A little cultural treat

In my native town, there used to be a carnival procession until the 50's.

I must have been 3 or 4 years old, when I was very impressed that they did this procession just for me: it was my birthday that year on 'Rosenmontag'. :wink:


Well, since the 60's, they started a different thing:

my native town is known for having burnt witches ("Hexen Geseke" = 'Witch Geseke')


Former gunpowder tower, which became the witches prison

On 'dirty Thursday" (which is called "Weiberfastnacht" in our region) the witches take the rule of the town in their hands



(Outsite carneval times, these women are doing a lot of local charity and activities especially for seniors.)

Haha, that website of the BBC is great

Thank you Water for sharing. I miss Carneval - Mardi
Gras is not the same.

In Vienna we have Fasching.
There are a lot of balls during this time. From private houseballs to the Opera Ball. You can choose from more than 200 balls this season.
Or you visit a G'schnass- a costume ball or a Redoute- only the ladies are wearing masks hiding their faces. At Midnight these masks are taken off and everyone dances the Quadrille.
When the balls end- between 2 am or 5 am ( the larger ones) you go to have breakfast in one of the Coffeehouses.
Too bad that the ball season is so short this year.

Thanks Walter and Ul.

I'm learning so much from you here.

Sorry Walter. Didn't see this until now. You're right, I was wrong. Edelweiss aren't Antennaria. Antenneria, like Leontopodiums, are also members of the Asteraceae family. The reason I mentioned the Pussy-toes, which are a wonderful little alpine plant, though surely not as wonderful as the well-known Edelweiss, is because of this website, which calls them the closest relatives in North America:

http://www.edelweissgrowers.com/page2.html

I'd thought, we could revive this thread.
(Or recyle some of those interesting responses at least )



Carnival - celebrations, dances and drink from started on November 11 from 11:11 am onwards.


But the christmas market in the town begins on December, 1 - with an ice-skating circle as centered feature this year.

All over the places (very popular for that: castles) we already had various small markets for crafted and 'homemade' christmas and seasonal articles of all variations.

This is a wonderful thread. I don't have anything to contribute, but do look in now and again.

That's why I though to bring it up again :wink:

The 1712 proclamation establishing the first Fiesta de Santa Fe (New Mexico), was signed by Governor Marquez de La Peñuela. The document specified a mass, vespers, and a sermon, thus setting the religious tone still characterizing modern fiestas. La Conquistadora is among the most venerated Marian figures in the world. She was crowned in 1954 by Cardinal Francis Spellman and again in 1960 by an apostolic representative of Pope John XXIII. Her golden crown is studded with precious stones, including a three-carat diamond. Her extensive wardrobe includes an exquisite lace mantilla from Sevilla Spain and an elaborate costume fashioned from ancient French vestments found in the old Cathedral museum. They appear to be of the secular and American periods of Bishop Lamy's clergy.

This online exhibition traces the history of the celebration of Christmas in the U.S. from 1840 through 2000. Includes an essay and an image of a decorated tree to represent each decade. From the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum.

cultural treat
...FORT HENRY NATIONAL SITE...- just across the cataraqui river from kingston - will be serving christmas dinner starting december 1.
the fort will be decorated in 1830's style and servers will be wearing appropriate historical oufits.

cultural treat
...UPPER CANADA VILLAGE...- about a two hour drive east of kingston - starts its annual " alight at night " festival on december 1.
upper canada village was created when parts of the st. lawrence river valley were flooded to create the locks for the st. lawrence seaway. quite a few villages were lost in the process . before starting the flooding, many buildings were removed and rebuilt to create what has now become "upper canada village" - well worth a visit for anyone coming to this part of eastern canada or upper new york state.

A regional museum close to us, the Museum Heimathaus Münsterland und Krippenmuseum shows these days not only their usual exhibtion about native sets (65th this year!) ...

... but also a special exhibition about the history of the christmas tree

Ah, here is the nice Advent thread from last year. Good
idea Walter, we should continue this year.

My mother still has all the christmas ornaments (just like the
ones above) from way back when. Brings back fond memories.
This year, I've got it made though, as she (mother) will be here with
us for christmas and bake us her delicious "Weihnachtsplaetzchen".

on one of our trips back to hamburg my parents gave us one of the old christmas bells made of paper-thin glass. it survived the trip to canada and mrs h puts it up every year on our small tree .
btw i believe many of those ornaments were made in the "erzgebirge" , weren't they ?
had some "baumkuchen-spitzen" and dutch "speculaas" for tea this afternoon.
it's white outside , we had about 10-15 cm of the fluffy stuff over the last couple days - it does look like christmas. hbg

Farolitos around the bandstand in Old Town, Albuquerque

The Stollen are baked and are now resting until Christmas. The next baking day will be on the 8th.

Walter, nice ornaments. We still have those. I would like the candleholders.

Diane, that's pretty.

Well, some parts here got more snow than ever - parts of the autobahn were closed for hours, and 250,000 were without electricity (masts broke like matches).

Our place, however, was just cold and stormy, but no snow at all.

ah, ul has the stollen ready. perhaps it's time to go to vienna for a tasting . austrian airlines is offering return trips toronto-vienna for can $ 558 !