Zurich people like city lights, candles, and the enchanting smell of mulled wine with a pinch of cinnamon. Just one sip of it and it takes you to divine places, makes you feel happier and content, and peaceful. All worries seem to go away at least during this short time when in Zurich and elsewhere people are welcoming and celebrating Christmas together at traditional Christmas markets. The secret is not the cinnamon, however, but the holy spirit that arises around the end of the year.
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:13).
But the verses of love and hope seem to now lead us to a closed door. The world today is not the one it was before yesterday. Not even the Romans, or later Ottomans, succeeded in ruining Christmas, but the European measures against the covid-19 pandemic hundreds of years later look like they may succeed.
An unprecedented event occurred in Europe perhaps for the first time in its modern history: people now need a special vaccine “certificate” or ticket to celebrate Christmas in open public places. Even Jesus Christ himself would be completely powerless to enter. He would need the ticket to enter the public market that celebrates his birth.
The Christmas markets in the open public space have been converted into private clubs, resembling small “states” reserved only for those with the ticket. The space of joy, mulled wine, delicious street foods, and the enchanting smell of cinnamon have become a special privilege. These small states—the Christmas markets—are visually separated and confined from the rest of the open public space with metal fences. Elsewhere they have been protected with nice-looking but high wooden walls and wooden doors with kind gatekeepers who admit visitors after checking the validity of their tickets. Like every state, the Christmas markets have their bodyguards, some armed with machine guns like in Germany and others equipped with corpulent arm muscles enough to scare and chase away any potential transgressor like in Switzerland.
While wandering around Zurich I passed by several Christmas markets and wondered who hatched the idea to gate the festive open public space and make it reserved for those with the covid certificates.
“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.” (Romans 16:17–18).
When the idea of closing off these public spaces through covid certificates first emerged in September 2021 in Switzerland, the crisis managers already knew that introduction of certificates was built upon deceptive claims. The public was fed assurances that the certificates would slow down the transmission of the virus and, most importantly, would prevent the outbreak of new infections that might overwhelm hospitals well before Christmas and winter holidays. Yet, nothing of this sort has happened, as the current situation vividly demonstrates. And there’s no evidence the closed-off Christmas markets are the reason.
In any case, these new “tickets to freedom,” as many call covid certificates, will likely ruin not only Christmas but the very idea of the public space and its meaning. By converting long-cherished public gatherings into private state-controlled activities subject to the approval of chief medical crisis managers, we deprive people of what countless Swiss have long considered intrinsic to living in an open society: the right to Christmas, joy, happiness, and breathing the open air.
The Christmas bells will ring soon, and we ought to ask ourselves whether everything—including the most precious and holy elements of life—will eventually be subjected to the provisions and whims of the emergency state in times to come.
