Christmas (Weihnachten)
Christmas Traditions in Portland
I remember all of the church members (that could) walking to church and the dimming of the church lights when the congregation sang "Stille Nacht" on Christmas Eve echo our Christmas Eves. No church bands, though.
Our church had Christmas programs with memorized "pieces". Only we walked to church in those days. The majority of our church members lived only a few blocks away. It wasn't until the late 1940s when WWII was over and more cars available for transportation that the city walking lessened, even for a few blocks. There was a surge in Sunday School growth as more children were born. A lot of the old people died and their daughters learned to drive.
Way back, we kids in Sunday School memorized "pieces", a poem or a story, given out a month before, to recite in German or English in front of the always packed church. I don't think our Sunday School started "pageants" with costumes and different age singing groups until the 1950s. At the end of the program a red net stocking with the same contents as Rod described - orange, apple, hard candy - was given to each Sunday School child. Later, one generous member donated a box of chocolates for each member of the senior choir.
Until German was done away with in the church service, the Christmas hymns sung during the program alternated between English and German in my time. Later, when all was in English, I remember the Christmas Eve when a new minister having a flash of inspiration looking at the old people in the congregation announced we'd all sing, "Oh, du Froeliche, Oh du Selige.." (Excuse my garbled German.) There was the usual rustling as the congregation stood up, then, surprising the little kids, tears came to the eyes of the old people as they sang. Handkerchiefs suddenly appeared.
In Oregon you could obtain federal tree cutting permits. Just after WWII, several men in our family would get together on a December weekend and go up to a nearby mountain (federal land), chopping down one tree for each family. The last time they went, their borrowed truck got stuck almost irretrievably in the snow. When they finally were able to get out, there was a unanimous decision that each family could afford the $1 or $2 for a "boughten tree" from a neighborhood lot.
After Christmas Eve church service, we all gathered at a family member's home. Gifts were exchanged. When the family had increased, they changed to drawing names for gifts. A favorite recipe potluck meal was always included.
Christmas Day was another church service, but attended mostly by adults and few children.
Perhaps we city folk changed faster than people raised in the country. My family is widely scattered. The church building was eventually sold to another congregation and a new one for the church members built in the suburbs. We celebrate Christmas quietly many states and years away. Hopefully, churches somewhere still have the old Christmas traditions. But then, I think I'd miss those old people I still remember who started the first traditions in a new church in a country far away from where they were born.
Christmas Display at the home of John Giebelhouse at North Commercial Avenue at Shaver. John Giebelhouse was the 6th child of Henry and Sophia (nee Reispick) Giebelhouse. (Contributed by Marie Krieger)
Christmas, magic time for Germans from Russia
The Odessa Record, November 25, 1993
Marie Trupp Krieger, now a resident of Portland, grew up on an Odessa area farm and was graduated from Odessa High School and Washington State University. She is an occasional contributor of features to The Odessa Record. She originally wrote the following article in 1987 for a Christmas program of the Portland chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR).
Christmas! What a magic time it is! Christmas isn’t a day, it's a feeling you have inside you.
Well Christmas 60 years ago was celebrated pretty much the same as it is now. Candles were lit. Services honored the birth of the Christ Child. Families met around festive firesides. Gifts were sent and gifts were received, On Christmas Eve, you can choose your own mixture of expectation, tenderness, gaiety, adoration, remembering, loving kindness, exhaustion and peace.
Christmas! A children’s world. Precisely. To the very young, when posed the question: “Why do you love Christmastime?” The answer would be, “Just because.” Another child’s remarks might include thoughts such as looking forward to receiving a new toy or game. Yet still, an older child loves the excitement of the Christmas season, the planning for that special day, weeks in advance, like shopping for unique gifts and distinctive foods, assisting with the decorations in the home, wrapping presents and participation in the real meaning of Christmas, Christ's birth celebrated in the family’s church. To grownups, the singing of Christmas hymns and hearing the Christmas story glorifies all else in spite of the repetition.
It all dates back to Germany, where many of our ancestors’s originated. Let’s turn back the pages and we find that nation is at its best at Christmas. In Germany, virtually all of the Yuletide traditions emerged. The centerpiece is the Christmas market that goes under a variety of names. Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market), Lichterwochen (Light Weeks), Nikolausmarkt (St. Nicholas Fair) or Schistkindlsmarkt (Christ Child Market). More than two dozen German cities and many in Austria as well, have Christmas markets that are open for most of the month of December. These markets are actually open-air fairs specializing in Christmas decorations, food and presents. The Nuremberg market, closely tied to the Christmas industry centered there, is considered the best, dating back to 1697.
Besides the Austrian markets, the church and its services are the center of an Austrian rural scene depicting another phase of Christmas observances. Young and old respond to the peaceful solemnity of the early morning procession to attend church services. The deeply religious families of Austria find humble satisfaction in an observance of Christmas, which shifts the emphasis from workaday materialism to spiritual realities. In private devotions as well as in public worship, in domestic as well as religious celebrations, there is room for meditation and contemplation on the true meaning of Christmas as the day God sent His Son to redeem the world.
At Christmas, Austria centers on musical events, such as the concert at Oberndorf, celebrated on the spot where the beloved Christmas carol, “Silent Night, Holy Night,” written for an Austrian village, was first sung on Christmas Eve more than 165 years ago. It was written by a priest and composed by a schoolteacher in 1818, a composition that was to become a Yuletide tradition throughout the Christian world. A shrine as a simple little church is perched on a tree-covered knoll in the heart of Oberndorf, a village just across the German border near Laufen. It is about a two-hour drive from Munich and 30 minutes from Salzburg. The priest, Josef Mohr had experienced a division in his church during the Napoleonic wars, in the 19th century, causing strife within families.
It was in such an atmosphere of discord and sorrow that Father Mohr wrote the poem, hoping to bring a measure of accord to his congregation. He consulted his good friend, Franz Gruber, who sat down at his piano after reading the inspired lines. As a storm raged outside, in less than an hour he composed the simple, yet deeply moving melody, and the beloved Christmas song was given to the world. It is credited with having something to do with revival of peace and quiet in the village. Little fame or credit came to Franz Gruber and Josef Mohr during their lifetimes. It was first sung in this country in Pennsylvania in 1871 and has since been translated into every language of Christian countries, and even into local African and other dialects. There, is a marble slab in Austria honoring the authors as, well as the gleaming white chapel, set amid green firs.
The preparations for Christmas in a Bavarian kitchen bring back nostalgic memories for everyone because the experiences are typical of every nationality and every home. Mother is the center of the activities, answering the endless questions of the youngest and directing the lagging helpfulness of the older children. Those who have the eyes and sentiments of childhood can grasp the message of warm symbolism disguised in the endless and often vexing external preparations, which usher in the holiday season. Christmas speaks to the heart as well as the head, for the heart can discern what often is hidden to the intellect. At midnight when the church bells ring on Christmas Eve, silence settles over the land as the people hasten to the Christmas service.
Oh, the everlasting wonder of the Tanenbaum! How the practice of cutting and decorating Christmas trees began is shrouded in the mists of myths. Most historians today tend to refer to the eighth century missionary, St. Boniface, who urged the Germanic Druids to give up their bloody, pagan rites in dark forests and instead carry fir trees into their homes at Yuletide. He is said to have pointed to a small evergreen and said: “This little tree, a young child of the forest, shall be called the tree of the Christ child; gather about it, not in the wild wood but in your own homes; there it will shelter no deed of blood, but loving gifts and rites of kindness.” Whether or not that actually is how the Christmas tree tradition began, it is a story worth repeating.
Our American Christmas is a happier one because of our traditional use of the Christmas tree, a symbol of the holy childhood we honor. Millions of trees adorn our homes, churches, schools and communities at Christmas, and when the star atop each one is lighted; the brilliant streamer of light ties our nation together in one bright bond. Wherever the Christmas tree is honored in the United States, at the entrance to the White House, in Rockefeller Center, in Denver, in Portland or in one’s own home, the tree will probably be a spruce or a fir. Whether a community tree, a snow encrusted sparking pyramid, or a brilliantly ornamented tree in the home, it will also be the Christ Child’s tree. And it will be as little children that we recall the warm glow of Christmas Past when the tree was selected for its place of honor.
It is written that candles shone from every window to light the Kristkind on her way from home to home. She was the messenger of the Infant Jesus, and Bavarian children believed that she brought them their gifts. She wore a white robe. She had golden wings. In her hand she carried a small Christmas tree and wore a crown.
Christmas Traditions
Written by Marie Krieger and published in The Odessa Record , November 25, 1993. This narrative was used at an AHSGR Oregon Chapter Christmas Program in Portland, in which youngsters were presented wearing traditional costumes.
It is the custom for German Russian children to be dressed with individuality during the holiday season. Despite its religious name, the Kristkind was not originally a Christian conception. Usually, the elder daughter or a neighbor girl played the part depicting a fairy. This tradition, native to the ancestral homeland on the Rhine since the middle of the 17th century, was most faithfully preserved in all the Catholic colonies of the Germans from Russia, and it was widely adopted by Lutheran communities. The Kristkind brought goodies to reward those children who had been good throughout the year. She sometimes carried a switch to impress the small children.
Our Kristkinchen today is on her way to greet you. Did you hear the ringing of her bell as she announces her presence? She is dressed in white with a veil to cover her face and hopes to find many good children . . .
Another personality related to the holiday season is known as "the Pelznickel." He looks for naughty children to stuff into his sack, and it's a big one. He rattles a chain, and that spells real trouble. Notice his fur coat, actually a horse's hide with the original hair tanned and constructed into a garment which dates back to 1915 and purchased by my uncle, Adam Libsack, in Odessa . . .
Many of our ancestors wore a coat of this type in addition to a fur cap and felt boots to resist the cold weather and snow. The felt boots are known as Filzstiefel. They were brought from Russia many years ago . . .
Everyone has a favorite memory of Christmas. I can't forget my first orange. I kept it hidden in the closet for months. The aroma was out of this world. Eventually it shriveled, but it lasted a long, long time . . .
Children’s Christmas Traditions
Written and presented by Marie Krieger at the 1984 AHSGR Oregon Chapter Christmas Program.
The Christmas season is designated as the highlight of the calendar year for our children's traditions. This afternoon we want to acquaint you with individualities dressed in holiday garb representative of the customs of our German-Russian children in Germany, Russia and America. Offspring are introduced to them at a very early age as parents speak of them in the disciplining of their sons and daughters; such as, “Be good, behave yourself” or the Christkind won't bring you any goodies for Christmas; or the Belznickel will come, stuff you into a gunny sack and carry you away. In America, it is said, “Santa will come to bring you presents if you are a ‘good’ boy or a ‘good’ girl.” This works especially well as the Christmas season draws near.
First, we'll have the Christkind who will appear as the fairy of glad tidings awaiting your performances and to welcome all of you to do your very best. It was customary in Russia for a young girl to be dressed in white, her face hidden by a veil and accompanied by a few boys and girls to go from house to house in search of all the good little children. It announced its arrival by appearing at the window and ringing a small bell. The greatly excited siblings were filled with the mixed emotion of joy and apprehension because she not only brought gifts and goodies, but also carried a switch for the youngsters who had been disobedient and naughty.
The second personality for you to welcome on this early specified holiday, the first Sunday of Advent, represents the Belznickel, a “Nickolas in Fur”. Notice his fur coat (actually a horse's hide with the original hair), a fur hat and felt boots. This is a borrowed article belonging to the Libsack family for 7? years already as, my Uncle purchased it in Odessa, Washington in 1915. In order to survive the harsh winters of long ago, men had to dress accordingly. The Filzstiefel were brought from Russia many years ago and used occasionally during that time for warmth and comfort; felt is a good insulator and water resistant material used before the manufacture of rubber for foot wear. The Belznickel carries a gunny sack and rattles his chain because he's looking for unruly children who don't respect or mind their parents. I really think he's going to be disappointed today because all of you have been on your best behavior but we'll wait and see what happens.
Finally, you are more accustomed to the character, Santa Claus , who will come after our program is over; he will distribute a brown bag containing an orange, candy and nuts' which is traditional. Just ask your parents and grandparents about Christmas Eve at their churches when they were little and received a brown bag; such goodies were rare but so appreciated.