The beginning of the Christmas season is marked by the opening of Weihnachtsmarkts, or Christmas markets in almost every town and village in the country, especially in the Erzegebirge region. Here in Hof it is not so grand but we went with the Merkels to Annaberg for a meeting of a business group Brother Merkels belongs to, the BYU Management Society. First we attended the Christmas market and heard the Annaberg ward choir sing in the rain and snow. Annaberg is in the Erzegebirge or Ore Mountain region where a lot of the German traditions have their origin. You can see the Christmas pyramid in the market and the booths with all the figures, nutcrackers and lace.
Another thing we really like from this Eastern Germany region are the Swipbogens in all the windows. They do not decorate the outside like we do but every window has the lighted bow. The symbol originally came from the arch where minors would hang their lanterns when they returned from underground. When all the lamps were lit it meant everyone had returned safely. The symbol evolved into a lighted arch with figures underneath, often of a minor and an angel but we have seen many variations of this form.
Later we went to the meeting which was a tour of a factory owned by members. The factory makes high end hand made jewelry boxes and sells them world wide. Several of the attendees were people we knew from our first mission over here so it was very nice to renew acquaintances.
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| Br. Sacher pointing, his dad next and Sister Sacher looking at the box. |
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