Europe is still struggling to contain the second wave of the COVID-19. Here in Austria, the situation is not getting any better. Even with a stricter lockdown the Austrian government enforced in November, the speed of improvement is very slow. For the last one month, the daily number of new cases (2000 to 3000) and deaths (over 100) has remained almost unchanged.

Though the strict measures were lifted at the beginning of December, the government had no choice to go back to the entire lockdown after Christmas holidays. Starting from 26th, except for the essentials, everything is closed again until 18 January. The Kurz administration however kept at least all stores open until the Christmas Eve for the nation to be able to do Christmas shopping.

The majority of Austrians is Catholic (the national religion). Christmas is a very important traditional event for the nation. It is comparable to the New Year Day of Japan. Many people go home and celebrate Christmas quietly if not solemnly with their children or grandchildren. While it is a very busy and stressful period for everyone to prepare Christmas gifts for a whole family, friends and colleagues, or even neighbors, and to organize dinners, Christmas is a joyful family event.

This year, however, the COVID-19 crisis has largely changed the Christmas plan of many people. Here in Vienna, we see many Viennese who decided to stay in the city instead of going back to their hometowns.

Under this unusual situation, Christmas day still arrives as in the calendar. On the 24th, I decided to walk around in the old town to discover what was on in streets of Christmas Eve’s Vienna.

Normally the city center is filled with tourists from the world who came for New Year Concerts by the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, special Christmas programs for the National Opera or balls in this period. Without tourists, you find a far smaller number of people in streets.

Despite the fact, stores did their best for Christmas decorations in their show-windows or entrances. The town is filled with a Christmas atmosphere. The main street is filled with people walking with shopping bags in both hands.  Christmas lighting is bright and cheerful.

When I passed by the Sacher Hotel, one of the most famous and luxurious hotels in Austria, chocolate cakes called Sacher torte, a feature of this hotel, were sold in front of the chic entrance of the hotel. The hotel industry is one of the hardest-hit sectors by COVID-19 and currently hotels are only allowed to take guests on business trips. One of the hotel staff said that the current room occupation rate is around 10 to 15 %. To the question about the sales of cakes, “it is true that we lost tourists but for Sacher tortes, we sell well as local Austrians buy them as well, in particular for this period”, she answered with a big smile.

In Graben Street where luxurious boutiques stand next to each other, pine trees in different sizes for Christmas are on sale, occupying one corner. Asked how the sales going, a vendor said, “it is not bad, I guess more people are staying in the city this year to celebrate their Christmas, so they buy trees.”

Julius Meinl, a high-end food store in the city, is packed by shoppers. In this period, you find highly priced food like truffe or foie gras on shelves next to bottles of French Champagne. People queuing for the cashiers have filled their baskets with expensive food and alcohols as such. According to a local newspaper, people tend to spend more for nice ingredients as they are deprived from eating out.

One of the most popular sight-seeing spots in Vienna is the Hofburg where the last emperor Franz Josef and the empress Elisabeth, nicknamed Sisi resided. Close to the Hofburg, Demel, a fancy confectioner once patronized by the empress, is still standing at the same address. Ultra-famous and a must-go place for tourists, normally it is very difficult to get a seat in its café to taste its beautiful cakes and you have to be ready for more than one-hour of waiting time. Now with no tourists popping in, they needed to change their sales strategy since the café had to be closed. The glass counter where cakes were used to be displayed was taken away and fresh confectionaries were replaced by longer-lasting items like chocolates, candies, or cookies. Like many of restaurants or cafes, they are now serving a take-out menu, here a sweet dish called Kaiserschmarren, freshly made while you wait. Inside the store, a huge chocolate doll in a flashy dress is looking down customers. Beside it, a confectioner is decorating cookies with a precise and artistic manner which can been watched from the street. Passers-by stop to peep and take a photo.

Yes, these cheerful Christmas atmospheres are right there in the town.

When you look into the social situation in Austria under the COVID-19 crisis, a term of “welfare state” comes up in my head. Though it is a relative view, I found a huge difference in the welfare system when I moved to Europe after having lived in the US. European states provide their citizens with far better welfare like medical care or social security compared to the US, and in particular, Western European states including Austria.

Here in Vienna for instance, I still find that very few stores went bankrupt after the second row of hard lockdown. Some stores, café, restaurants or hotels whose main customers were tourists remained closed as they are better off to receive subsidies from the government rather than running business until tourists come back. This is possible as the social security system of the country functions. When I look around all the addresses I frequented before the lockdown, they all so far have survived.

When the government announced the second lockdown In November, for instance, they assured the restauration industry, the most impacted sector would receive 80% of their year-on year income. When I asked about their situation to some office workers, small-business owners such as hair salons or small bars, I hardly hear severe complains towards the country’s social security system. Though there have been small demonstrations against the second lockdown measures there has been no violent protest against the government.

In Austria, we are not in an easy situation. In a country with a population of 8.8 million, the daily death toll of over 100 is not a small number at all. However, in the Christmas period of this unprecedented year, one thing I realize in the town is that at least people don’t look somber. I wonder if this could be explained by a sort of assurance stemming from the firm social security system of the country.

（Y.SCHANZ）