24/12/2009
‘der erste Weihnachtsfeiertag’
The first surprising fact about the German Christmas is that they don’t celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day as you might expect. In Germany Christmas ist celebrated the day before – on Christmas Eve. So, on 24th December when all the British children are putting out their sacks and stockings, all the Germans have already opened their presents, eaten their Christmas dinner, had a Glühwein or two and gone to bed! What’s more surprising is that the Germans have two Christmas Days. After Christmas Eve which is called ‘heilige Abend’ (Holy Evening), they have ‘der erste Weihnachtsfeiertag’ (The First Christmas Celebration Day – our Christmas Day) and then they have ‘der zweite Weihnachtsfeiertag’ (The Second Christmas Celebration Day – our Boxing Day). So the Germans have two Christmas Celebration Days but what do they do on these ‘celebration’ days? The answer: very little. Although they have two Christmas Days, the only celebrating in Germany takes place on the day before Christmas. Germans do have another Christmas-related day which we are missing out on. This day is known as ‘Nikolaustag’ (St. Nicholas Day) and it is on 6th December. In a way which is not dissimilar to Christmas Eve in the UK, on the eve of Nikolaustag all German children clean their shoes in the hopes that St. Nick will leave sweets and chocolates inside them ready for the children to discover in the morning.
In addition to Nikolaustag, there are many other nice traditions that we find in Germany at Christmas. You may or may not be surprised to know that many of the traditions we know in Great Britain actually originate from Germany. Perhaps the most well known of these traditions is the ‘Tannenbaum’ (Christmas Tree) which is the topic of the following Christmas song which we know as ‘O Christmas Tree’
O Tannenbaum
“O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,
nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!”
Tom und Bill’s Holiday Duck
Oh wait, nein….
THey can’t have THat!
Here is THeir Duck <=)
“hallo”
This was great. Danke for posting it!
Danke fur saying so!
Ich LIEBE getting comments in my posts! 🙂
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! 🙂 nice post!