St. Martin, School Busses and the Church Tax

I went to school one day for the Saint Martin's Day assembly.  Saint Martin is a Catholic saint known for kindness and charity and, for some reason, lanterns are associated with his holiday.  I can't remember what the kids said in the assembly about the lanterns but the songs they sang and their lantern parade was so adorable.  It was just the youngest kids who did it, so Lizzie and Miles were both in the assembly.

After school I was walking back to my car and took these pictures.  The first few are of my big, orange van in the parking lot.  There are so few cars that are not black or gray or silver or white that my van always stands out in a crowd. 





These next are of all the busses lined up waiting for school to get out.  At our elementery school in Kirkland most of the kids walk to school.  The Kindergarteners get a bus and I think there are a couple other busses.  At our high school many of the kids ride busses so there might be 8-10 of the big yellow busses and set bus stops where kids gather to be picked up. 

At the international school that we go to here there are about 80 busses.  At the beginning of the year (and all through the year as kids move in and out) the transportation supervisor maps all the kids who want busses and plans custom routes.  Most of the busses are really vans, like the one Lizzie and Miles ride.  The bus picks them up at our door and continues to a few other houses and then goes to school.  There are a few larger busses, like tour bus size, for areas where a lot of students live.  The bus Hayley, Camilla and Rand get from the train station to school is one like this.  That bus picks up kids who live on the way to the train station, then picks up all the kids at the train station and then goes back to school. 

In several countries in Europe the government collects a church tax.  Everyone declares on their equivalent of our W-2 whether they belong to the Catholic church, a Protestant church or neither.  If they say Protestant or Catholic the tax is then collected out of their payroll just like other taxes.  In Bavaria, where we live, it is 8% of the yearly taxes due.  So if, when a person files their tax return, they owe 10,000 euros in taxes, 800.00 euros will be what they owe for church tax.  The money is collected by the government and then given to the church.  The church pays the government to collect the tax.  Since we said we were neither Catholic nor Protestant, we don't have to pay that tax.

A person may formally withdraw from the church tax registration after they have previously registered, but then the church will usually not let them enroll in the church kindergartens or perform marriages or burial services for them.  Bavaria is strongly Catholic, and we can see that with all the stores closed on Sundays and all Catholic holidays.  January 6th is Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, and it's the reason our Christmas Break is often 3 weeks long.  We go back to school after Three Kings Day.  I have to make sure I have shopped well if any religious holidays are coming up.

Camilla got a new camera for her last birthday and she loves to take pictures.  This is my new favorite picture, one that she took.