GERMAN TRADITIONS
Christmas Time
The last four weeks before Christmas, Germans celebrate Advent, a romantic and delightful time of the year, which is strongly linked to fine tradition.
Christmas markets in wonderful settings invite you to share in the joy of the pre- Christmas season. Germany's first Christmas market was recorded way back in 1393. Today there are more than 2,500 beautiful Christmas markets with fairy lights and romantic huts all over the country. You'll find plenty of hand-crafted Christmas decorations, cute little incense burners, Christmas pyramids and nativity scenes to place at the heart of your Christmas display.
Both gingerbread houses and the Nutcracker came from German stories. In fact, before the Nutcracker became a Tchaikovsky ballet, he was the hero of an 1816 story by Berlin's Ernst Theodor Amadeus (E.T.A.) Hoffman. The gingerbread house has a similar beginning. It first appeared in the Grimm brothers' tale of Hänsel and Gretel, then in Humperdinck's short opera about the two lost children. It became a Christmas tradition in German opera houses soon after its world premiere on December 23, 1893. Few people outside Germany remember the opera any more, but the old crone's gingerbread house survives. It's rebuilt each December. Families strategically place gumdrops and frosting on the little house, while bakeries display it in their windows.
Gingerbread has quite a history on its own. It dates back to ancient Egypt. But it was in Nuremberg, in 1643, that gingerbread bakers were first allowed to form their own trade guild, independent of the cake and bread bakers. They had already been negotiating freedom from tariffs and developing export markets for some 250 years then. Today, one Nuremberg exporter produces about three million pieces of gingerbread a day in the months before Christmas, for shipment around the world.
Another Christmas tradition, Advent calendars, were first printed in Germany in 1908. They're the calendars with a month's worth of treats hidden behind little paper doors. And even St. Nicholas himself, originally a 4th century bishop in Asia Minor, was first recognized in Germany. He became the patron of sailors, merchants, bakers, children and students. But in Germany, he comes on December 6th, not the 25th, and leaves his gifts in children's shoes.
Sing Christmas carols? Well, "Away in a Manger," is composed of 15th century words by Martin Luther. "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," is a 19th century melody by Felix Mendelssohn. "Still, Still, Still," is also German, about 1800. "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" was first written down in German in 1588 and "O Christmas Tree" ("O Tannenbaum"), written down in 1799. And of course, "Silent Night". It was famously improvised 19 years later, when a church organ broke down. The organist, Franz Gruber, quickly wrote out a song for guitar accompaniment with words by the local curate, Joseph Mohr. So even if you sing out of tune, you can still sing these popular carols in Germany. Just not too loud.