The first time I ever saw a hedgehog in the wild, I was riding home from a party at 2am with my cousin on a small road in Germany. We were tooling along, and suddenly he slowed, “Look, an Igel” and there, scampering along to road, a spiny little Hedgehog! I think I may have squealed. So, my dear cousin…
Author: karenanne
Sternsinger in Germany – Children helping Children with Song
Cover image Thomas Guffler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Sternsinger der Katholischen Propsteigemeinde “St. Peter und Paul” Dessau mit dem Oberbürgermeister von Dessau-Roßlau, Klemens Koschig, vor dem Rathaus In the days leading up to January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany, you might see groups of children dressed in robes and wearing crowns going house to house. One…
Rauhnächte- In Germany, it’s the Time Between the Years
My mother’s Oma refused to do laundry during the Twelve Days of Christmas. To me, this makes perfect sense. The Christmas Season is just so busy; who wants to do laundry? But the reason goes deeper, to the legends of the Rauhnacht. The Rauhnächte is the time between the years when old memories carry out traditions from pagan times in…
Weihnachts Kinderpunsch Recipe- Warm Christmas Drink for Kids
At Christmas Markets and in homes, you find Glühwein for the adults at Christmastime. (My mother always left a pot on the stove Christmas Eve, and we would enjoy it during the Bescherung, or gift exchange) With warm wine and aromatic spices, it’s such a cozy feeling to hold the mug and breathe in the delicious steam while sipping. But…
A German Feather Christmas Tree- Christmas Nostalgia
My friend Dale recently asked me if we ever set up a Federbaum or German Feather Christmas Tree in our home while I was growing up. No, my father was a nurseryman, and it was a point of pride to have a real Noble Fir standing in the corner of the living room (never a Douglas Fir; the ornaments don’t…
Easy German Cookbook: 80 Classic Recipes Made Simple
Easy German Cookbook was a labor of love. However, sharing German culture and food is what I do online, so this book is the next logical step. Between the covers, you’ll find 80 pages of food memories. These are the foods we ate at home, the foods we ate at festivals, and the foods we reserved for special occasions. Foods…
Simple German Bratapfel Recipe with different Variations
In my old German recipe book, there’s a Bratäpfel or Baked Apple Recipe. The ingredients are apples, nuts, raisins, cinnamon, and honey (and rum). The instructions are to carve the core out of the apple, fill it with the desired filling, and bake. That’s it. No details, no actual amounts. Even the bake time is vague… Bake until soft. I…
October 31st, Martin Luther, and the Protestant Reformation
Nine German states observe October 31, Reformation Day, as a public holiday – Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, , and Bremen. But what was the Protestant Reformation, and why is it celebrated? Growing up in the Lutheran Church, we heard the how Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to a church door, setting off the Protestant…
Why are there so MANY Different names for Germany?
Allemania, Niemcy, Vokietija, Tedesco, Tyskland, Germany, Deutschland…. Why are there so many different names for Germany? And these aren’t just names that are a translation of the word Deutschland; they are very different words with different etymologies (starting place of a word). Even the word Deutschland is relatively recent. The answer has a lot to do with Germany’s location.…
Gedeckter Apfelkuchen Recipe – Covered German Apple Cake
Like many other foods in Germany, you won’t find just one recipe for German Apple Cake. I now keep several different recipes in my back pocket because you never know; the apple cake must fit the occasion, after all! Apfelkuchen mit Streusel vom Blech (Apple Streusel cake in a Pan) for every day and Versunkener Apfelkuchen (sunken Apple Cake) is…