Heiliwog - The twenty-third door

Let's go and get some water, shall we? Not just any water, however. Holy water or how it is called in the town of Endingen in Germany's Black Forest "heiliwog".

I heard the tale goes like this.
A girl's mother was very sick. At night the girl had a dream and a voice told her to go to one of the town's fountains at midnight on Christmas Eve and fill her jug with the running water, but only during the twelve chimes of the church clock because then the water would turn into holy water.
The girl did what had been told her and when her mother drank the water, she regained her health.

This custom is still alive today, people gather at the fountains on Christmas Eve after church to fetch their "heiliwog" during the twelve chimes.
The first sip is taken right away, wishes for a merry Christmas are exchanged, the rest of the water is taken home.
At home, this blessing is spoken in dialect "Heiliwog, Gottes Gob, Glick ins Hüs, Unglick nüss!" which means "Heiliwog, God's gift, luck into the house, misfortune out!"

I couldn't find out how old exactly this custom is, but it says very, very old and you can imagine it is. Isn't it lovely how these customs keep on living?

Sources:
SWR documentary "Weihnachten auf dem Land - Erinnerungen aus dem Südwesten" (Christmas in the countryside - Memories from the Southwest)
Schwarzwald aktuell - "G'schichtle 111: Endingen: An Heiligabend wird's Wasser heilig" (Little story 111: Endingen: On Christmas Eve, the water becomes holy)

The Christmas four-part mini series - The sixteenth door

When I was a child, we were always looking forward to the time before Christmas and the legendary "Weihnachtsvierteiler" (Christmas four-parters) or, how they were called officially, "Abenteuervierteiler" (adventure four-parters).
They were 16 mini series produced between 1964 and 1983. German producer Walter Ulbrich had the idea for the ZDF (one of our TV channels at the time) series and also to get French producers on board, so they could tackle classic adventure stories in a more detailed way than movies.

In Germany, we only had three TV channels at the time which didn't broadcast around the clock, so TV was still special (and of course black and white for a long time). The four-parters were a highlight of the year. Can you imagine us kids waiting impatiently for the next part of Robinson Crusoe (the first one), Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (those two are my favorites), The Leatherstocking Tales and more?
The first ones had a narrator which allowed to explain some things further or quote from the original novels, but over time this was seen as old-fashioned. I actually liked it.

Retro is popular and so are the four-parters, some more than others (because, let's be honest, some are better than others), and they are still available on DVD and sometimes for streaming via the ZDF media library.
I still watch Treasure Island regularly, it's definitely part of that childhood Christmas feeling although a tropical island admittedly doesn't seem to be very Christmassy.



Do you have a personal Christmas TV tradition?

The eleventh door - Pickle, anyone?

I wrote about this last year on our guild blog, but I just can't get over it, so I'll tell the story once again here.
On Christmas Eve a long time ago I got a big parcel from the tall guy. I dug deeper and deeper, through the paper, if I remember right there was also a stone in there, and then I found it - a plane ticket to the USA. I think I jumped around like a rubber ball. Then I saw the date for the flight there - the 28th of December?? I had to work the week after the holidays! The tall guy calmed me down. My boss came home from his family a day earlier to take over and they had already filled out my vacation request. I still have to swallow when I think of it, that was so lovely!

Once I had arrived in the USA, my friend took me to visit one of her friends. She had a beautiful house and a huge Christmas tree and there it was hanging in all innocence - a glass pickle. I thought that was very funny and asked her where she found that.


Just imagine my surprise when she told me that the Christmas pickle was a German tradition! And there I always thought I was German and still had never heard about that anywhere. Not in my family, not from any of my friends.
Obviously the pickle is hung into the tree in a hidden spot and the child who spots it first, gets a small extra gift. Oooookay. A nice idea, but I still insisted I had never heard of it in Germany.

It seems no one can actually tell how the Christmas pickle and its story were born, but it is produced in Germany now.
Maybe one of you can bring light into that sour darkness? ;-)

3rd of October

In honor of today's holiday, the Day of Reunification, I made this treasury. Although it's called German talent, this is not quite true. It is not that easy to find German artisans on Etsy, it seems! So some of the ones featured here are Americans, Australians and I don't know what that are living in Germany :-)
I am absolutely in love with the voodoo doll and the bunny. Is that a sign I am getting ready for Halloween?
Which reminds me, why are the bat garlands I ordered for to hang up at work not here yet?