GERMAN CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS

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German Christmas Customs
Deutsche Weihnachten
Christchild
Christkind
Santa

Nikolaus

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Have A Wonderful Advent Season!

Wir Wuenschen Ihnen Ein Recht Froehliches Und Segensreiches Weihnachtsfest"

Christmas in Germany is primarily a family affair, almost entirely celebrated in the privacy of homes. It is not just confined to one day; and the festivities of the Christmas season start somewhat early by Americn standards. This is not due to any rushing of the season by the commercialism of the merchants through the early display of decorations, but rather may be attributed to the traditional observance of the four Sundays preceeding Christmas as Advent, the coming of the Lord. As a reminder of this season several interesting customs have emerged: especially popular with children is the Advent Calendar, usually made of cardboard and constructed with little windows with seasonal motifs, one to be opened each day during Advent season.
For practical purposes the Advent calendar starts on December 1 and ends on December 24.

On the first Advent Sunday a candle is lit followed by an additional candle, one each Sunday; in some ereas they are mounted on a slanted decorated board or lightstick (Lichtstock) with four holes drilled into it.

Slightly more elaborate and much more beautiful is the Advent wreath, wrought from spruce twigs, and either placed in the center of the dining room table or hung at a convenient place in the home and in the churches and puclic buildings. It receives another red candle each Advent Sunday so that shortly before Christmas all four are aglow. Often the family will gather together, during a little ceremony, for a quiet hour of reflection, sometimes singing carols or nibbling nuts and gingerbread.
The custom of making something for those you love has not died out; both children and adults prepare a variety of artifacts as presents for friends and relatives.

Little children in Germany are treated to a special preview on the 6th of December, St. Nicholas Day (the saint's feast day in the church calendar). Gift-giving has long been associated with this saint. On this day, in the predominantly Catholic areas of Germany, a visit from St. Nicholas wearing his bishop's robes, his mitre on his head, and his crosier in his hand, is not unusual. He speaks kindly to good children leaving behind candy, apples, nuts and trinkets. On the other hand, misbehaving children receive a stern lecture and are left with only switches which mothers may use on their behinds. Wherever "Nikolaus" can not call personally appear, and in the Protestant areas children will leave their boots or plates in front of their doors the night before so that he can fill them with goodies.

'NIKOLAUS KOMM' IN'S HAUS LEER DEIN VOLLES SAECKLEIN AUS; STELL' DEN CHRISTBAUM AUF DEN TISCH, DASS MAN SIEHT DASS WEIHNACHT IST"

Starting on the 6th of December children in the Rhineland and in Baden go carolling from door to door, often dressed in the robes of the Magi and carrying a star to guide them. They anticipate little gifts of sweets or fruit in return for their melodies. Sometimes their carolling becomes robust and almost assumes a "trick-or-treat"-mood.

In southern Bavaria a children's pius custom is the socalled "Frauentragen", in remembrance of Mary and Joseph searching for shelter. This ritual has singing children carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary into a farmhouse and carefully depositing it in the corner under the crucifix. On the following night they return to pick up the holy figure and carry it to the next farmhouse; this is repeated until the night before Christmas.

In the Berchtesgaden district St. Nicholas visits houses attended by a boy dressed as a girl, the "Nikolo Weibl", and the twelve "Buttenmandl". These are young men dressed in straw, with animal masks or skins over their heads, and large cow-bells tied about them, with which they make loud terrifying noises. At each house the "bishop" makes a short religious speech, and the "Nikolo-Weibl" distributes gifts; then both withdraw, and the "Buttenmandl" are luck-bringers and their blows, now explained as punishment for idleness, derive from pre-Christian rites which ensured good fortue and plenty.

St. Nicholas is accompanied by St. Peter or by "Knecht Ruprecht", his servant, in some parts of Germany. His origin is obscure, but often he comes alone as a giftbringer in his own right. He wears rough clothing and has a fierce appearance with his blackened face. In some north German dialects he is called "ru-klas" (the rough Nikolaus),
which suggested that he may be an older pagan spirit. By some he is identified with Odin (or Wotan); but if he started life as a heathen god, he is careful today to examine children in Christian Prayers,and punish them if their knowledge is lacking. When the first German settlers came to Pennsylvania, he went with them, and he is still remembered there as "Belsenickel", who represents the more sober side of the gentle saint and always has visited the areas around "Karlsruhe", the Residence-City of the german state of Baden.

"OH TANNENBAUM, OH TANNENBAUM, WIE GRUEN SIND DEINE BLAETTER.
DU GRUENST NICHT NUR ZUR SOMMERZEIT,
NEIN AUCH IM WINTER, WENN ES SCHNEIT.
OH TANNENBAUM, OH TANNENBAUM, WIE GRUEN SIND DEINE BLAETTER.

There is no doubt that the Christmas Tree "was made in Germany" but the legend, widely accepted in America, of Martin Luther devising the first Christmas tree in the early sixteenth century, is not factual. Instead the use of a fir tree (Tannenbaum) seems to have originated at the winter solstice celebration of the pagan German tribes. It was well established by Luther's time. Probably not until the end of the seventeenth century did it bear lights, although minstrel Wolfram von Eschenbach, in the thirteenth century, sang about a medieval custom welcoming guests with trees studded with candles. A "Paradise Tree" - a fir tree hung with apples - was the only prop on stage in the medievel Paradise plays. ("Miracle" and "mystery" plays, staging episodes from the Bible, were performed in the Middle Ages. These pageants were the only means, aside from preaching, by which people could learn about their religion.) In the Paradise episode, usually dramatized around Christmas time, Eve was depicted giving Adam an apple which she had plugged from the evergreen tree. Being 'ever green' it also represented immortality to the people. They started to set up these trees in their homes and gradually added other simple decorations.
"At Christmas fir trees are set up in the rooms at Strassburg and hug with roses cut from paper of many colors, apples wafers, spangle-gold, sugar, etc." reports a manuscript of 1521 from the (then) German Elsass. However, there is no mention of lights. There is an account of a Swedish soldier, badly wounded during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) who was nursed by a kindly German family in Leipzig. In gratitude, he set up a lighted tree in one of the churches of the city. In "The Sorrows of Young Werther" - written by Goethe in 1774 - Lotte, the heroine, decorates a Christmas tree with "fruits and sweets and lighted it up with wax candles". The setting is Wetzlar, Hessen.

The fashion for Christmas trees at first captured the fancy of the well-to-do in the cities. It was little known to the Bavarian peasants a century ago. This may be partly attribted to the fact that it was a custom cherrished by Lutherans at first. Charles Dickens called the tree "that new German toy". But soon this German custom became widespread, not only in Europe but also in America, making the tree truly synonymous wth Christmas. Hessian soldiers in George III's army are said to have set up Christmas trees in the Revolutionary War, and even earlier, German settlers in Pennsylvania had their trees or wooden pyramids that were used instead of trees and which are still part of the holiday decoration in many parts of Germany today. These Christmas pyramids are often elaborately decorated with candles, bells, miniature nativity scenes, carollers, angels and even people carrying out their everyday chores. The heat of the burning candles drives the propeller on top of the pyramid and sets it all in perpetual motion. They are often made as a family hobby with something new added each year. Sometimes a corner of the parlor is transformed into a miniature landscape, surrounding the tree and pyramid, with cardboard mountains, complete with mechanized waterfalls and little miners methodically claging away. This is especially popular in Moravia and the "Erzgebirge", both mountainous regions; the latter a mining district, where woodcarving and toymaking have been carried on for hundreds of years as a folk art. Their wooden toys reflect the objects of the old farmsteads and still retain the old simplicity in design.

CHRISTMAS EVE

The most precious time for the family!

All the splender of the Christmas tree is kept behind closed doors until Christmas Eve. Usually the mother does the trimming and prepares the table for the gifts. No one is admitted into the room. At six o'clock a little bell gives the signal for the family to view the tree, decorated with tinsel, bright-colored balls, cookies, gilded nuts and tapers.

In Northern Germany the "Christmasman" (Weihnachtsmann, rather like the American Santa Claus) brings the children their gifts on Christmas Eve (when they are also opened). The family gathers around the tree and sings carols while the youngsters enjoy their toys. The children also give presents to their parents. In Southern Germany and in Westfalen it is the "Christkindle", (Christ Child) a mystical angelic figure - often impersonated by a girl - who provides all good things, spiritual and material. It travels over the land in a beautiful sleigh and collects thousand of letters of requests from children. It, too, leaves the gifts on Christmas Eve when they are also opened. In thousand of homes, the head of the family opens the Bible and reads St.Luke's account of the birth of Christ.
During the entire Christmas week churches are kept open; Midnight Mass is held in both Protestant and Catholic parishes and is attended by a large number of people. In the Bavarian highlands, the sight of lantern-carrying peasants going to the village church through the white banks of snow is an enchanting sight, poetically described by Rilke.
Bavaria yet is the scene of another strange custom. Around Berchtesgaden young men band into groups to fire guns on Christmas Eve. At three o'clock in the afternoon, and again at eleven o'clock at night, they gather on the mountain slopes and, standing in long lines, fire heavy pistols or specially made mortars, either all at once or in rapid succession. Guns are also fired during Midnight Mass. All this is done today to honor Christ's birth; but probably, it was once intended to awaken sleeping vegetation and to drive away evil spirits.
Many other odd traditions developed in different regions. The spirit of giving and sharing Christmas plenty with men and animals alike prevails in many custom. Extra rations are given to cattle and horses. In Silesia peasants carry wheat to church on Christmas Eve, to be given to poultry afterwards as protection against evil.
In the northern most provinces of Germany a mysterious gift-bringer brings the "Julklapp" present. He must come unexpectedly and unannounced; he flings open the door, throws in the gift and vanishes at great speed. The "Julklapp" is done up in many wrappings, so cunningly arranged that it is difficult to find the actual object.
On Christmas Day the German family sits down to a dinner of the famed fat goose; although the turkey is rapidly displacing it in the modern German household. All forms of confectionary and cakes play important roles in the yuletide fare. Each kind hails from a different region. Nuernberg "Lebkuchen", Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) "Printen", Luebeck and Koenigsberg "Marzipan", all can be found on the special blue and white porcelain Christmas plates which each child find prepared for him along with his presents, on Christmas Eve.
Much nibbling and feasting goes on on the following days. Visits by relatives and friends are customary. Usually Christmas Eve is for the closest family: Mother, Father and children. The first Christmas Holiday is usually held together with Grandparents and other relatives and the second Christmas Holiday (yes there are two days) is for friends to visit.
In the cities the attendance of the fairy tale Christmas play, especially performed for children at the local legitimate theater will be an extra treat.

EPIPHANY

- the 6th of January - marks the end of "Twelfth-night" (in northern countries time was anciently reckoned by nights). It is the special feast of the Three Kings who represented the world beyond jewry and who arrived at his Manger on that day.
In South Germany and Austria boys go aroud in bands of four during the Octave of Epiphany, singing carols, known as "star songs". The leader carries a gold star on a pole, and the other three are dressed as Kings, one having a soot-blackened face to represent Balthazar of Saba (Sheba, modern-day Ethiopia). In some districts they carry along a crib with them, and if a house is found to be without one of its own, they leave it there. With chalk they mark the front door of each of the homes they called on with the letters "K+M+B" (for Kaspar, Melchior, Balthazar) and the New Year 2000. So it looks like this:
"20 K+M+B 01", so that the three Magi may protect this home throughout the coming year.

"AND A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!"

And now visit the FAIRYLAND!

WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT OUR FIRST AWARDS!

JEANNE'S CHRISTMAS SITE OF THE YEAR AWARD 2000

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