Hi everybody, I wish you a happy new year and all the best for 2012!!! Keep you courage on learning German and stay tunded!
In Germany we often say “Ein gutes Neues!”, by the way 
Ich wünsche Euch allen fröhliche Weihnachten und eine ruhige und besinnliche Zeit für Euch, Eure Familien und Freunde auf der ganzen Welt!!!
(Well, if you didn´t understand that: I wish you a Merry Christmas and a calm and contemplative time for you and your families and friends all over the world!!!)
The holidays are closing in. We prepare and cook, clean and bake. The typical German tradition is with families, children and older generations enjoying the young one’s laughter and smiles and of course we exhaust ourselves if not over-eat on the baking as well as the Goose. Many of you are already familiar with our German Advent Calendar with all the sweets inside. But I’d like to introduce you to something very different that really has little to do with the Holidays. You can eat it as a dessert and mostly it’s served during summer seasons when picking the ripe berries that really make the whole content so delicious.
Rote Grütze is simply put is translated as “red grits” although it could also be translated as red groats, porridge or even gruel. However, a more appetizing way to describe this dish, which is particularly popular in northern Germany and Denmark, is simply as Red Berry Dessert, a selection of red berries such as red currants, raspberries and strawberries, sweetened with a little sugar and lightly thickened with a little cornstarch.
So, you might wonder why “Rote Grütze” is called “red grits” when there are no grits, grains or oats to be found. Interestingly, the original recipe did actually use crushed oats or other grains, which were mixed in with wild red berries. In today’s Germany, Rote Grütze is prepared without grains using a variety of different recipes; you’ll also find recipes that add grape juice, cranberry juice and even red wine or brandy. Other variations of Rote Grütze are Rhabarbergrütze that is made with Rhubarb and Grüne Grütze, which is made with gooseberries.
In olden days, Rote Grütze constituted a light summer supper that was served with cold milk or cream. Today, it is usually served as a dessert with vanilla sauce, although it’s not unheard of to eat it as lunchtime summer “soup”.
The Rote Grütze can easily be mistaken for the eastern European Kissel, better known throughout Poland and parts of Russia or the Baltic states, which carries a similar recipe.
Though the German Grütze is basically that of a pudding: The fruits are cooked briefly with sugar. The mass should cool down for a moment so that the starch—dissolved in fruit juice or water—can be stirred into it without clumping. A second cooking process of one to two minutes is needed to start the gelatinization; remaining streaks of white starch have to clear up in this process.
Today is the zweite Advent (second Sunday in Advent) and there are about only three weeks left to Christmas. So, it is höchste Zeit (hight time) to tell you how Germans spend the Vorweihnachtszeit (pre-Christmas season).
In Germany, the official pre-Christmas season starts on the ersten Advent (first Sunday in Advent). Germans render homage to these four Sundays before Christmas very much. Germans usually decorate the Couchtisch (coffee table) in the living room with an Adventskranz (Advent wreath), which has four candles. These four candles are successively lit from the first Sunday in Advent until the fourth. The wreath symbolizes the approach of Christmas.
The Advent wreath was invented by the Evangelical-Lutheran theologian and care worker Johann Hinrich Wichern, in 1839. It is told that Wichern administered to the needs of children die in tiefster Armut lebten (who lived in abject poverty). He moved with the children into an old farmhouse, called Rauhe Haus, and took care of them. During the Advent season, the children often asked when it would be finally Christmas. Consequently, he took an old cartwheel and put up a wreath. Unlike today’s Advent wreaths, that one consisted of several small red candles and four big white ones. The white candles symbolized the Advent Sundays and the red one symbolized the days in between.
Source: Rauhes Haus, Hamburg, Germany Submitted by: Nils Fretwurst with friendly permission for public domain use in Wikipedia granted by the Public Relations & Press office of the Stiftung des Rauhen Hauses, in Hamburg, Germany
Nowadays, Wichern is also the name of several social institutions, based on Johann Hinrich Wichern’s concept of educating. Wichern institutions take care of children, old people, disabled people, and all those who are in need. The Wichern institution in my town organized a Christmas market last week, which I visited.
This Christmas market was slightly different from other traditional German Christmas markets. Like on traditional Christmas markets, there were many Essstände (food stands), which sold, for example, Bratwürste (bratwursts), Grünkohl (kale), and Glühwein (hot wine punch). But unlike traditional Christmas markets, they did not sell typical Christmas decoration but hand-made ceramics, which where fabricated by people who are in care of Wichern, most notable disabled people.
I really loved this Christmas market because it took place outside at the Wichern institution. All the stalls were set up between the buildings, which again, where decorated with fairy lights. This created a very familiar atmosphere. Below you can watch some photos, which I took and I hope you can imagine how beautiful this evening was for me.
Der Eingang des Weihnachtsmarktes. (The entrance of the Christmas market.)
Handgefertigte Keramik. (Hand-made ceramic.)
Noch mehr Keramik. (More ceramics.)
Und noch mehr Keramik. (And more ceramics.)
Handgefertigte Kerzen. (Hand-made candles.)
Ich mochte die Umgebung. (I liked the setting.)
Der Weihnachtsbaum. (The Christmas tree.)
Vocabulary:
der zweite Advent – second Sunday in Advent
höchste Zeit – high time
die Vorweihnachtszeit – pre-Chrismas season
der erste Advent – first Sunday in Advent
der Couchtisch – coffee table
der Adventskranz – Advent wreath
in tiefster Armut leben – to live in abject poverty
der Essstand – food stand
die Bratwurst – bratwurst (fried sausage)
der Grünkohl – kale
der Glühwein – hot wine punch
I have recognized that some of you wondered whether October 31 and/or November 1 are gesetzliche Feiertage (official holidays) in Germany or not. Well, both is right and wrong at the same time. Thus, it seems that Germany is still not completely (re-)united!?
Although church and state are separated in Germany and Religionsfreiheit (freedom of religion) is granted, the official religion of the state is Christianity. Therefore, for example, die Auferstehung von Jesus (the resurrection of Jesus), which is Ostern (Easter) and die Geburt Jesus (the birth of Jesus), which is Weihnachten (Christmas), are official holidays throughout Germany. But other Christian holidays, e.g. Reformationstag (Reformation Day) and Allerheiligen (All Saints’ Day) are respectively only celebrated in some parts of Germany. That is, some Bundesländer (federal states) are katholisch (Catholic) and others are evangelisch (Protestant). Thus, Reformation Day is a holiday in all Protestant states and All Saints’ Day is a holiday in all Catholic states. In order to make clear what official and public holidays we have in Germany and which states celebrate which of these holidays you can find an overview below.
Official holidays in Germany:
| New Year’s Day (Jan 1): | Is a holiday in all sixteen Bundesländer: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower-Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia |
| Epiphany (Jan 6): | Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt |
| Good Friday: | Is a holiday in all sixteen Bundesländer. |
| Easter Monday: | Is a holiday in all sixteen Bundesländer. |
| May Day: | Is a holiday in all sixteen Bundesländer. |
| Ascension Day: | Is a holiday in all sixteen Bundesländer. |
| Whit Monday: | Is a holiday in all sixteen Bundesländer. |
| Corpus Christi: | Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hessen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and only in some Catholic administrative districts in Saxony and Thuringia |
| Assumption of Mary (Aug 8): | Saarland and in some Catholic administrative districts in Bavaria |
| German Unification Day (Oct 3): | Is a holiday in all sixteen Bundesländer. |
| Reformation Day (Oct 31): | Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia |
| All Saints’ Day (Nov 1): | Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland |
| Day of Prayer and Repentance: | Is a holiday in all sixteen Bundesländer. |
| Christmas Day (Dec 25): | Is a holiday in all sixteen Bundesländer. |
| Day after Christmas (Dec 26): | Is a holiday in all sixteen Bundesländer. |
Vocabulary:
der gesetzliche Feiertag – official holiday
die Religionsfreiheit – freedom of religion
die Auferstehung Jesus – the resurrection of Jesus
die Geburt Jesus – the birth of Jesus
das Weihnachten – Christmas (is generally used without the article)
der Reformationstag – Reformation
das Allerheiligen – All Saints’ Day (is generally used without the article)
das Bundesland – federal state
katholisch – Catholic
evangelisch – Protestant
der Neujahrstag – New Year’s Day
die Heiligen Drei Könige – Epiphany (lit. The Three Holy Kings)
der Karfreitag – Good Friday
der Ostermontag – Easter Monday
der erste Mai (1.Mai) – May Day
die Christi Himmelfahrt – Ascension Day (is generally used without the article)
der Pfingstmontag – Whit Monday
der Fronleichnam – Corpus Christi
die Mariä Himmelfahrt – Assumption of Mary (although Mariä is spelled with an ä you pronounce it ‘Maria’)
der Tag der Deutschen Einheit – German Unification Day
der Reformationstag – Reformation Day
das Allerheiligen – All Saints’ Day
der Buß- und Bettag – Day of Prayer and Repentance
der erste Weihnachtsfeiertag – Christmas Day
der zweite Weihnachtsfeiertag – day after Christmas
