Posted on December 4th, 2009 by Retired-Ed in Daily Life

Well, it’s time once again. We have entered the time of year that I call “the drearies”. The three weeks on either side of the winter solstice can be a bit dreary here in the northern latitudes. My town sits just slightly above 50° North Latitude. That is further north than any point in the “lower 48″ of the United States. I’m not certain where reader Sue lives in Ontario, but I’ll bet that we are even farther north than her location. Why is latitude so important? Well, at this time of year, it gets dark rather early and stays dark for quite a while. As I write this, it will start to get dark around 4:15 and will stay dark until after 7:30 AM. However, as we near the solstice, it will start go get dark before 4:00 PM and will stay dark until after 8:00 AM. For people who have to go to work on a regular schedule, it means that you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. It can get depressing. Of course, the tradeoff comes in six months. In the three weeks or so on either side of the summer solstice, it stays light until after 10:30 at night. I have even tested this by trying to read a newspaper outdoors at 10:30. It can be done. It will get light around 4:15 AM. So the good comes with the bad. And winter isn’t all that bad.

For example, this weekend (December 6th, to be exact) is Sankt Nikolaustag or “St. Nicholas’ Day”. This is a big day for kids in Germany and some of the other European countries such as Austria and the Netherlands (although the name may be different, such as Sinter Klaas in the Netherlands). You can read all about it at the link provided. On the night before the big day, many German boys and girls will put their shoes out by the door or window and Sankt Nikolaus will fill them with presents during the night. It is a lot like the American tradition of Santa Claus on Christmas eve. Somehow, I think that the Santa Claus tradition has become universal, so I bet that German kids clean up twice, once on St. Nicholas Day and once on Christmas Day. They probably have a better union!

This is the Advent season in the Christian calendar, and that means that Christmas Markets abound throughout Germany and most of the rest of Europe. They are always a lot of fun, and there is lots of gemütlichkeit (I would translate that as “congeniality” or simply “good times”) to go around. You’ll always find plenty of wurst (sausages, especially bratwurst), pretzels, and warm mulled wine called “Glühwein”. In addition, there are many vendors occupying stalls who will be selling food, drink, and many types of consumer goods, such as sweaters, purses, belts, Christmas ornaments, wood carvings, kitchen gadgets, you name it.

Yesterday I went to our nearby city of Schweinfurt for their Schweinfurter Weihnachtsmarkt, which, as you have probably guessed, is the Schweinfurt Christmas Market. I hope to visit several other Christmas markets during the season and report on them here on the blog. I took quite a few pictures, and it has been a struggle to decide which ones to show you here. I hope I chose wisely. You can click on any image to enlarge it.

This guy is found all over the Marktplatz (marketplace) and announces the day’s schedule. You can also see some of the stalls.