Frohe Weihnachten!

Wiesbaden's opera house

Many of Germany's Christmas traditions (like trees!) have been exported, but the solemn festivities here remain very special, and celebrated for 3 days. Christmas Eve is Heiligabend, the holy evening, and then the 25th and 26th are observed as the first and second days of Christmas. I am taking full advantage of this! I started Christmas Eve by baking breakfast rolls (Rosinen-Quarkbrötchen,) after which I headed off to help serve an all-comers brunch with the parish of St. Augustine's, the Episcopal church which I've been attending here. Another Ph.D. candidate from the congregation invited me for a coffee afterwards, and we had a very nice and relaxed time in a café in central Wiesbaden. I came home to be almost literally pulled into the kitchen by my landlord's sister, who is a) visiting and b) very nice. So I joined her and my landlord for Christmas cookies and carol singing, with the recorders which they break out once a year (!). After all this, I felt that a bit of a rest was called for before late-night services… and Carols from King's was streaming via the BBC. This was actually my first Christmas in an Anglican service, as I've always traveled home for the holidays, so I was excited to get all the glorious liturgy. As, for example:

O God, who makest us glad by the yearly remembrance of the birth of thy only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that as we joyfully receive him for our Redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him when he shall come to be our Judge; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen

Carol-singing started at 10:30, and by the time the service itself was ready to commence at 11:00, the pews were full to overflowing and the vicar had to make an announcement about sharing hymnbooks. To my very great delight, there was even frankincense! (I am a smells-and-bells aficionado, and St. Augustine's is "low" compared to my beloved home parish of St. James, and doesn't usually do incense. When I first noticed the familiar smell, I thought I was imagining things, or possibly being vouchsafed a vision, and/but was thrilled to discover that a thurifer was in fact the source.) A much-appreciated minor Christmas miracle was the fact that, with the help of a little hard pedaling, I was just able to catch the last train after the services were ended.

While I'm enjoying being among traditions new to me, I had made preparations for continuing my family's traditions for Christmas Day. It was reassuring to find that globalization has not succeeded in making the delicious smoked meat sold as "bacon" identical with what this American knows under that title… it fried up beautifully all the same, and paired well with scrambled eggs and fresh-squeezed orange juice. A service of morning prayer, with more carols and a good sermon, followed at St. Augustine's. I was then whisked off to coffee by one of the church ladies, and thus fortified, spent over an hour tooling around Wiesbaden on my bike, stopping to admire various churches, and exchanging "Frohe Weihnachten!" with various strangers. A long winter's nap at home fortified me for the evening: I took myself back to Wiesbaden to hear Hänsel und Gretel at the opera house. This was superlatively lovely, but my evening had an even better finish: getting a nice long Skype conversation with my parents and younger sister! The perfect prelude to a good night's sleep. Frohe Weihnachten!

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