Advent Calendar: December 16

December 16th and this Advent Calendar takes us to the small town of Prenzlau. Located in northeastern part of Brandenburg, the town has 18,900 inhabitants and is on the northern tip of Lake Ueckermark. Founded in the 7th Century, Prenzlau was one of many fortified town built with walls and moats, containing four parish churches and a monastery. Together with Berlin–Cölln, Frankfurt and Stendal, it ranked among the largest towns in the margraviate Brandenburg during the 13th Century. Although much of the town center was destroyed during World War II, it was rebuilt afterwards, partially with modern Communist buildings, yet the historic sites, like the monestary, and St. Mary’s Church were restored to their original form.

Prenzlau has one of the more well.known Christmas markets in Brandenburg with most of the small shops and stage located around St. Mary’s. This also includes the Christmas Tree, which one can see in this picture, taken of St. Nick by Prenzlau-City (its page is on Instagram). There, it depicts Santa bringing the tree home, yet the tree is much larger than you think. 😉

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And with that a surprise for you. I ran across a poem about the Snowman, written in German by Robert Reinick (1805- 1852) about the life of the Snowman on the Street. A song was later composed by the Nymphenburger Children’s Choir. The lyrics and the performance are both enclosed here for all to enjoy.

Poem:

Der Schneemann auf der Straße
trägt einen weißen Rock,
hat eine rote Nase
und einen dicken Stock.

Er rührt sich nicht vom Flecke,
auch wenn es stürmt und schneit.
Stumm steht er an der Ecke
zur kalten Winterszeit.

Doch tropft es von den Dächern
im ersten Sonnenschein,
da fängt er an zu laufen,
und niemand holt ihn ein.

Photo by Jill Wellington on Pexels.com

Happy Holidays!

Germany Enters Total Lockdown

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Pexels.com

BERLIN- What you see in the picture in Berlin at Brandenburg Gate is what we will expect for this holiday season: very few people, next to no cars, and absolutely positively no fireworks. Since midnight, the Bundesrepublik has been in total lockdown, putting the last nails in the coffin for 2020 and forcing families to reconsider holiday travel plans.

From now until January 10th, all non-essential shops will be shut down. Schools and Kindergartens are closed. The consumption of alcohol in public is banned. Family celebrations reduced to only five people and to the closest family members. On New Year’s there is no gathering of people in public and fireworks are completely a no-go. In some states there is a curfew starting at 10pm and ending at 5am. Details are found in German here and in English here. Residents are urged not to leave their homes unless it’s an absolute emergency. Travel, even during the holidays, is strongly discouraged.

At the time of this post, the number of new cases have averaged around 23,000 per day. In the last 24 hours, 27,728 new infections have been recorded, with as many as 952 new deaths, the latter having been a new record for the third time in the last five days. Neighboring European countries, such as the Netherlands, France and Austria have imposed similar measures to keep residents from going out in public. In Lithuania, residents are ordered to stay in their communities of residence until January 31.

While the lockdown will last through January 10th, most of the politicians have predicted it will be extended. The question is when? And with that, the Frage für das Forum:

Efforts are being made to make the first vaccine available by the beginning of next year, yet we will not know before Christmas if it will happen. Even if, priorities will have to be made as to who gets the shot first. The Files will keep you posted on the latest developments.

For now, stay safe and make use of the downtime during the holiday season. There’s a lot to think about, especially regarding finding ways to improve the environment and the current situation we are all in……