Christmas was so much fun! Germany celebrates Christmas very
differently, and I hope I can think of/remember all of the ways they celebrate.
On the 6th of December, St. Nikolaus comes and gives children a boot
full of goodies. Germany also doesn’t really have Santa Claus, they have the
Christkind instead. The Christkind comes the night of the 24th and
brings all of the presents. It’s actually not while the kids are sleeping
though, it’s usually when the kids are lured into a different room and the
parents frantically rush to set everything up under the tree, or when someone
dresses up at the “Christkind” and personally delivers the toys.
The history behind the Christkind goes like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christkind
(English version)
According to Wikipedia in German, this is what the
Christkind is seen as today:
Das Christkind ist heute, wie der Weihnachtsmann oder der
Nikolaus, eine Symbolfigur des weihnachtlichen Schenkens. Erwachsene erzählen
ihren Kindern, dass es im Allgemeinen ungesehen an Heiligabend oder in manchen
Regionen auch in der Nacht zum 25. Dezember in die Häuser kommt und die
Weihnachtsgeschenke bringt. Früher kam oft eine engelsgleiche
Christkind-Darstellerin zur Bescherung in die Familien und mancherorts besteht dieser
Brauch auch heute noch. In den letzten Jahren wurde das Christkind immer mehr
zu Werbezwecken verwendet, besonders oft als Mädchen mit blondem Haar und
blauen Augen.
Another fun thing that German
families do that I had never heard of before is the Adventskalendar. Apparently
there are families in America that participate in this tradition as well,
however, my family was not one of them, which I find funny because my step dad
was actually born in Würzburg, Germany. The Adventskalendar begins on the 1st
of December and goes all the way to the 24th, or Heiliges Abend.
Each day, and not ever Adventskalendar is the same, a door on the
Adventskalendar is opened, which usually has sweets, a small gift, a picture,
etc. It makes it especially fun for the children who get to wake up every morning
and eat pieces of chocolate for breakfast. A lot of times Adventskalendars are
personalized, but you can also have family ones that the entire family can
participate together with. I got one from the Krater’s on Thanksgiving, and
every day (when I remembered), I’d open a door and eat the chocolate inside. It
really is a cool tradition that I want to keep up when I go home—even if I have
to make my own Adventskalendar.
Here is an example of one:
For the 24th, my friend
Becca and I were invited by a couple in the church, Roman and Sybille, to spend
the evening with them and spend the night. It was such a unique opportunity
because they both are German and do everything in the German tradition. I was
very excited to spend more time with them also because Sybille is someone we
had great conversation with at the Frauenfrüstück and her husband has always
seemed so nice. His English is actually very good, much of which he said he has
learned from movies and Youtube. J
We met their house and they decided that they wanted to go for a walk as a
family. That’s one thing about Germans that I love—they are always outside
doing something together, despite the weather. Sybille and Roman are still
working on finding their regular family traditions and so everything that night
was kind of a test run for them. As we were walking together to the park it
started raining/snowing. You could see them get a little frustrated, and they
were trying to improvise through the weather.
I actually thought it was kind of
nice to see that side of them. They were really open about still working on
finding a family tradition, and the fact that they let us be a part of their
family for a very special holiday was extremely encouraging. It was also nice
because they kept asking us what we thought might be a good idea. I’ve always
been so used to the parents making all of the decisions and then doing what I’m
told, that it felt really nice to be treated like their friend instead of one
of the children.
We then went back to their flat and
had dinner together. We ate potatoes, meat, and a vegetable..unfortunately I
can’t remember exactly what it was, but I do remember that it was so good.
Sybille was cute because she was afraid her cooking wouldn’t be that good, but
I thought it was incredible. We had coffees and teas to drink, water, and
chocolates for desserts. After we ate enough I played with Felix (the younger
one) while Sybille led Justus into the other room so that Roman and Becca could
set up the big toy train and track from the ‘Christlkind’, among other gifts. Justus
was a little upset that he had “just missed the Christlkind” but the toys made
him completely forget about his sorrows.
The kids went to bed not too long
after and the four of us just sat and talked for a while. Becks and Roman were
having crazy-philosophical-God discussions, while Sybille and I went to the
other side of the room (because I can’t speak German or hear it well when
English is being spoken so closely), sat on the couch and just got to know each
other. I love how she even said that she was glad I wanted to speak German
because she doesn’t like English that much haha. I don’t blame her. I generally
prefer my mother language as well.
We did a gift exchange and sang
Christmas songs together, while still drinking a lot of tea and coffee. Becks
sang (very beautifully) ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ and I printed out ‘The 12
Days of Christmas’ for all of us to sing. I had never thought about it much
before, but the vocabulary in that song is just really awkward…but fun J. Before we went to
bed, we sat by the couch and prayed together. It was wonderful and I loved it.
I love hearing people pray in their native tongue. Sometimes it’s hard because
my heart doesn’t connect with German like it does English (obviously), but I
hope one day it will have a deeper meaning. I think that’s why I have a hard
time pushing myself to speak German. It feels weird and uncomfortable and I
feel less like myself. But with time, I’m sure a German personality would come.
The 25th Becca and I
made THE BEST CHRISTMAS DINNER. We went to the store the day before and bought
everything needed to make a lasagna, salat, garlic bread, and American
cheesecake. So we dressed up for fun, used her GAP room (because all of the
people on her hall were gone), listened to Christmas Music while cooking, and
just had fun together. I tried going to bed at 11:30 because I was soo tired,
but she convinced me to stay (partially because some guy from Turkey came in
and she didn’t want to be left alone) and we ended up staying up until 4 in the
morning talking about God and philosophy. I never thought I would be someone to
be able to talk about philosophy very well. It’s a very complex subject, but it
would make sense that I end up liking it since I overanalyze every part of my
life. Plus I really love hearing her thoughts and learning her perspective on
things. I also got to skype my family back home for three hours earlier that
afternoon and open presents with them (that I had gotten from my grandparents.
The 26th the Krater’s
(my second host family) invited Becca and I over along with others to their
house for dinner. Claudia made a ham, vegetables, and other things and it
tasted very good. After dinner we played The Game of Life in German, and then
just hung out and talked for a while. After Becca and I walked back to the
S-Bahn station, we still had 30 minutes to wait, so we sat down, ate all of the
chocolate and candy we’d just gotten for Christmas, laughed, and talked to some
old German who kept asking why we knew German. Good times.
For Slyvester (or New Year’s Eve) I
hung out with people who are in my program. Sami and Julia made dinner for all
of us, and we met in Sami’s room and ate salmon, noodles, with a mushroom
sauce, and had lots of champagne. It was such a random group of people, but I
loved it, it was really fun. We went to Olympiazentrum after eating to watch
the fireworks. At Olympiazentrum (where BMW Welt ist) there are really big
mountain tops that you can walk to the top of and see over Munich. It’s
beautiful, and especially also at night with all the lights on in the city.
There were so many people on the bergs, drinking, shooting off fireworks, and
some even shooting off fireworks from beer bottles. It got a little terrifying.
Once it got close to midnight, people started shooting fireworks off all over
the city. It looked INCREDIBLE because fireworks were seriously everyyywhere. I’d
never seen so many fireworks in my life. They were literally coming from every
direction. We had brought a bottle of champagne with us, and after it hit 12,
drank it while saying Happy New Year to each other. Then Sami, Julia, and I
went back to Sami’s room when we got back and watched episodes from Boy Meets
World J
Because it doesn’t matter how old you get, that TV show is the best.
Here are some pictures from New Year's Eve:
If you want to see a video of the fireworks, I posted one on my Facebook!
I know I’m a little behind on my
blogging but I sincerely hope to get caught up soon! I hope you all had a very
Merry Christmas, and are enjoying 2012 so far!
Love, Jessica
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen