Merry Christmas!
Last night, we went to some friends' house (hi Doug and Anna!) and spent Christmas Eve there (and used their washing machine and dryer to wash our clothes) eating raclette and watching Polar Express, which I hadn't ever seen before (delightful movie!).
It was with melancholy hearts that we left our friends to go back to the hotel, and were greeted by darkened windows--the hotel seemed empty but for our presence. But as we stepped out of the car and pulled our suitcases out the back, I could hear the faint tones of a pipe organ growing louder as we trudged through the snow to the off-hours entrance of the hotel. There, across the street and lit by the streetlights was an ancient snow-covered church, its windows glowing warmly from the light within. We could hear the organ sounding louder, and a choir sang "Silent Night" in German. We had arrived at 11 pm, in time to hear the songs sung at Christmas Eve mass.
It gave me a lift to hear the familiar song, and this Christmas morning, when we left the hotel to come to the rental house (which we are still cleaning out!), the church greeted us with a caroling of bells for a full five minutes. "Christmas bells!" I said to John, and he smiled and said, "Merry Christmas indeed."
Christmas is persistent and celebrated with unrestrained joy here in Germany, and I'm glad of it, especially this year.
It's a drag that we're spending this Christmas in a hotel (and a very nice one it is--the Mercator, in Gangelt). It's more that we're betwixt and between situations that gets me. Had we stayed longer, I could have Christmas decorations up and kept at least some of the traditions we are used to. Had we gone sooner, we would be celebrating Christmas dinner with friends and family in our own home. As it is...well. None of that can be helped, however, and I am grateful for friends who are willing to take us in and help us celebrate with good cheer and their comforting presence.
What I am glad about (yes, this is still the Pollyanna Files!), is that we had a chance to experience the Christmas season here in Germany. This, I will miss a great deal when we go back. There is nothing like the untrammeled, unrestrained enjoyment of Christmas in the U.S. like there is here in Germany and the Netherlands, especially with respect to the Christmas Markets.
We had the great opportunity to experience the Christmas Market in Valkenburg's Velvet Caves (with my mom--post about that later) in the Netherlands, as well as the ones in Cologne, Germany (there are seven of these markets in Cologne!). The crowds are thick at Cologne's Christmas Markets, especially in the evening, to the point where you literally have to shove yourself through them. But nobody minds, and there is much toasting each other with glühwein and spontaneous singing of Christmas carols, and children riding carousels and skating in open-air ice rinks.
Time rolls back through the various centuries you can see in that city, below the medieval towers of the Great Cathedral, through the Renaissance to the more modern buildings. Spread throughout the vendor stalls bright with gifts and Christmas decorations are stalls full of traditional market fare of grilled salmon, stakes of grilled meat, wursts, waffles, stöllen, and various goodies you can eat as you shop. Cries of "Fröliche Weinachten!"--"Merry Christmas!"--punctuate the murmur of the crowds and the Christmas carols played here and there as you go from individual market to market.
There is no self-consciousness about it, and I think this is what I will miss the most about the German and Dutch Christmas season when I return to the U.S. So far as I know, there are no "Christmas wars," as there are in the U.S. It's just a happy time when people are glad to visit friends and family, eat well, shop for gifts, and just have fun.
I was most eager to see the medieval market in Cologne. I love medieval and Renaissance faires back home, and what could be more traditional than a Christmas market with people dressed in medieval clothing and selling medieval wares, with jugglers and mummers, all in city dominated by a medieval cathedral? But...more of that, later. :-)
It'll still be the liturgical Christmas season until January 6th. With luck, I'll write more about Christmas here.
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