On Saturday we had a Street Display as well and it was great! We gave away tons of Joy to the World DVDs and about 60 Books of Mormon, so it was great just to be spreading the glad tidings of Jesus Christ to everyone.
I thought I would let people know a little bit about what's going on here this season since people have asked.Just before the Christmas devotional we're doing a fireside where families talk about their traditions, so I'll know more about that next week, but right now what I know is that there are actually two Christmases in Germany, and Also there's ...different names... or altogether different people for Christmas.
Evangelisch is Das Weihnachtskind (Christmas Baby), Katolisch is St. Nikolaus, and Neutral is Der Weihnachtsman (Christmas Man), so far as I understand...
The big day in Germany is the 24th, not the 25th. And there's like a mini Christmas every Sunday in December leading up to Christmas, those are called the Advents. This past week, the kids put their boots out over night and then Nikolaus fills them with goodies. Every Advent another Candle is lit, so there's 4 or 5 total. That's also where Advent Calenders come from, they're everywhere here. Also with the Candles there's some kind of German pinwheel that goes on top and the fumes make the pinwheel spin. I'm not sure how that works, but there's a huge one in the middle of the city about as tall as a house. There's also huge Christmas trees all around the city center, and also there's the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). There's different kinds of special foods and gifts that are sold there, but this is the first day we'll be taking time to actually explore the Weihnachtsmarkt, so I'll let you know about that next week as well!
~Elder Standring
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