Christmas is in the air. Or not? In the Pforzheim day care center Irenicus, things are a bit more colorful during the Advent season than in other kindergartens. Festivals of different religions are celebrated here in every season.
Stars on the window, home-made Santa Clauses and four candles in the morning circle – there is not much more Christmas in the Irenicus day care center in Pforzheim. Advent is more colorful here. In Germany’s first day care center with a multi-religious focus and providers of different religions, Christian, Muslim, Yazidi and Jewish children should be able to live their faith on an equal footing.
Red, blue, yellow and orange cloths lie on the carpet in the morning circle. Four images with a cross, crescent, star and peacock symbolize the different religions. An artistically folded red and white paper star next to the angel peacock indicates that a big celebration is coming up: December 16th is Ida Ezi, the Yazidi festival in honor of God, in the day care center. What happens there? does anyone know The teacher looks around at the group of ten children. A Yazidi girl thinks of one thing in particular: they bake. Date pastries and baklava, for example. Before that, however, there is fasting.
A four-year-old from his family is also familiar with fasting. He cannot say which religion he belongs to. But he knows one thing for sure: “I’m celebrating Ramadan.” The little boy can demonstrate exactly how to pray. He gets on his knees and bows his head low to the ground. And in which religion is a new candle lit every week before Christmas? A few fingers snap up. “It’s Christ,” says a girl. A six-year-old girl demonstrates how Christians pray.
What impresses educator Adisa Gojak again and again is the natural togetherness of the children. After the morning circle, the kids in the “green” group race down one floor to join the others. Together they build high wooden towers, fold paper ships or paint.
“Everything is not the same in the world. Children experience this every day. The aim is to meet each other openly,” says daycare manager Nathalie Pilarek. There should be differences, not borders. The day care center has been running since March 2020. The corona lockdown had slowed the start. The initially two groups have now grown into four groups with 70 children. An expansion to six groups with 100 children is planned. “The offer is well received,” says Sabine Ghafoor-Zadeh from Diakonie Pforzheim. She represents one of the sponsors and was jointly responsible for setting up the Irenicus day-care center.
The parents were surprised that the religion of every child should have an equal status in the day-care center. And happy too, reports Ghafoor-Zadeh. Most would simply have looked for a kindergarten place. It was a good thing that the daycare center is in a district where many people with different religions and backgrounds live. Most day-care center children are Muslims, followed by Yazidis, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christians and non-denominational. Jewish children have not yet participated. Their religion is also brought closer to the little ones.
The Irenicus day-care center is supported by the Protestant and Catholic Churches, by Diakonie and Caritas, the Alliance of Independent Muslims in the Enz District, the Jewish Community of Pforzheim and the Yazidi Center in Baden-Württemberg. The aim is for an attitude to develop right from the start that takes the beliefs of others seriously and values ??them. An accompanying study by the University of Tübingen examines the extent to which this is successful and what experiences are made.
Something remarkable has already happened. The children who came to school in the summer received the blessing from three sides: from a Christian deaconess, a Muslim representative and a Yazidi clergyman. “The reaction of the parents when they realized that their religion was also represented was an experience,” recalls Ghafoor-Zadeh.
Incidentally, the pedagogical team in the day care center originally wanted to celebrate all religious festivals in a big way. After the first year, however, the educators noticed: “We were just partying – and the children were overwhelmed. After that, they found it difficult to tell the religions apart,” says Pilarek. Each year there is a different focus. 2022/23 is the Yazidi year, following a Muslim and Christian focus in previous years.
However, the high festivals of the other religions are also taken into account in the Yazidi year. The little ones don’t really take it that seriously anyway. Almost everyone has an advent calendar at home. And everyone loved the “doll’s house” with Jesus and Mary and all the animals. The elders were recently able to see the nativity scene in the Castle Church.
