Schöne Adventszeit

Above is the front page of this Sunday's edition of the FAZ (Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung.) That what is one of Germany's biggest and most prestigious papers features an Advent wreath and an article about exhaustive taste testing of Christmas cakes tells you that this season belongs on the long list of Things Germans Take Very Seriously. I absolutely love this. Train stations and shop windows are decked in fir garlands (and real fir garlands have appeared next to the fruits and vegetables on the weekly market.) As a member of a liturgical church tradition, I especially love that the observance of Advent, as a season separate from Christmas, is so culturally engrained over here. Acquaintances wish each other "eine schöne Adventszeit," "a good Advent-tide." A friend and I even got wished this by a sweet older lady whom we got to take this picture:

What's this, you ask, dear readers? A picture of me with another human being? Yes! The first weekend of Advent brought me a special treat, as Michelle, a fellow alumna of my memorable semester in Oxford, came to visit, was a good sport about the fact that we didn't have heat (!) on her first night, and also about me including discursive observations about Charlemagne in my tour-guiding around Mainz. In addition to exploring my adoptive city, Michelle and I went on Sunday to neighboring Wiesbaden, which was a wealthy spa town in the nineteenth century…

…as the interior of the spa house makes clear.

Fountain of mineral water (note the steam!)

We also admired Wiesbaden's Christmas market:

As evening drew on, festive duty called, for me, as my choir got a gig singing at Mainz's Christmas market. Note the ubiquity of Christmas markets. It was chilly, but everyone was good-humored, the audience was enthusiastic, and we were paid in hot drinks and Bratwurst.

Decorations radiating from a pillar on the cathedral square.
(You can just make out the cathedral behind it.)

It's a… two-story wooden carousel thing? YES. There's supposedly a German word for it (of course) but I've yet to find out what that is. When I was growing up, my family had a sideboard-sized one, as did my best friend's family. In these, of course, the candles are real, and cause the blades on top to turn, rotating the figures (usually of the Nativity scene, shepherds, angels, and journeying wise men.)  Seeing a giant one, for me, was a bit like the moment in the Nutcracker where the Christmas tree starts to grow. I'm looking forward to the rest of the Advent season here. I baked cookies for Nikolaustag, an undertaking enthusiastically celebrated by my housemates. Also, I'm attending the nearest Anglican church, so I'm getting all the liturgy I love so much. I miss being around friends and family, of course, but it's impossible to mope when basically everyone around you is really excited about Advent. And baked goods. Lots of baked goods.