The Christmas markets in Germany are in FULL swing and I hoped you might find them very lovely, too! Very Old Word Christmas ... So beautiful, so charming, such happy marketplaces selling nothing but Christmas ornaments, dolls, candies, cookies, candles and mostly homemade gifts! A favorite moment of mine was walking home from German class at noon in Munich and stopping and gazing at the beautiful Christmas things at the outside stalls while snow gently fell and I ate a hot bratwurst on a delicious bun at a corner shop counter. One of those memories one never forgets. I hope you can all go sometime.Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone! We wish you the great peace and beauty of the season even amongst the busy-ness of it~!
Mr and Mrs Z
27 comments:
:sigh:
What a wonderful memory!
I truly want to go, Z.
What beautiful images. I can smell the food and hear the music!
Happy third Sunday Of Advent. I want to be ready to receive Christ. But it is constant work to get there. Beautiful pictures.
Thanks for the great pics.
This is what I have on my desktop.
http://away.com/wallpaper/index.adp?date=12-12-2008
Z As usual, incredible pictures.
I don't get it though, were are all of the ACLU lawyers and why aren't they stopping this?
Great pics Z! I've been there a few times, the last time as a civilian with my son Marcus. I LOVED Germany@! Happy advent! Excuse my ignorance, but what is Advent?
I'm leaving to watch my futile Jaguars play play the Packers in 45 minutes so wish me well...
Morgan
"Advent" soignifies the appearance of, or the arrival of. In the Church Calendar otherwise known as The Liturgical Year, ADVENT is the official period where we await the Birth of Christ just as LENT is the period (supposedly of ritual fasting and sober prayerful contemplation) of Palm Sunday, Passion Week and Easter.
~ FreeThinke
The pictures are wonderful. They show such wholehearted enthusiasm.
I couldn't tell, but are figures of The Nativity anywhere prominent in these festive public displays?
~ FreeThinke
Beautiful, comforting, and a sweet memory you reported. I wish the pictures were large enough to put one of them on my desktop for the season. I think I'll go on a Google Image hunt for something similar.
FT: The ACLU hasn't arrived yet - so, nativity scenes are everywhere in "secular" Europe. On these markets, for instance, several stalls are even specialized in them, and you find them in all sizes.
These markets are called "Christkindelmarkt" (market of the Christ child) or Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market), and you find them everywhere, cities like Munich or Berlin have each dozens of them, small and large. The largest in Munich is on the Marienplatz - which is the one Z talked about in her piece.
Mr.Z
I do love these pictures. Is only your story from Munich or are these pictures from the market in Munich as well? Quite a different and "homier" feel than our mega malls. I would like very much to go.
These beautiful scenes are much preferred to American malls; of course, we won't find any religious themes in any of our malls ... which is very telling about our society.
Ahem. I am available to accompany Mr. Z on his next trip to Germany no matter what season it is.
I'm with Mustang. I'm sure Mr. Z will need two companions!
Z,
Today's church service was about today being the Joy Sunday. (We lit the Joy candle.) I thought you might want to use those titles for your Sunday posts instead of the ordinal number. Well, I guess it would only affect one Sunday post this year if you adopted it.
So Herr and Frau Z are responsible for providing lodging for all blog visitors traveling to Germany? Am I understanding that right? And airfare and food? Souvineers? Compensation for missed work time? They're too generous.
Does the word secular in Mr Z's post really warrant quotation marks when referring to Europe? I've never been there, but if I can believe Bruce Thornton, church attendance in Europe is 5% compared to 50% in US. (I'm going from memory. I don't have the stats in front of me.)
-Tio Bowser
Beautiful pictures, Z. You are a lucky woman indeed. I really hope to get there someday.
I love Christmas displays! But not if they include THIS!
When I was stationed in Naples, Italy I went to Munich. I wanted to see the BF-109G fighter in the technology museum there. It was roped off. I asked the Guard if I could touch it. He was scandalized. Then he pondered a moment and said "you are fleiger, jah?" I guess my age and haircut gave me away. I said yes. He kept watch for me while I went under the rope and put my hand on the fuselage. What an experience. And what a great old man that guard was. Maybe in his day, he flew that type.
Tio, that's the oddest thing about the constant harping on how "GODLESS" Europe is. I've LIVED there, I've attended LUtheran and Catholic services there..Germany and then Paris.
We should BE so lucky to be 'half full' here...we had twenty today, with a choir of 9 not included.
No, the HUGE Catholic churches have a good amount of French people and I've never been to a Lutheran service where I didn't have to sit in the back because it was full.
Don't forget; In Germany, there's a tax you have to pay if you go to church; they do that instead of tithing .... SO, most people deny church membership and pay what they can directly TO the church. No, they're quite full, thank you very much. The stats are skewed by this fact.There's a kind of glee Dennis Prager and others take in slamming the GODLESS EUROPE. It's just stupid and wrong and not a little self serving. HALF FULL? WHERE? How nice!
And yes, it's JOY Sunday.(sorry to be so BAH, HUMBUG in my response, but it's the truth)
Everyone: I'm so glad you enjoy these pictures, too...they're like pictures of a goodness of bygone days, sadly.
Mystic (hi!)...they're not Munich, no. None of them are. I should find one and post one. Stay tuned!
FT, thanks for the explanation of Advent.
Great photos. I got to remember to show them to my Wife when (if) she gets around to coming home. She is at her Mothers with her Daughter, Sister and Niece. They got together to make Christmas candy and cookies.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic.
Here in Cincinnati, where we have a heavy German history of immigration there are quite a few very nice outdoor Christmas celebrations of Germanic theme.
Your pics are lovely!
Z, what a pretty place. How wonderful. Great pics.
Mr Z, give your birth country a heads up. The ACLU has a European branch.
However, so does the (ACLJ American Center for Law and Justice), which is a good thing. The fight for Christianity goes on.
Pris
I always thought ACLU meant Anti-Christ Legions United.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic.
David - How right you are. The truth shall set us free.
Pris
Kinda beats lining up for cheap Chinese junk at Wal-Mart, doesn't it?
I remember decorations like that downtown. Beautiful lights on the Common.
We let it all go for nothing.
Ducky: We let it all go for leftists and secularists who can't stand to think there's actually a predominant faith in this country.
We let it go because greed entered into it.
But, I know..that's all the fault of traditional Conservatives who find good character and values more important than liberal idiocy.
Nah, z, that's a pretty secular display. Nothing about religion in slugging down a few glasses of gluhwein. Something I became pretty good at.
No, we sold it off for lining up for "bargains" on Black Friday.
That's true,Ducky,, about bargains.
And disgusting, isn't it.
I'm with you on that, for sure. You walk around these charming displays in Germany and you don't have that feeling..you just feel cheered and charmed.
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