Hopefully you had an enjoyable holiday season. It's times like this during which I am exceptionally grateful that I am living with my great German hosts. Being a part of their family and participating in their traditions was a lot of fun!
As I mentioned last time, Christmas Eve (also called Heilige Abend, or Holy Evening) is so important that it is considered part of Christmas here in Germany. Our Christmas Eve celebrations started with a big fancy dinner, with every member of the family dressing up. My host Dad even wore a suit! The food was the most typical German meal you could imagine - potatoes, butter sauce, pork, sauerkraut, and yes, wurst. Oh, and some beer.
In Germany, the most highly anticipated moment of the holiday season also takes place on Christmas Eve - the unwrapping of presents! I got a great haul of the gifts from every one of the other 5 members of my host family, including music, a movie, a book, and chocolate. They enjoyed the gifts I gave them, which made me happy since I had specifically tried getting a gift specifically tailored to their interests. In that regard I did best with my little host brother's gift. He's a soccer fanatic, so I bought him a DVD of highlights from the 2014 FIFA World Cup (which Germany won, remember). He was so excited that he popped it in the DVD player and started playing it before everyone else had even unwrapped all their gifts!
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| The 4 Advents (Sundays) before Christmas are pretty important to every German family. They light up 1 of 4 red candles, which are generally decoratively arranged in a wreath, on each of the Sundays. When Christmas rolls around, they are all burning bright |
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| Our tree, which we hurriedly decorated on the 23rd and features real candles, and just a portion of our gifts |
After the excitement of the presents was over, my host parents and I headed to a nearby church at 11 p.m. to attend the late-night mass. I'm not exactly religious but decided to go to since I knew I wouldn't have any other chance to see a mass in German. I'm glad I did! The service was only an hour long, and at least half of that consisted of singing as a parish along with the grand accompaniment of the organ. I caught on to the melodies fairly quickly and had a great time singing along and enjoying the organ music. At one break in the action, the organ even played a Gustav Holst song I knew from my band days. So the music was a big highlight for me.
The pastor spoke fairly clearly, which meant I was able to understand him. His sermon was fine, but what was most interesting about him is his background. He was a pastor in East Germany as well, as my host father explained. But the secular East German government made life very hard for religious people and their families. The pastor had to choose between his family and faith, and chose to stick by his faith. His father lost his job as a judge as a result. It's always interesting to run into reminders of how harsh life in the GDR was.
Christmas Day was laid back day full of frisbee, board games, and another great dinner with host family. That day's dinner was clearly a less formal affair than Christmas Eve's, but the menu was even more sumptuous - we had TWO whole geese prepared! Potato dumplings and cabbage were served on the side. Needless to say, no one went hungry.
I hope your holiday was similarly relaxing! I just came back from my post-Christmas trip to Munich, will leave for Vilnius soon, and then it's back to school, so it's time for me to enjoy my last few days of vacation.
Oh, and Guten Rutsch - Happy New Year!