Dazzling Specialty About Christmas in Germany

The celebration of Christmas in Germany combines two traditions, that of the Germans and that of Christianity, which are found in the word used to refer to Christmas: "Weihnachten" (literally "the night consecrated"). The word is a plural, for once, before Christianity, all the winter nights were celebrated as holy night by the Germans.

The origin of the oldest Christmas dates back, in fact, this pagan tradition. During the winter solstice, a celebration held in honor of Sun God to whom they sacrificed their pets, horses and wild boar. "Die Weihnacht" ("spent the night") the night was devoted to Wotan, the god of war and thunder, who was on this occasion the title Sol Invictus. The second origin is that of "Die Christnacht" (" the night of Christ "). She settled in 354 AD, when December 25th was chosen to officially celebrate the birth of Christ. Adhering to the principle that the pagan festivals were to be gradually assimilated to the christmas holiday deals the church accepted certain compromises. Therefore, the Christians Christnacht is superimposed on the Weihnacht Germanic we use commonly today expressing "Heiliger Abend" ("Holy Night") to describe the evening of December 24th.

The first Sunday of Advent traditionally marks the start of the Christmas period. The Sunday following November 26, in the cottages are lit the first candle of the "Advent Wreath" (Adventkranz). The following Sunday we light the second, and so on until Christmas. Composed of braided branches of spruce, the Advent wreath is decorated with pine cones, ribbons, etc. All houses, shops and even churches have one, or more, hanging from the ceiling of their main room. In the same vein, we sometimes meet Adventsterne ("star of Advent"), referring to the star appeared in the sky of Bethlehem after the birth of Christ. She has twenty-four small stars of paper, numbered and attached to each of the six branches of a large star of gold cardboard. The children take off one every day so that it remains at the great Christmas Eve. There is, finally, the tradition of the Advent calendar.

The Germans prefer green decorations and use all sorts of thorny species, for nature is an object of worship since pre-Christian. The importance of the christmas tree decorations usually include covered with candles is thereby justified. But it is now inevitable, it has not always been so. In fact, the Christmas tree ("Weihnachtsbaum") has its roots instead of the sacred forest characteristic of Nordic countries: the Germans in fact believed that a huge tree, evergreen, called "Yggdrasil", contained the entire universe. Brush the greenery in the home was, moreover, a way to preserve nature as the winter months would put half-mast. The "Weihnachtsbaum" was built as progressivemement the Christian celebration. Probably originally decorated with paper flowers, apples, dates and nuts, it was not until the eighteenth century that meets decorated with candles.