Articles and Stories

November 28, 2016

With Thanksgiving behind us, the focus now turns to Christmas. Besides rushing to be the first to snap up the best deals on sales items for Christmas presents, people start decorating their houses inside and outside and putting up Christmas trees.

In Germany, the Christmas season officially starts with the first day of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. This year the first day of Advent falls on November 27.

The tradition is to have a Christmas wreath with four candles. On the first Advent, you light only one candle and every following Sunday you light an additional one, until all four are lit.

The city of Ludwigsburg took this German tradition to a whole new level.

In front of the Baroque palace, which is one of the largest ones in Europe, a wreath with a diameter of over 130 ft. adorns the annual Christmas market. The four candles on the wreath have a height of just over 19 ft. each.

The construction of the wreath was financed by donations of hay, fir and, of course, money through the TV show called "Herzenssache”, which means “matter of the heart”. This TV show raises money to help children in need. As a ‘Thank You’ for donating money, a read heart with the donor’s name on it is added to the wreath. The wreath is also to bring awareness to the many services of the forestry in Germany.

The wreath will remain until December 19.

Here is a short video in German showing the wreath:
https://www.msn.com/de-de/video/nachrichten/deutschlands-gr%C3%B6%C3%9Fter-adventskranz-in-ludwigsburg/vi-AAkJDPs