Second Sunday in Advent--Strieselmarkt on the Altmarkt

The Friday afternoon Thanksgiving, instead of going to the archive, I went to the foreign office to hand in the rest of my paperwork for my temporary residency permit. Because it was also the Friday before the first Sunday in Advent, the biggest and oldest of Dresden's Christmas markets had opened, so I wandered around, ogling the merchandise, enjoying the piped music festival atmosphere, and taking photographs. This is the 576th Striezelmarkt, stretching back continuously to 1434 (claims their website) In my opinion, the Christkindlmarkt in Salzburg was pretty, with its identical green wooden sheds and Christmas lights. But the Dresden market wins hands down, for its decorated stalls (my photos on Flickr).

In the rest of Germany, Striezel (or Hefestriezel) is a braided sweet bread godparents give children on All Saints‘ Day. In Dresden a local variation is called Stollen and is eaten during Advent. A German recently told me you have to start baking Stollen in August or September—the latest in October—so it can age well. When I told him I was planning to bake a loaf for my church group in a few weeks, and without the rum, he was aghast. ; Without the rum, it wouldn’t taste like anything, he warned me, because actually Stollen isn’t very good! But I guess they bake and eat it anyway, because it’s traditional. Sounds like the German version of fruitcake!

Another big draw of the  Strieszelmarkt is Erzgebirgische wooden handicrafts. The Erzgebirge is a mountainous region of Saxony on the border with the Czech Republic known for mining and woodworking. At the entrance to the market is an enormous Weihnachtsbogen (or Schwibbogen), a common window decoration in Germany which looks sort of like a menorah. The basic idea is an arch (Bogen) with candles on top and figures or cut-out scenes underneath. One of my photos on Flickr shows a detail of this Bogen: three singers in old-fashioned black robes; they are usually accompanied by a fourth carrying a star lantern on a pole. These are Kurrende, Ergebirgische Christmas carolers, as one of the vendors explained to me. At 13.5 m/44.28 ft wide, this Weihnachtsbogen is in the Guiness Book of World Records (since 2009) and serves as an observation platform to look out over the whole market.

There is also the world's largest wooden Weihnachtspyramide (a Christmas pyramid 14 m/46 ft tall), another common German decoration that has a particular Erzgebirgische form: the Flügelräder (fan wheel). The traditional pyramid has several horizontal platforms with figures and candles, whose warm air wafts upward to turn the helicopter blades at the top. (Sadly, Weihnachtspyramide are like penguins: flightless.) We always had a bigger or smaller metal version as the centerpiece for Christmas dinner, one with clappers dangling from the fan wheel to hit little bells; during the meal we invariably ended up rotating the blades with our fingers because the longer the candles burned, the shorter they got, thereby depriving the contraption of its energy source. Serious design flaw there, unless one cannot stand the constant "ping, ping" of the bells!

Supposedly there is also the world's biggest Nussknacker (nutcracker) at the Striezelmarkt, but somehow I missed it.  In addition to the wooden handicrafts, one can buy Christmas ornaments and other decorations, socks, wooden toys and games, glass artwork, candy, hot beverages and snacks, felt hats, candles, and paper or plastic stars that light up.  I am writing a separate post about Christmas market food and drinks, so the last thing I'll tell you about in this post is the Moravian stars that are so popular here.

Lots of homes and businesses have 26-point star-shaped lanterns hanging from their doors and balconies that remind me of one of my favorite Christmas tree decorations, my mother's white paper Moravian stars.   Since I am so curious about local culture and traditions, when I ran across a booth at the Striezelmarkt with a sign saying "Leipziger Sterne," I ventured to ask the proprietress if the star lanterns I had seen came from Leipzig. No, she said, all the lanterns I'd seen were the original design, sold by their competition, Herrnhuter! But weren't hers also nice?   In the early 18th century, Old Moravian church members founded the town of Hernnhut in Oberlausitz, Saxony.  In the mid-19th century, a mathematics teacher at one of their boarding schools came up with a paper folding/pasting craft as a lesson plan for students missing Christmas with their families that quickly became a first Sunday in Advent tradition for Germans wherever Moravian missionaries went.  In addition to the original paper lanterns, which come in various sizes, there are also plastic ones that can be hung outside.  Wikipedia tells me these 26-point stars are properly called great stellated rhombicuboctahedrons, and that my mother's Moravian stars should be called Froebel stars, after a different German who invented them!