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German Christmas traditions - which ones do you like?

I like these .....

  • The Advent Wreath - Der Adventskranz

    Votes: 4 28.6%

  • The Advent Calendar - Der Adventskalender

    Votes: 7 50.0%

  • Christmas markets - Weihnachtsmärkte

    Votes: 4 28.6%

  • Saint Nicholas - Sankt Nikolaus

    Votes: 4 28.6%

  • Santa Claus - Der Weihnachtsmann

    Votes: 5 35.7%

  • Christmas Eve - Heiliger Abend (also Heiligabend)

    Votes: 6 42.9%

  • The Christmas tree - Der Tannenbaum

    Votes: 10 71.4%

  • others

    Votes: 2 14.3%

  • none

    Votes: 3 21.4%
  • Total voters
    14
Sweden said:
The Jul log Swedish but not exclusively so. One thing we have which is definitely pre-Christian is the Jul Bock; a ram made out of straw. It can be of any size but usually at least 50cm high.. My guess is a good majority of Swedish homes has one, so it is certainly not some rare isolated survival.
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My Swedish stepfather had the most beautiful handpainted Julbock ornament on the tree. I never knew it meant anything in particular. What did it symbolize? Was it sacrificed?
 
Rumpel said:
It is often said that Christianity had "stolen" those traditions.
I prefer to say that Christianity has integrated those traditions and saved them that way.

Just as the "Blessing of the Herbs" on August 15th.
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So the cup is half full, eh? :mrgreen:
 
MaryP said:
My Swedish stepfather had the most beautiful handpainted Julbock ornament on the tree. I never knew it meant anything in particular. What did it symbolize? Was it sacrificed?
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It's a long story.

The word Yule, mean "wheel" (lit. "to turn"), and was the feast of light, taking place on the winter solstice, when a turn of the world, taking one year, was complete.
In Nordic mythology, the one who turned the wheel was Thor. The constellation the big dipper is called "The Carl's Wagon" (not the name Carl, but as in "a carl" i.e. a free man), and the Carl was Thor, pulling the world around the world axis; variously represented as the world tree "Yggdrasil", the ancient German world pillar "Irminsul", and the Swedish mid-summer pole (don't know if it has a name) among others. Interestingly, the Big Dipper was called "The Plough" in medieval England, and Thor was the god of freemen and farmers as well as thunder, so there may be some old pagan connection there. The Christmas tree is most likely an old representation of the world tree, with a star added to symbolize the star over Betlehem, and at the same time de-paganizing it.

Goats and rams play a large part in various ancient cosmologies from the northern hemisphere, likely because it was the first astrological sign of the year until around 1 AD (a fact I'm sure did not escape Christendom). We see an earlier similar focus on bulls in older cosmologies after the age of Taurus (ended c. 1800 BC). Goats draw the wagon of Thor, a goat eats of the world tree and provides mead for the fallen heroes. Particularly for Christimas, the world-serpent Jormungandr (lit. "huge monster") is often depicted with goat or rams' horns. The story of Thor feeding a bulls head into the mouth of the horned world serpent was of huge cosmological importance, as this tied together the last and first signs of the year together, completing the turning of the year and ushering in a new one. For some not too obscure reason goats also represented fertility (in Christendom; the sin of Lust), so a goat was a natural symbol for a pagan new year's celebration.

So as you can see, we have at least three connections between goats and old christmas. Astrological, mythological (Heidrunn the mead goat), and as a generic fertility symbol.
 
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Again:

"Yule" is the normal Danish etc. word for Christmas.
It is nonsense to say: "We do not celebrate your stupid Christmas, we celebrate our Yule!"

Yule = Christmas.

Just as the German "Weihnachten" is our word for the English word "Christmas."

And there are a lot of other words in other languages for "Christmas".
 
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MaryP said:
My Swedish stepfather had the most beautiful handpainted Julbock ornament on the tree. I never knew it meant anything in particular. What did it symbolize? Was it sacrificed?
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More funny facts on goats as a generic fertility symbol.
The last sheafs of grain harvested were made into christmas goats. The grains were used to bake the christmas cake, adorned wih a swastika (pre-nazi obviously). A portion of the cake was saved and the crumbles poured into the first plough furrow of the next year. So again there is a connection with goats and the ending of the old year and beginning of the new.
 
MaryP said:
My Swedish stepfather had the most beautiful handpainted Julbock ornament on the tree. I never knew it meant anything in particular. What did it symbolize? Was it sacrificed?
Click to expand...

I don't suppose that anyone knows if the ram was sacrificed but it's probable that it was a central part of the midwinter feast. Female goats were perhaps too valuable to eat. What do you think?
 
HK.227 said:
It's a long story.

The word Yule, mean "wheel" (lit. "to turn"), and was the feast of light, taking place on the winter solstice, when a turn of the world, taking one year, was complete.
In Nordic mythology, the one who turned the wheel was Thor. The constellation the big dipper is called "The Carl's Wagon" (not the name Carl, but as in "a carl" i.e. a free man), and the Carl was Thor, pulling the world around the world axis; variously represented as the world tree "Yggdrasil", the ancient German world pillar "Irminsul", and the Swedish mid-summer pole (don't know if it has a name) among others. Interestingly, the Big Dipper was called "The Plough" in medieval England, and Thor was the god of freemen and farmers as well as thunder, so there may be some old pagan connection there. The Christmas tree is most likely an old representation of the world tree, with a star added to symbolize the star over Betlehem, and at the same time de-paganizing it.

Goats and rams play a large part in various ancient cosmologies from the northern hemisphere, likely because it was the first astrological sign of the year until around 1 AD (a fact I'm sure did not escape Christendom). We see an earlier similar focus on bulls in older cosmologies after the age of Taurus (ended c. 1800 BC). Goats draw the wagon of Thor, a goat eats of the world tree and provides mead for the fallen heroes. Particularly for Christimas, the world-serpent Jormungandr (lit. "huge monster") is often depicted with goat or rams' horns. The story of Thor feeding a bulls head into the mouth of the horned world serpent was of huge cosmological importance, as this tied together the last and first signs of the year together, completing the turning of the year and ushering in a new one. For some not too obscure reason goats also represented fertility (in Christendom; the sin of Lust), so a goat was a natural symbol for a pagan new year's celebration.

So as you can see, we have at least three connections between goats and old christmas. Astrological, mythological (Heidrunn the mead goat), and as a generic fertility symbol.
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Thank you! Really interesting!
 
Rumpel said:
Advent Calender and Christmas Tree have now 6 votes each from 7 voters. :)
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I never heard of an advent calendar until I was an adult. I immediately got one for my little boy, and he opened every window within two days while I wasn't watching. So much for daily surprise! I do think it is a very cool concept. Wish I'd been able to experience it as a kid.
 
Rumpel said:
Heidrun the mead goat!
I like that! :)
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Giving him the honor of creating mead--can't get much more important than that, huh?
 
MaryP said:
I never heard of an advent calendar until I was an adult. I immediately got one for my little boy, and he opened every window within two days while I wasn't watching. So much for daily surprise! I do think it is a very cool concept. Wish I'd been able to experience it as a kid.
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Thank you for saying so! :)

So maybe our German Christmas is not sooooooooooooooooo terrible after all, as somebody else would like to paint it here. :cool:
 
I blame Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who imported all these fancy foreign Christmas trimmings to impress his new wife, and they spread around her empire, even to some of her ex-colonies!
 
I think this christmassy thread is not the right thread to go on and on and on about all Germans being Nazis or so ... and so on.
Or going on and on and on about the Second World War.
Of course I cannot hinder it if somebody thinks so.
In my opinion it spoils this thread a bit.
I cannot hinder it.
But it makes me feel sad.
Sorry for my saying so.
 
One big differnece:

In Germany the presents are given on the 24th in the evening.
In the Anglo-Saxon world the presents are given on the 25th in the morning.
 
Rumpel said:
One big differnece:

In Germany the presents are given on the 24th in the evening.
In the Anglo-Saxon world the presents are given on the 25th in the morning.
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Just kidding about Albert! I makes me smile when people brag about their proud Anglo-Saxon (English) heritage, and I ask them where the Angles and the Saxons came from! ;)
 
Rumpel said:
Why "him"?
Should it not be her!?

Heidrun is a girl goat, isn't she? :)
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What makes you think so? You mean the mead comes out of her udder?

ugh
 
@ Heidrun

What Wiki says:


Heidrun or Heiðrún is a female name original from Norse mythology.

Some notable people with this name are:

Heidrun Bluhm (born 1958), German politician
Heidrun Breier (born 1971), Romanian-German-Chilean actress
Heidrun Gerzymisch (born 1944), German Translation scholar and professor
Heidrun Hartmann (1942–2016), German botanist
Heidrun Huwyler (born 1942), Swiss Post-Impressionist painter
Heidrun Mohr-Mayer (1941–2014), German jeweller and philanthropist
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Heidrun - Wikipedia
 
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