Ever since the region Erzgebirge is a synonym for fantastic craftmanship in creating wooden Christmas related decoration stuff.
Three years ago I was visiting Seiffen. This town is considered to be the capital of Christmas decorations.
Take care!
Tag: Seiffen
Visiting the craftsmen in their workshops
During my latest trip, I also visited a few wood-carver workshops and manufacturer production halls as well as their showrooms or shops.
It’s so amazing, what fantastic and filigree things these people are able to create from wood.
I really recommend, visiting the open workshops or the craftsmen in their workshops to look, how they create their products. Then you’ll understand why the prices are so high. Everything is hand-made. Even the manufactories have a high percentage of hand-made tasks. And it’s stunning to see their artistry. In Seiffen you can find at least two big manufactories with enough room for a group of visitors. The craftsmen’s workshops are tiny and don’t have room for more than one or two visitors. The young lady in the image above shows her skills on the Christmas market in Anaberg-Buchholz. Some more images are in the gallery below.
Enjoy and have a peaceful Advent time.
I’m back ….
This week I have some more images taken during my last trip. Because I’m currently extremely busy, I didn’t write much. Nevertheless, I included a collection of images taken at different Christmas Markets in the Erzgebirge region.
While Christmas Markets are very common in Germany, they are quite new in those states once forming the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). You know, as a result of World War II, Germany was parted in two independent countries. In the eastern part Christianity was suppressed by the communistic / socialistic dictatorship. But, after the reunion in 1990 people were free again and many formerly suppressed traditions awake. So, Christmas Markets became popular here, too. So, i.e. the Christmas Market in Seiffen was held for the 26th time this year. Thus, they started their Christmas Market right after the reunion.
A Christmas Market usually has many booths offering Christmas related decorations, candles and so on. You can also find booths offering food like bratwurst, grilled steaks or traditions winter food like Grünkohl (green cabbage), goulash or pea or lentil soup. Most popular are usually the beverage selling booths, where you can get i.e. Glühwein (a spiced, hot wine), Jagertee (a hot alcoholic drink from Austria), punch (similar to Glühwein, but often without alcohol), Lumumba, Grog (hot water with rum – common especially in the coastal areas).
Usually you can find a stage, where musicians, music bands or dancing groups perform. Often these are classes from local schools, private music schools, private ballet schools or private dancing schools.
Enjoy and have a peaceful Advent time.
I’m back ….
Those you you, following me on Instagram already know, where I was: I was in the Erzgebirge. The region has surprisingly (at least for me) the same name in English, so I translate the two parts for you: “Gebirge” means mountain range like the Alps, the Hindukusch or the Himalaya and “Erz” is the German word for ore. This region in Saxony borders to the Czech Republic. Several ores were found here and the mining tradition started very, very early: around 1100 a.c. They found amongst others silver, cobalt, nickel and tin.
Beside mining, the region is well known for their wood crafts. During winter, the people crafted statues. The oldest forms were a miner in parade uniform and a female shaped angle, representing their wife.
The big gallery below is a collection of images from the whole trip. We were based in a small town called Seiffen. In German the name is based on the word Seifenlagerstätte, which is called “placer deposit” in English. In geology, a placer deposit or placer is an accumulation of valuable minerals formed by gravity separation during sedimentary processes. Nowadays, there are no mining activities anymore. But, many of the traditions still exist, like parades of the miners in their traditional uniforms. (Some of the older men once were miners, but the younger men are only members of tradition clubs. These clubs want to keep the ancient customs and traditions alive.
Seiffen is well known for crafted wooden toys, candle pyramids, wooden nutcrackers and many other Christmas related things. You can find craftsmen workshops everywhere and you can visit many.
During Advent, you can find many, many Christmas Markets in the towns, just like in most of the other German towns, too. I’d recommend visiting the Christmas Market in Seiffen, Annaberg-Buchholz and Thum. They are fantastic. This is the region, where Christmas is at home 🙂
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