The endurance of The Passion lives on... and on. For more than 400 years, the quaint Bavarian village of Oberammergau has performed its now historic Passion Play as a promise to God. It's actually a fascinating, wonderful story - one that has travelers from all corners of the globe heading to a Bavarian hamlet once every decade. They want to be a part of it all. A part of history.

With Mount Kofel and the Bavarian Alps as a backdrop, Oberammergau softly beckons travelers like an old friend. The welcoming facades of houses are brilliantly painted with frescoes. The scenes range from Biblical to storybook. Here, the charm of it all is so enchanting ... the sense of peace, absolute.

Oberammergau wasn't always as wonderfully peaceful as it is now. In the middle of the Thirty Years War, at the beginning of the 17^th century, the "Black Death," or plague, penetrated the remote mountain valleys of the Alps. The villagers kept vigilant guard to prevent the plague from reaching their town, but a man from Oberammergau named Kaspar Schisler, who was working as a farm laborer outside the village, slipped over the mountains to his home. Within a few days he succumbed to the plague - as did a large number of people of Oberammergau. In fact, within a year, the Black Death had claimed over a fifth of the approximately 1,500 inhabitants of Oberammergau with no end to the plague in sight. FULL POST

The Passion Play performances will begin again in 2010 from May to October, when thousands of Oberammergau's residents will once again display this powerful story. Collette has 8 fantastic programs to Europe that feature this amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The world-renowned Oberammergau Passion Play began in 1634 when residents from the town sought reprieve from the Bubonic Plague. The inhabitants of the village vowed that if God were to spare them from the Plague, they would perform a play every ten years depicting the life and death of Jesus. Not a single person fell victim to the Plague after the villagers' promise. That first performance sparked a heartfelt tradition that lives on today...

People from all over the world gather to witness this famous event

The Passion Play performances will begin again in 2010 from May to October, when thousands of Oberammergau's residents will once again display this powerful story. FULL POST