1st of December 2019

I took the above pictures this morning. Today is Sunday, the 1st of December, which is the First Sunday of Advent for 2019.

I would prefer to have an ‘Adventskranz’ made of fresh fir-tree branches. But I am proud that I kept this Adventskranz that we have had for many years.

Recently I reblogged something I wrote about the German customs of having an Adventskranz:

“At this time of the year memories keep coming back about how we celebrated the Advents Sundays during the late 1930s and early 1940s. During those years we always had an ‘Adventskranz’ with four, thick, usually red, candles. On each Advent Sunday one more candle would be lighted. The ‘Kranz’ was made up of fresh fir-tree branches. When we sat down with one, two, three or four candles lit, my little brother and I would be allowed to do some ‘kokeln’, but of course always under supervision by Mum. ‘Kokeln’ would mean that Mum gave us a beautiful fresh twig of the fir-tree branches to hold over a burning candle. This made a fantastic smell. Oh, how we loved this smell. I could tell, Mum loved it too. This quickly brought us into the mood to sing some Christmas songs.”