Friday, December 7, 2012

The Friday Five

The translation of the Nikolaus' poem

1. Advent, Advent. A little light burns

2. First one, than two, than three, than four (counting the candles on an Advent wreath)

3. Then stands the Christkind at the door.

4. The Christkind, an angelic figure usually with blonde, curly hair, is the traditional gift bringer at Christmas in Germany.  Kris Kringle, is the Americanized pronunciation of the diminutive, Christkindl. Because Santa has been used as a marketing tool (a certain US soft drink company), The Christkind is in competition with the Weihnachtsmann as the gift bringer in Germany today. Weihnacht is the German word for Christmas. Mann is translated as man. Weihnachtsmann is equivalent to the US Santa Claus.

5. And the last line of the poem: If the fifth candle burns, then you have slept through Christmas.

Do you do anything to count the days or weeks leading up to Christmas?

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for the translation!
    When I was little, my father would tie knots into a gold cord (the kind used to wrap presents) and everyday I'd get to cut one off till Christmas Eve! (A poor man's advent calendar! LOL)

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  2. I have a little Advent verse reading card in my Bible. It has a verse for every day. :-)

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  3. last week the advent candle was for hope and this week it was for peace..then next sunday is christingle where they turn all the lights off in church and all the children get an orange with a candle in it and sweets on it..love the build up to Christmas

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