Weihnachten in Germany By: Becca roggenbuck Period: 8

Advent Advent is started at the beginning of December. Germans have advent calendars for the children where they open a window each day and receive a small piece of chocolate. Germans also put up advent wreaths to start the Advent season. They gather every Sunday and light a candle on the wreath and sing Christmas carols.

Christmas Markets As Advent season begins, the Christmas Markets also open in all towns across Germany. People gather in the towns square where a band is usually playing during the market time. Lots of hot drinks such as apple cider or beer is sold along with cookies and gingerbread. These markets originated in the 14th century and were created to sell seasonal items to celebrate holidays such as Christmas.

Advent Calendar and Christmas Market

Christmas Tree Traditionally, the Christmas tree is never set up until Christmas Eve where the family gathers and decorates the tree. The tree is taken down around January 1st or 6th. Traditional ornaments used on Christmas trees are cookies and candies. On New Year’s Day the children are able to eat the candies and cookies from the tree. The first known Christmas tree to be set up was in Freiburg in 1419.

St. Nikolaus St. Nikolaus’s Day is celebrated on December 6th in Germany. The children set out their newly polished shoes in wait for St. Nikolaus to come and put sweets, fruits, nuts, and chocolate in their shoes; as long as they were good. St. Nikolaus was originally a bishop but he soon was known as a protector of children and an anonymous gift giver to them.

St. Nikolaus

Traditional Food and Drinks A traditional drink in German on a cold day is Glühwein, hot mulled red wine with a possible shot of brandy. Some popular foods to eat during Christmas in Germany is: duck, goose, rabbit, roast, apple stuffing, chocolate, gingerbread, and stollen. Fruitcake was adapted from stollen; stollen usually consists of nuts and fruit.

Questions Christmas markets originated in what century: a) 15th century b) 14th century c) 16th century Fruitcake is an adaptation of what baked good: a) gingerbread b) angel food cake c) stollen

Answers The answers are…. 1. b) 14th century 2. c) stollen

Sources http://www.germanfoods.org/consumer/facts/christmastraditions.cfm http://www.vistawide.com/german/christmas/german_christmas_traditions.htm http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/christmas-traditions-around-the-world-ga6.htm http://storybookwoods.typepad.com/storybook_woods/images/advent_main.gif http://www.germany-insider-facts.com/image-files/german-christmas-markets-jena.jpg

http://dhsdeutsch. weebly. com/uploads/1/2/6/2/1262224/7065578_orig http://dhsdeutsch.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/6/2/1262224/7065578_orig.jpg http://www.spangdahlem.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123179919