Weihnachten

Weihnachten is the German observance of what is commonly known in English as Christmas Eve. Usually put up by the 24th of December, it is then decorated by the family. The trees can be bought at special traders' sites, but many Germans go into the forest and get one themselves.

The Germans celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th December, a day called Heiligabend ("holy eve"). Generally the whole family comes together.

Before the Bescherung (means: time for exchanging gifts) begins, many Germans go to church. Christmas masses/services often last an hour or a little bit longer. Families with children go to a children's mass which usually is shorter and dramatised with a Krippenspiel, a nativity play. During the mass one of the adults prepares the Christmas tree and turns on electric lights or lights decorative candles, and puts on some festive Christmas music and places the gifts under the tree. For the Bescherung, the only light comes from the Christmas tree lights, so it's a low-lit atmosphere.

When the family comes back from the church, the living room is locked. The children must wait to enter into the prepared room until a little bell rings. This bell represents the leaving of the Christ Child (Christkind) who according to tradition, brings the presents (instead of Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus).

The gifts lie under the tree, wrapped in colourful paper and the children unwrap them before the big Christmas feast. Adults also share gifts while the children are opening theirs, often immediately playing with their new toys. Many families also prepare big colourful, decorated paper bags for the children, full of chocolates, often in the shape of angels or Santa Claus, called Weihnachtsmann in German. The bags may also contain fruits like oranges, tangerines, nuts and other little gifts.

Many families sing traditional Christmas songs or winter songs or play music on flutes and/or guitars.

Traditionally, on Christmas Eve a simple meal is served in contrast to the big meal on Christmas Day. There are many typical Christmas meals, to name the most important: goose, chicken, fondue (with many types of meat), raclette and lamb

See also

YOUR FAT FACE!!!!!!! your teacher's butt

References

German

• Oscar Cullmann: The Emergence of Christmas and the Origin of the Christmas Tree; Stuttgart: Source Publishing House, 19944; ISBN 3-79182326-4 (a solid and generally comprehensible explanation of Christmas from Christian view)
• Alexander Demandt: The Origin of Christmas, now in: ders.: Sieben Siegel. Essays zur Kulturgeschichte; Köln-Weimar-Wien: (Essay on Cultural History; Cologne-Weimar-Vienna): Böhlau Verlag, 2005; P. 1-18 (scientifically fastidious and at the same time generally understandable study of the old-eastern-Jewish, anti-Christian and Germanic-German roots of Christmas)
• Henrik Cornell: The Iconography of the Nativity of Christ; Uppsala 1924
• Franz Joseph Dölger: Natalis Solis Invicti and Christian Christmas; in: Antike und Christentum 6.1976, 23 ff
• Hugo Elm: Das goldene Weihnachtsbuch: Description and representation of the origin, the celebration, the habits, legends and the faith of the Christmas season and at the same time guidance for decorating the Christian tree, the pyramid, as well as the application of the creche and Weihnachtsgärten. Schwetschke, resounds 1878 (Digitalisat[1]) Archives for Literature Science 2, 1952
• Leonhard Fendt: The today's conditions of research over the birth celebration Jesu to 25. XII. and over Epiphanias; in: Theological Literature Newspaper 78 (1953)
• Hans Förster: Christmas - A Tracing; Berlin: Kadmos Publishing House, 20052; ISBN 3-93165-947-X
• Konrad Onasch: Christmas in the Orthodox Church Year; Berlin: Evangelist Publishing House, 1958
• Susan K. Roll: Weihnachten/Weihnachtsfest/Weihnachtspredigt; in: TRE 35, P. 453-468; Berlin - New York: de Gruyter, 2003
• Lily Weiser-Aall: Artikel Weihnacht; in: Hand Dictionary of the German Faith, Bd. 9; Augsburg: Weltbild, 2005 (=Berlin: de Gruyter, 1941); ISBN 3-8289-0808-X

Explanations of Christmas in German Christianity

• www.ekhn.de -Website of the Evangelical Church in Hessen and Nassau
• www.katholisch.de -Website of the Catholic Church in Germany Comments of Christian dignitaries to Christmas
• www.kirche-in-not.de[2] -interview with Cardinal Leo Scheffczyk (Catholic)

Weihnachtsgottesdienste

• www.kigo-tipps.de [3] planning of Children's Christmas Services by German author of the Federation of Evangelist Municipalitieshi

Christmas in German art and children's literature

• www.icon-art.info[4] Icons of the Birth of Christ
• Weihnachtsgeschichten[5] Christmas children's services

Critical analyses

• www.religio.de [6] Thomas Gandow: Die Quadratur des Adventskranzes or: "Atheism Under the Christmas Tree“