November always seems a sad month in Germany. One reason is the weather. Although November days can be absolutely beautiful, especially when the sun is shining and you can see the trees with all their colourful leaves. But often it’s just wet or damp or foggy. Then there are several church/ public holidays, seven, in … Read more
In two day’s time it will be Ash Wednesday (Aschermittwoch in German) and unlike in the UK where everybody eats pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, the Germans don’t use off their eggs, flour and fat, they use off their energy and let their hair down one last time before Lent. Today is what the Germans call … Read more
A few years ago I wrote about St Martin and the German tradition of going round with lanterns singing St Martin songs: Ich geh’ mit meiner Laterne Today, again on the 11th November, I’d like to continue with lanterns. First a little vocab, some words you don’t see often in your textbooks die Laterne – … Read more
Learn some German Christmas vocabulary and practise your German reading skills with this text. Then try the quiz to see how much you understood. Weihnachten in Deutschland Am 1. Dezember beginnt die Adventszeit. Die Kinder bekommen einen Adventskalender und öffnen vom 1. bis zum 24. Dezember jeden Tag ein Türchen. Vielleicht sehen sie ein schönes … Read more
Does your German learning take a back burner during Advent because you’re too busy with other things? Why not learn some German while doing all those tasks? You want to make an Advent calendar? Check out these German sites for ideas: Adventskalender selber machen – mehr als 60 Anleitungen Adventskalender basteln Adventskalender You want to … Read more
Today is Heiligabend, Christmas Eve, the day when the Germans open their Christmas presents. Traditionally, before the Bescherung, the giving of the presents, children would sing or play a song or recite a poem. And I’m pleased to hear that in many families that tradition continues. So I here are five of the most popular … Read more
This month Germany is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s reformation. Reformation Day is on the 31st October, the day, when in 1517 Luther nailed 95 theses onto the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. If you want to read them, they can be found here in German and here in English, but in … Read more
Edit: dates for 2024 – Muttertag 11/05, Vatertag 09/05. Muttertag Since moving to the UK there have been a few occasions where I bought a Mother’s Day card for my mum, but then didn’t send it because I couldn’t find it. Why? In the UK Mother’s Day, or Mothering Sunday, as it’s officially known, is … Read more
Today’s blog post is the Christmas story, read by me from the Luther Bible, Luke 2, verses 1 – 19, in German, of course! You can either just listen to me as I read the story, or you can click on the ‘subtitles/ close captions’ button and read the text as well. If you want … Read more
Here we are again, it’s the first of December – time for an Advent Calendar! Did you buy one for yourself? With chocolate? I have ☺ But how about an Advent calendar for learning German? I found a few which are designed for German learners: Der literarische Adventskalender Hueber Adventskalender here you can even win useful prizes, as … Read more
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