December 24 - Christmas Eve

~ Merry Christmas, Everyone! ~  

Closeup details from the astronomical clock in Lund Cathedral

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"It did seem to me there was a quality about time
which had nothing whatever to do with clocks or calendars."

Quote from the novel Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker (1940).

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This is the last of my prescheduled "Advent Calendar" posts.

Lund Cathedral and Astronomical Clock

Lund Cathedral (previously also shown/mentioned here in a post from the Third Day of my summer road trip in July this year) dates back to the early 12th century (and there was probably a cathedral in the same spot even earlier). Back in those days the province of Skåne was Danish; and before the Reformation the churches and cathedrals were of course Catholic. (Nowadays it belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden.) Lund was an important cultural and religious city in the Middle Ages and back in those days there were also several monasteries etc.

Because of fires and whatever other reasons, various changes were made to the cathedral over the years. Only the apse has remained unchanged (i.e. the rounded part where the altar is). 

Around 1425, an astronomical clock was installed. It has had to be renovated several times over the years (last in 2010), but is still (or again) working. I promised in my earlier post that I would get back to this clock more in detail some time - and now it's Time!

In Latin the clock is called Horologium mirabile Lundense. 

The upper board of the clock shows, among other things, the different phases of the Moon and where the Sun sets.The lower board is a calendar, with the help of which one can calculate things like when mobile religious holidays (like Easter) will fall, or the weekday of a certain date. The man in the middle of the calendar is the Patron Saint of the cathedral, St Lawrence (St Lars in Swedish).

The present calendar board is for 1923-2123 (after that, it will have to be replaced with a new one).

On top of the clock there are two knights who mark the hours by coming out to fight each other.

 
Twice a day (weekdays at noon and at 3 pm, Sundays at 1 pm and at 3 pm) the clock plays a tune (In Dulci Jubilo), and things happen with the figures in the middle of the clock:

The two guardians lift their horns, the door on the left opens, a procession of six figures present gifts to the holy Virgin and Child sitting on the throne in the middle, and then disappear back into the clock through the door to the right.

My brother and I first visited the cathedral earlier in the morning, before 10 am - but decided to go back for the "clock show" at 12. I'm glad we did, as it was a rare experience. (As it was the tourist season, there were a lot of people gathered then, and a guide to explain what was going to happen, both in Swedish and in English.)

Inspired Sunday #333