smelling german christmas in january

during the last visit of my favourite american we barely sight-saw anything besides the piles of snow in all shapes.

during a previous visit, however, we did a proper touristy thing, which i just now found time to write about. as you might not deduct immediately from the photo above (which stems from my favorite american just as any other image in this post) it's not just any church but has one of the longest, most garbled, and most pompous names for a religious buiidling i have encountered so far. imagine trumpets sounding and a deep voice announcing:

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

or shorter, america's number one catholic cathedral.

we were still close enough to christmas during our visit in january that the inside was still gussied up for all senses. my most favourite part was the smell. the incense smelled exactly like christmas smells in germany. a faint dark homey olibanum.













dozens of small trees with simple yellow nets of lights lined the alley ways. tea candles on stands added another warm glow.


















the inside was lined with mosaics on walls and on the roofs. the dominating colors were blue and a matt-finished gold. hidden lights put spots on the artworks telling biblical stories.













after marvelling at the overwhelmingly beautiful ground floor we discovered that a real service was going on in the basement, another huge section. the service was in spanish with mostly a latin american audience. mothers and fathers put water droplets from a little water basin on their kids forehead before leaving. a small procession of priestly looking male figures wandered out just as we came.


















along the walls of each level was chapel after chapel, paper maps inside the cathedral gave guidance where to pray for which saint. most remarkably we found a chapel with an african-american madonna and baby jesus.













by the way, the church provides free tours if you can keep up with its briskly walking but knowledgeable guide. we were just so stunned by the colors, the hugeness, and elaboration of art work, the marble pillars, and how the sun shine played through the windows that we couldn't keep up.

in case you want to give it a try to play proper listening tourist, check out open hours and tours through the seasons here:
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception