π Christmas Eve. We call it Holy Evening in German. Traditionally, everyone gets their presents on this day. If you have children, you go to church in the afternoon where they have a special mass with a nativity play and Christmas carols. After that, the "Christ Child" has been visiting the house and the children start opening their Christmas presents. This is also the day when the Christmas tree and all the decorations are put up. Things have changed since my childhood, but we still don't put up our tree much earlier than the 4th advent, it just feels wrong to have it up during the advent time.
π Nowadays, many companies close on the day but when I was little, everyone worked until lunchtime on Christmas Eve.
π Since there is not a lot of time neither for the preparation nor for the eating of a big dinner before the children need to go to bed, most families have potato salad and frankfurters or meatballs on Christmas Eve. The big dinner or lunch, often with a roasted goose or a carp, follows on Christmas Day when families gather at the house of the grandparents.
π Families without children or where the kids are older, people go to midnight mass. For many, this is the only time of the year when they visit a service. Those people are commonly called "U-Boot Christians" since they only "turn up" at Christmas.
Merry Christmas! Thank you for sharing the holiday traditions Germany. It's fun to learn how the holidays are celebrated in other countries around the world.
ReplyDeleteI did write about some traditions in Germany before and always got good comments about it, so I try to carry this on whenever the occasion arises. I always find it interesting to see what people do in other countries and it looks like, so does everyone else.
DeleteSo, thanks for that comment. and for your visit, "Captivated Reader".
My entire family on both sides were German back at least to great, great, great, great grandparents. My grandparents on both sides were born in the United States but their great grandparents came in the the mid to late 19th century. I liked hearing about the German traditions for Christmas. We always opened present from the family on Christmas Eve, then presents from Santa on Christmas Day.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you and your family!
Thank you, Judy. I thought you might have some German ancestors with that family name. Did you know it means "landlord" or "pub owner", so someone who runs a pub? So, I'm not surprised your family took on some of the German traditions back.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas back and have a great new year.