the magic of december (or november moving on)

One of the things I love about Germany...(I bet you never thought I would start a sentence like that)...is the lack of Thanksgiving. Each year, I generally forget about T'giving while I am here. No ridiculous commericals with turkeys holding 'sale!' signs, no massive crowds at the supermarket with T'giving dinner items on sale, no displays filled with candlestick holders in the shape of pilgrims, none of it! My only indication that the holiday was upon us is that my work email is quiet with our US office getting two days off and my German colleagues proudly wished me a happy T'giving.

No, it has nothing to do with being a vegetarian that I loathe the holiday. Back in my younger days when I was a meat eater I could not stand turkey, hated it. Ate it once per year on this blessed holiday, and under duress. Eventually my mother switched to the 'T'giving ham' since she always overcooked the turkey anyway so it tasted awful to my parents during the five days of turkey leftovers extravaganza. Further, I am not so fond of shopping, so now I had to sit through a day where food was the highlight (Thurs) to a day when shopping is the highlight (Fri). Black Friday in the US is like a three day holiday weekend in Germany in the final hour before the Aldi closes. Then multiply that feeling by one hundred.

I consider this holiday to be a speed bump on the way to the 'real' December holidays of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. You are thinking, 'Heather, you cannot celebrate all three!' Of course you can, dear friend, if you are in the Philadelphia area. It was not until I left Philly that I realized 1. other cities don't have such holiday openness or equality, except maybe NYC and 2. those other cities are severely missing out on this one.

If you ever come to the Philly area in December and you are downtown near the Liberty Bell, you'll see a large life-sized Nativity scene, often with people and live animals instead of the usual plastic Kmart figures. Towering next to it on the same grassy patch is the giant Menorah with candles that light up the night with the number lit up depending on which night it is. All around the city you will see the same thing, Nativity scenes beside Menorahs. Top it all off with references around the city to Kwanzaa. Then, serve it up with periodic public displays by agnostics that eschew all religious holiday references. This same rich and multi-faceted conglomeration and mixture of cultures and beliefs is repeated and played out throughout the city in small neighborhoods.

Other cities may have bits and pieces of the above, but they never have it all brought together on the same ground with an equal right and expectation to be there so it always seems one-sided and lacking. When I lived in DC, Atlanta or San Francisco I had parts of the above, but not all of it so something always seemed missing and Deutschland is no different in this regard.

And this is one of the very few things that I truly miss about Philly.