In Germany, Christmas is not just a day on December 25, but a month-long holiday, and if you count the New Year's holiday, it is a super holiday of up to 6 weeks.

Before the Papal States in the Middle Ages, the Christmas holiday in Germany began six weeks before Christmas, and when Pope Gregory I came to power, he announced that the six-week pre-Christmas holiday would be reduced to four weeks, and Germany became four weeks without exception.

Of course, four weeks in advance is just an official or church rule, but in practice, the Christmas market in Germany actually opens five weeks before Christmas, that is, on the Monday between November 20 and 26 every year.

The reason for choosing Monday is that every year between November 19 and 25, Sunday is an important day for Protestants and Catholics in Germany to commemorate the deceased, which is called Totensonntag or Ewigkeitssonntag by Christians. At the same time, the Christmas season (Weihnachtszeit) in Germany officially began.

The Christmas market begins in the first five weeks, and the official Christmas holidays start in the first four weeks, from the first four Sundays to the last Sunday before Christmas, which is collectively known as Advent in Germany.

During Christmas, in order to reflect the festive atmosphere and the ritual of approaching the most important day of the year in Germany, every German family lights an enlarged candle (red, white, black, whatever you want) in the Adventskranz (red, white, black, as long as it is not mixed together).

At this time, Joey discovers that unlike the first Christmas in his previous life, the nineteenth-century Advent wreath has 24 candles, representing one lit each day from December 1 to 24.

Instead of putting 4 large candles in the wreath of Advent like in his previous life, each candle represents a Sunday, and a candle is lit every Sunday.

The second difference is that the Advent wreath is carved from beech wood instead of the branches of fir trees.

Of course, Joey didn't know that these two changes in his previous life stemmed from the hardships and pains left by the German people after a four-year war, and the poor Germans lit 24 candles and used a beech plank to become a waste of luxury.

In any case, in Germany, as long as you see 24 or 4 candles lit at the same time, it means that Christmas is really coming.

Unlike the third Christmas in Joey's previous life, the Christmas in the 19th century was more religious, and every Sunday during this period, whenever a candle was lit, Crown Prince Frederick's entire family would gather together and sing the Christmas Advent song, which was not as casual as Joey's previous life.

Today, Joey represents the whole family, the German handmade candle lit for the advent wreath is actually the high-end brand EIKA of the German candle industry that he was familiar with in his previous life, think about his own restaurant, his mother and sister's bedroom, in the bathroom of the palace, those all kinds of dining, bathing, aromatherapy and so on EIKA candles, Joey is sure that this German time-honored brand that has been in business for more than 50 years can continue to operate smoothly for another 150 years.

The Germans are probably the most beloved candle nation in the world.

In addition to lighting candles in the Advent wreath, there is another thing that German children love very much, called the Adventskalender, which is a calendar that simulates the wall of a house, and the calendar is marked with 25 Roman numerals, representing the days from December 1st to December 25th, of which December 1st to 24th are 24 small doors that can be opened.

Behind each small door is a piece of chocolate, in the shape of a candle, a Christmas bell, etc., each of which is related to a festive item during the Christmas season.

Children open a door every day to enjoy the sweetness of chocolate, which also means that Christmas is getting closer and closer.

According to the tradition of the Frederick family, the children had an advent calendar made by Crown Prince Frederick, starting with Princess Victoria and one each for Joy, Princess Alice and Princess Fiodora.

In the past days when Crown Prince Frederick was at home, the advent calendar of Christmas every year was made by the crown prince himself, but what Joey didn't expect was that this year his father was back at the center of power, and in such a busy work, he actually made an advent calendar for the underage children in the womb, which was the fourth difference that Joey felt.

But Joey loved this fourth difference, and he was really happier to take the advent calendar he made from his father than to buy it from the store.

In addition to the advent calendar above, the children are particularly fond of a small object called the Räuchermännchen, which is a wooden figure that can be divided into two parts, put a lit incense in the middle, and after closing the villain, the faint green smoke will be spit out of the mouth of the wooden figure, and the wooden figure can be made into any image that the children like.

William and Heinrich told Joey that in the gifts under the Christmas tree of the Imperial Palace, they specially wrapped two fragrant figures for Joey, one for the Prussian Army and the other for the Prussian Navy, and the second sister, Princess Charlotte, told Joey that she had made a Junker noble-looking fragrant villain for Joey, and everyone hoped that Joey could get them in the game on Christmas night.

When you spend Christmas in Germany, you can't fail to mention Christmas markets that are at least 600 years old and only have them in Germany (of course, with the continuous immigration of Germans, Christmas markets also appear in many European countries, but these Christmas markets are also called German markets).

The closest Christmas market to the palace is the Gendarmenmarkt, which according to German tradition must have three iconic buildings: the Karussell, the Riesenrad and the Weihnachtsbaum.

A large five-storey wooden tree is set up in the middle of the market, with pictures of Bible stories such as the birth of Jesus and the annunciation of angels, and a windmill at the top of the tree, which is the most important landmark of the market.

The merry-go-round is a children's paradise, the Ferris wheel is a paradise for young couples, and Crown Prince Frederick's family is having fun at the Christmas market on Gendarmenmarkt on Christmas Day.

In addition to having fun, there are many Christmas items to be purchased in the Christmas market, and the first place on the purchase list of Crown Prince Frederick's family is the Christmas star (Weihnachtssterne), the Christmas star in the German population is not a star model, but a plant, the British like to call it poinsettia, and the Germans like to call it the Christmas star.

This is a leafy plant, at the beginning of December, it has only one or two red leaves on the top, as Christmas approaches, the red leaves of the leafy plant will become more and more red, and by Christmas Day, all its leaves will turn red, symbolizing that the Germans will be prosperous next year.

The second place in the purchase list is all kinds of Christmas gifts, and books (Bücher) are always the first Christmas gifts, and the Germans have an interesting statistic, in Germany, books are always the first gift, up to 51% of all gifts.

The second is naturally toys, and the best gift for your children, relatives and friends is toys, and then pocket money with a face value of up to 10 marks.

Of course, cosmetics such as perfumes and jewelry, which are popular with the women in the family, are also necessary purchases.

Finally, of course, there are all kinds of practical Christmas gifts, such as pots and pans, or a box of chocolates, a bottle of red wine, or even a mold for baking cookies.

In addition to having fun and shopping for gifts, the rest and most important thing in the Christmas market is to eat and drink, and because of this, during the Christmas season, whenever Joey shouts to go to the Gendarmenmarkt Square, there are many followers.

Food ..... at the Christmas market A variety of grilled and boiled sausages (wurst), served with tomato sauce and senf, sandwiched in small white bread, don't say much about the taste. If you're a meat eater, you can also get kotellet and suckling pig (roast suckling), and if you're feeling a little greasy, try Sauerkraut.

Adults over the age of 16 pour themselves a glass of white or red wine, spices and honey to make mulled wine (Glühwein), or Grog and Punsch (both rum-based hot drinks), children drink a hot drink (Kinderpunsch) made of honey, juice and spices, and ladies and ladies favourite is Eierpunsch (egg liqueur).

It's not to mention how beautiful it feels to eat a bite of meat and a sip of mulled wine/hot drinks in the cold December of Germany.

Meat and wine don't end the culinary journey at the Christmas market, such as roasted chestnuts (Geröstete Maronen), fried almonds (Gebrannte Mandeln), potato cakes (Reibekuchen), gingerbread (Lebkuchen), Stollen cakes (Stolen) and Glasierte Aepfel (sugar apples).

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Nine months ago, the terrorists of the Green Church sent themselves into the world from the Christmas market in Bradset, Berlin, and looking at the bustling and happy crowds on Gendarmenmarkt, Joey vowed that according to the Bible, Jesus would teach all Christians a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye!