Today is the zweite Advent (second Sunday in Advent) and there are about only three weeks left to Christmas. So, it is höchste Zeit (hight time) to tell you how Germans spend the Vorweihnachtszeit (pre-Christmas season).

In Germany, the official pre-Christmas season starts on the ersten Advent (first Sunday in Advent). Germans render homage to these four Sundays before Christmas very much. Germans usually decorate the Couchtisch (coffee table) in the living room with an Adventskranz (Advent wreath), which has four candles. These four candles are successively lit from the first Sunday in Advent until the fourth. The wreath symbolizes the approach of Christmas.

The Advent wreath was invented by the Evangelical-Lutheran theologian and care worker Johann Hinrich Wichern, in 1839. It is told that Wichern administered to the needs of children die in tiefster Armut lebten (who lived in abject poverty). He moved with the children into an old farmhouse, called Rauhe Haus, and took care of them. During the Advent season, the children often asked when it would be finally Christmas. Consequently, he took an old cartwheel and put up a wreath. Unlike today’s Advent wreaths, that one consisted of several small red candles and four big white ones. The white candles symbolized the Advent Sundays and the red one symbolized the days in between.

Nowadays, Wichern is also the name of several social institutions, based on Johann Hinrich Wichern’s concept of educating. Wichern institutions take care of children, old people, disabled people, and all those who are in need. The Wichern institution in my town organized a Christmas market last week, which I visited.

This Christmas market was slightly different from other traditional German Christmas markets. Like on traditional Christmas markets, there were many Essstände (food stands), which sold, for example, Bratwürste (bratwursts), Grünkohl (kale), and Glühwein (hot wine punch). But unlike traditional Christmas markets, they did not sell typical Christmas decoration but hand-made ceramics, which where fabricated by people who are in care of Wichern, most notable disabled people.

I really loved this Christmas market because it took place outside at the Wichern institution. All the stalls were set up between the buildings, which again, where decorated with fairy lights. This created a very familiar atmosphere. Below you can watch some photos, which I took and I hope you can imagine how beautiful this evening was for me.

Vocabulary:

der zweite Advent – second Sunday in Advent

höchste Zeit – high time

die Vorweihnachtszeit – pre-Chrismas season

der erste Advent – first Sunday in Advent

der Couchtisch – coffee table

der Adventskranz – Advent wreath

in tiefster Armut leben – to live in abject poverty

der Essstand – food stand

die Bratwurst – bratwurst (fried sausage)

der Grünkohl – kale

der Glühwein – hot wine punch