited some of Hessen’s 770 beautiful lakes, six World Heritage sites, 31 spas and numerous health resorts.

I previewed Germany’s imminent Oberammergau Passion Play, first performed in 1634, with its 42nd season approaching later in 2020.

I visited a casino once frequented by Dostoyevsky, and sampled the delicious local Riesling in Neroberg vineyard.

As one of Europe’s oldest spa towns dating back to the Roman Empire, Wiesbaden once boasted 26 hot springs, famous for their healing, health-promoting waters.

Memorably, I visited one of the dozen or so remaining springs, which still attract people from every corner of planet Earth – drawn to the likes of Kranzplatz Square’s hot Kochbrunnen fountain, with its unmistakably sulphurous aroma of eggs.

Rust-coloured, and resembling a small volcano (or a big mushroom), the fountain’s ‘aromatic’ water is supped enthusiastically by anyone who doesn’t mind getting egg on their face!

My report from Wiesbaden, mentioning the Oberammergau Passion Play, was poignantly coincidental, but more about that in a moment.

First, a few more pages from the past 12 months.

Holocaust Memorial Day was marked here at the end of January, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, and with the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia.

Other wartime commemorations on these pages during 2020 included the 75th anniversary of VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) on May 8, 1945.

Germany had surrendered on the previous day, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s historic radio broadcast on May 8 was relayed on loudspeakers to multitudes rejoicing in Whitehall and Trafalgar Square.

The world, and Northern Ireland, celebrated.

In Enniskillen, the bells pealed from St. Macartin’s Cathedral, bands paraded the streets, services were held in the churches, bonfires and fireworks thrilled youngsters, singing echoed afar till after midnight, and “so full were some of the public houses,” the Impartial reported, “ that drink was carried out to be consumed on the street”.

Amongst others who shared their memories here, local WAAF drivers Rita Hamilton and Frankie Hornby reminisced about celebrating in Castle Archdale RAF base.

The pandemic greatly affected VE Day 75 commemorations here and around the globe, and the more recent 75th anniversary of VJ Day (Victory over Japan) on August 15, 1945 was also marked quietly in greatly restricted gatherings, in peoples’ homes and streamed on social media.

During the year that’s passed, The Impartial Explorer traced the oft-sung refrain, ‘Happy Birthday to You’, to two American sisters and a 'Golden Book of Favourite Songs', printed in 1915.

The River Bush was explored in Ulster Scots, “On hir wye doon tae the sea”; Belfast author, aviator and travel writer Geoff Hill alighted on these pages after a ‘fly-in’ at St. Angelo airport; and Dublin writer, Ann Lane, introduced a host of striking local sculptures, such as Lisnaskea’s ‘Carrosyl For Peace’.

Regarding introductions, there were many here during 2020!

To Lancashire-born Richard Hayward, reared in Larne, who became a cultural giant, author, film star, singer and actor ... and then was virtually forgotten, until recently.

To Antrim-born John Getty McGee, designer and manufacturer of the iconic ulster coat (with a small ‘u’), worn by Sherlock Holmes and sold world-wide by McGee and Company of Number 30-34, High Street, Belfast.

And to Alexander Finlay, whose soap-making company started in Belfast in 1798, and became Ireland’s largest.

Finlay’s closed down in 1949, decades before March’s soap surge, when the world began social distancing, wearing face masks, and constantly washing its collective hands in soap and water!

Finally, here’s the aforementioned poignant coincidence concerning the Oberammergau Passion Play.

Oberammergau is a small town in the Bavarian district of Germany, famous for its historic 10-yearly Passion Play.

The enormous 2,000-actor production has been running every decade since the early 1600s, except on several occasions due to war, politics ... and Covid-19!

Postponed in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the 42nd Oberammergau Passion Play is now scheduled to run from May, 2022, when a total audience of more than 750,000 people is anticipated!

The poignant coincidence is the pledge made in 1633 by the people of Oberammergau as the Black Death approached their village.

They vowed to perform “the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ” if no-one died of the plague.

The town was spared, and has staged the play, virtually uninterrupted, ever since – until our current pandemic!