Hey everyone,
The holiday season is wrapping its self
back up for one more year, and to give you a little taste as to what the
holiday season is like in Germany vs. the US, I will share my story of this year’s
celebration with my host family.
To kick things off every year, there are
these advent candles. You will see them in every house, and in businesses and
school classrooms. There are four candles, which are to be lit on the four Sundays
before Christmas. Then comes a real tree, which is decorated with plenty of ornaments
and lights and or real candles that are lit on Christmas. People in the house
also start to begin making a bunch of different cookies for everyone to eat.
Next comes the opening of Christmas
markets, if you don't know what they are, do not feel alone, I too did not know
what they were until I saw them. Each Christmas market is different from the
next, but most all of them have a few things in common. First: There are these
wooden shacks that are placed up in the market square of the town or city. The
shacks are decorated with different Christmas decorations such as wreaths. In
most, if not every, Christmas market are certain types of shacks selling
Glühwein (warm wine), crepes, beer, worsts/meat, cookies, chocolate, and then
one shop (if not more) of different Christmas decorations such as ornaments,
Jesus Christ in his manager, and other small gift items. Around the market square
is more fistic decorations with a Christmas tree covered with lights. (The non-colorful
lights.)
Then on the 6th of December comes Saint
Nicholas. For that, ever boy and every girl puts a boot outside of their door,
and Saint Nicholas fills their boot with goodies. (It is kind of like Santa Clause,
but on the 6th vs. the 24th, but Saint Nicholas doesn't bring presents for
under the tree, but just for the boot.)
In the school, the students plan the final
day of school. This year, during the first period, they held a religious ceremony
for any student that wanted to attend. Then during the 2nd-4th periods, we had
ordinary classes, but were a little bit shorter. Finally, during the 5-6th
period they held a little Christmas fire where they sold creeps and Glühsaft (This
time was just warm punch), and crepes and just had a good time.
After everything that has gone on for the
entire month of December basically, it is finally time for the big day. On the
24th, everyone wakes up like normal, but at around 2 o’clock (I am not sure
exactly when though), everyone in the family goes to church. At church, they
sing and have a normal ceremony that is equivalent of a Christian church; however,
they do not have candles that they all light. When everyone gets back
home, People in the family race around to their friends’ houses giving them
gifts. When someone is home, it is customary to have a shot of schnapps with
them. Schnapps is a hard alcohol about 40-50%. Finally, when everyone is back
home, we all sit around listening to music and helping to prep dinner. After it
gets dark out, everyone starts to open presents. Usually one person picks out
the first, then someone distributes the other one presents. After presents, we
all gather around the table for dinner. This year was a very good dish called
raclette. Raclette is when you have a bunch of different foods that you can
choose from then you stick in in a small dish and put it under a warm stove
thing in the center of the table, on top of the stove is where you can cook different
types of meat from chicken to bacon or other worsts. Then for the adults is Champaign
and the kids is Champaign with no alcohol. After dinner comes a desert that can
be anything fancy to ice cream, which is what we had this year.
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After a couple of days of chillaxing, the
New Year is about to begin. Everyone races to the stores to pick up their daily
bottle rockets and other fireworks for midnight of the New Year. On New Year’s
Eve, there is normally a good dinner with desert and Champaign, music, and
sometimes dancing, but when it comes about that time for fireworks, keep your
eyes open. About a couple hours before midnight, people are already lighting
off fireworks in their back yard. There is not very many restrictions as to
lighting off fireworks, so by the time of midnight, the sky is light up like
day, the air has turned to smoke, and your ears are being pounded with blasts. Overall,
it is a great time and an amazing sight to see.
Now it is time to clean up everything,
pack it away for the next year, and get back to life. Sorry for making this one
a little later then I might have said, just kind of got distracted having a
good time here. I hope you guys are enjoying what I have to say and learned
something new about Germany. If you have any questions, suggestions, or
comments, please feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Thanks everyone,
~Michael Steiner~
