Monthly Archives: Dezember 2014

Bye, bye 2014

It’s already time for this year to end and I decided to take a look back with the help of WordPress.com’s annual report.

The Posts

From what I already saw in May did the Fandom posts indeed became the most read ones.
The one about the Doctor Who 2048 game gained 1839 views in total and the Elevator Meme reached 380. Surprisingly two posts from 2013 made it into the top list as well and seem to still be of interest to some Googlers. 🙂
Does this now mean for me that I should write more Fandom posts to please my readers?
Well, I certainly will continue to write about some of it, but I’ll pick the topics that interest me most.
Other than that did I manage to write an incredible amount of posts in these past twelve months, though that is mostly thanks to the Weekend Guesses and my Advent Calendar with together a total of 69 posts.
I nearly managed to write my 200th post in this year as well, but I’m short 17 posts.

The Readers

Most interesting for me in this statistic was the fact that I had readers from 82 countries all across the world.
That is quite impressive to me and to think they all read what I’ve written here is also a tad scary.
Though regardless of this I still only got a few comments, most of them from DarkFairy and fruehstuecksflocke and mostly for the Guesses.
Interestingly I showed up amongst the top commenters on two other Blogs, namewise Pop goes the Culture and Weltenschmiede, where I had some quite interesting conversations.
I’m grateful for all the comments I got, but I wouldn’t mind getting more, so feel free to leave me your thoughts in 2015. 😉

The Report

Now enough is said about it, just have a look at what the WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared as a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,100 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Year in general

2014 was a quite interesting year.
I finally got my Bachelor’s degree.
I attended several pretty great festivals (Out&Loud, Rockharz, Metalfest) and concerts (Schandmaul, Van Canto, Bela B., Eluveitie/Arkona).
I also travelled again and this time not just throughout Germany, but also to Ireland.
And I discovered some interesting new Blogs and started a new regular post and also successfully given you my Advent Calendar.
I caught up with a bunch of series (e.g. Merlin, Supernatural, Being Human, … ) and been in the cinema for a few times (like for X-Men) or watched movies on DVD. With a renewed enthusiasm I started to properly read again, resulting in a Book-Week in the week leading up to a visit to a Book Hotel and two reading challenges I participate in.
And if I manage to get some quiet time today, I’ll even manage to finish my twentieth book this year (only 50 pages left).
And probably many more things I can’t think of right now.
So you see, a lot has happened this year.
What will 2015 bring?
We’ll see about that tomorrow. 😉
That said I’d like to repeat my words from Sunday:

I wish you all a save journey into the new year or in short Guten Rutsch!

PoiSonPaiNter

Reading Together #7

Only after I published last weeks instalment did I notice that there would be another one, so this time the actual last instalment of Weltenwanderers and Schlunzenbüchers „Gemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together) for this year.

Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from today’s German post.

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

I’m still reading my childhood favourite for BiblioSmiles’s Summer Book Challenge: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by Joanne K. Rowling.
I’m currently on page 212, which is only about a hundred pages away from the end.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

Weihnachten stand vor der Tür.

or in English:

Christmas was just around the corner.

Interestingly Christmas has just passed and New Years Eve is around the corner. 😀

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

I am soo bad with predictions…
Yes, it’s a short read, but you have to actually read to be able to finish it in a short amount of time…
And I didn’t expect to get distracted by different Fairytales, Being Human (US) and The Fall along the way…
Though this doesn’t mean the book isn’t captivating any more. It is, I’m just too tired to continue reading, when I finally pick up the book in the evening.
I still remember what is happening in which chapter, but I don’t remember the exact words used, so I can still look forward to experiencing the different things again. 🙂
I also think that „I thought you should know“ as addition to the line „Troll – in the dungeon“ is quite weird and unnecessary, though I can’t remember if it always bugged me, but it feels like it did.

4. The turn of the year is approaching: Did you set any reading-wise goals for yourself for 2015? Which and why?

As I mentioned last time, do I still have the two challenges I want to finish (BiblioSmiles and DarkFairy’s Alphabet Reading Challenge) and after cleaning out most of the books I had for Fairy’s challenge there are quite some books left…
But as I didn’t manage to get the 20 books this year, I think I’ll try to get them next year and with those two challenges I think I would have the needed motivation for it.
As to the why, I guess I could only say: Just because I want to read more regularly.

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
As WordPress made a nice statistic for this year, you can expect to read about it tomorrow. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

Advent Calendar Epilogue

A few days have passed since the last door of my Advent Calendar opened, but I still have a couple of things to say about it.
Firstly though: I hope you had a merry Christmas, spent some lovely days with your families and have gotten some nice presents. 🙂
While I completed my Calendar I thought about what will happen afterwards. I soon decided that I want to give my lovely contributors their pictures and stories as Christmas present – and so I did.
At the same time I collected all of the stories I wrote – and indeed managed to translate in time – so I could give you, my Dear Readers, the possibility to read them in one go.
With the photographers permission’s I now present to you:

The Advent Calendar Story Collection

English: Poison’s Advent Calendar 2014
German: Poison’s Adventskalender 2014
You can download the PDF and read it to your liking and tell your friends about it.
But you are not allowed to distribute it as your own work or sell it.
The Calendar itself and the posts will stay on the Blog, so you can also read it here.

The Aftermath

With all the likes, follows and comments I got for the Calendar I’ll mark it as a success in my book.
As I told you before, has DarkFairy picked up on the general idea of the Calendar and we want to use it for DF.PP Entertainment.
So, if you enjoyed the stories of the Calendar make sure to check out Fairy and my new side-project Your Picture – A Story and send us your work, so we can continue to write such stories.
I am by the way fairly certain there will be another Advent Calendar next year, though I doubt it will be with pictures again.
It was an interesting experience and I’d like to continue writing in such a way, but I don’t want to create the same kind of Calendar two years in a row.
Where would be the fun in that? 😉
So, thanks again for sending pictures, reading, liking and/or commenting and I’ll be seeing you around with my next post.
Just so you know, you can look forward to another Book-Week in January and the missing posts from this and last year and hopefully one or the other story as well.
In case I decide to not write another post this year:

I wish you all a save journey into the new year or in short Guten Rutsch!

PoiSonPaiNter

The Weekend Guess #42

The end of the year is drawing near, but I still present to you the forty second instalment of the Weekend Guess, which is also the last for this year.

Eine Gedankenblase mit dem Schriftzug "The Weekend Guess" auf blauem Grund und in einem braunen Rahmen

What is the Weekend Guess?

Up to three riddles formulated by me that are puns and wordplays on the answer itself I put on here for my readers to answer.

Why am I doing this?

For no apparent reason, just because I consider the idea to be funny.

What are the questions about?

Everything I can think of I guess, so far it has been song titles and bands that you have to figure out, but now I’ve changed it to movies.

What is your part in this?

You can try to figure out my riddles and see if you can manage to get behind them and understand what I am describing.

What is in it for you?

So far: Nothing, but the knowledge that you managed to unlock one of my silly riddles.

Let’s start with the forty second set of questions

I am looking for the title of the movie that can be guessed through this Hint:

THE answer is in the title.*

Leave your guesses in the comments below and I can see if my questions are too easy or to hard to figure out. I will give the correct answer with the next instalment.
Have fun figuring it out! 🙂

Solution for last weeks Weekend Guess:

Three Wishes for Cinderella/Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel

Unfortunately no one tried guessing last time, so I can’t congratulate anyone.

PoiSonPaiNter

* I originally wanted to take a break from the Guesses throughout Christmas, but I couldn’t resist ending this year with asking for this movie …

Advent Calendar: Door/Türchen #24

Langsam öffnete er die Augen.
Es dauerte einen Moment bis er erkannte, dass das blasse Etwas, dass er gerade anstarrte die Tischdecke war.
Er lag also auf dem Sofa.
Mühsam richtete er sich auf und sah sich im Raum um. Noch immer brannte die Weihnachtsbeleuchtung und erhellte den sonst dunklen Raum.
Irgendwer hatte auch den Adventskranz wieder angezündet. Als sein Blick jedoch auf ihn fiel, stutzte er.
Auf dem Geflecht aus Tanne brannten nicht nur vier, sondern fünf Kerzen.
Das konnte nicht sein.
Als er den Kranz das letzte Mal gesehen hatte, waren es nur vier Kerzen gewesen.
Und das war vor seinem Nickerchen gewesen.
Nach dem üppigen Weihnachtsessen hatte sie sich alle etwas zurückgezogen und er hatte es sich auf dem Sofa bequem gemacht und war eingeschlafen.
Und nun war es dunkel und es brannten fünf Kerzen auf dem Adventskranz.
Irgendetwas war geschehen während er geschlafen hatte.
Verdutzt starrte er noch immer auf den Kranz als sich die Tür öffnete.
„Na, bist du auch endlich wach?“ Begrüßte ihn sein älterer Bruder und schaltete das Licht an.
Er hatte ein breites Grinsen auf den Lippen. Bei seiner Schwester, die kurz nach ihm hereinkam, war es nicht viel anders.
Schließlich kamen auch ihre Eltern.
Sein Vater schaute ihn vorwurfsvoll an, als ob er etwas Schlimmes getan hatte. In Momenten wie diesen, fühlte er sich wieder wie ein kleiner Junge.
„Hab‘ ich was verpasst?“ Fragte er in einer Mischung aus Furcht und Ahnungslosigkeit.
Sein Bruder lachte und baute sich hinter dem Kranz auf, seine Schwester stellte sich neben ihn und nickte dreimal knapp.

„Advent, Advent ein Lichtlein brennt.
Erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier,
Dann steht der Weihnachtsmann vor der Tür.
Und wenn das fünfte Lichtlein brennt,
Dann hast du Weihnachten verpennt.“

Zitierten sie fast synchron das alte Kindergedicht.

Noch verwirrter schaute er von seinen Geschwistern zu seinen Eltern.
Er konnte nicht einen ganzen Tag geschlafen haben. Sie hätten ihn mit Sicherheit geweckt.
Als er gerade ansetzen wollte etwas zu fragen, fing sein Bruder an lauthals zu lachen und der Rest der Familie stimmte mit ein.

„Bitte sag, du hast das grad‘ nicht wirklich geglaubt!“ Forderte sein Bruder ihn auf und wischte sich eine Träne aus dem Augenwinkel.

Es dauerte noch einen Moment, dann Begriff er endlich.
Ein breites Grinsen auf den Lippen lehnte er sich zurück.
„Fast.“ Gab er zu und erntete erneut Gelächter.
Da hatte sich seine Familie einen schönen Scherz mit ihm erlaubt.

~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~

Slowly he opened his eyes.
It took him a moment until he realized that the pale something that he was currently starring at, was the table cloth.
So he was laying on the sofa.
He struggled upwards a bit and looked around the room. The Christmas lightning was still lit and illuminated the dark room.
Someone had even re-lit the Advent wreath. Though when his gaze landed on it he stopped.
Not just four, but five candles burned on the netting of fir.
That couldn’t be true.
When he had last seen it, there had only been four candles.
And that was before his nap.
After the ample Christmas meal they all had retreated a bit and he had made himself comfortable on the sofa and had fallen asleep.
And now it was already dark and five candles burned on the Advent wreath.
Something had happened while he had slept.
Puzzled he was still starring at the wreath when the door opened.
„Well, are you finally awake?“ His older brother greeted him and flipped on the lights.
He had a wide grin on his lips. His sister that came in after him, didn’t look much different.
Eventually their parents came in as well.
His father looked at him reproachfully, as if he had done something bad. In moments like these, he felt like a young boy again.
„Did I miss something?“ He asked in a mixture of fear and cluelessness.
His brother laughed and rose up behind the wreath, his sister stepped up right beside him and nodded shortly three times.

„Advent, Advent a light is lit,
First one, then two, then three, then four.
Then Santa Claus is upon your door.
And if the fifth light’s burning away
You have missed the Christmas Day.“

They quoted the old children’s poem nearly synchronous.

He looked even more confused from his siblings to his parents.
He couldn’t have slept the whole day. They certainly would have awoken him.
As he was about the say something his brother laughed out loudly and the rest of the family joined in.

„Please tell me, you didn’t believe this just now!“ His brother urged him and wiped a tear from the corner of his eyes.

It took him a moment, then he finally comprehended.
A wide grin spread over his lips and he leaned back.
„Nearly.“ He admitted and earned laughter again.
His family had played him well this time.

Behind the Scenes

I hope you enjoyed the twenty fourth and final story of my Advent Calendar.
The little rhyme was something I learned back in kindergarden, when we always had to quote something to get our present from Santa Clause. The additional fifth candle came a bit later towards elementary school, when the kids became a bit bolder with their poems. And let me tell you, it was not easy to translate it, but I do like my version (I haven’t found an official translation, if you know one, let me know).
The original version says „Christkind“ instead of „Weihnachtsmann„, but as the child doesn’t really play a role in our customs here in the North, it was changed to Santa over the years.
I thank all of my lovely photographers for giving me the pictures to fill the calendar and all of my readers for sticking through this, liking and participating in the comments.
That said and as the 24th has now finally arrived I wish you all

Merry Christmas! / Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Enjoy the time with your families(, don’t get tricked into thinking you missed anything 😉 ) and I’ll be seeing you at the Weekend for this years last Weekend Guess. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the story by me and for the picture by Babsi. Do not use or repost either without my or her permission.

Reading Together #6

I’m on vacation and I give you the last instalment of Weltenwanderers and Schlunzenbüchers „Gemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together) for this year.

Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from today’s German post.

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

As I finished „A Game of Thrones“ by George R.R. Martin yesterday and didn’t want to continue with The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula Le Guin, that I wrote about last Tuesday, I thought I might as well start with my childhood favourite for BiblioSmiles’s Summer Book Challenge, which is none other than Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by Joanne K. Rowling.
I’m currently on page 5, which technically is page one as I still haven’t started reading.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

Mr. und Mrs. Dursley im Lingusterweg Nummer 4 waren stolz darauf, ganz und gar normal zu sein, sehr stolz sogar.

or in English:

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley in the Privet Drive number four were proud of being well and truly normal, very proud indeed.

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

I’m quite excited to re-read this book again after nearly 15 years (if I remember correctly). In contrast to Game of Thrones 800+ pages it will be a short read with about 300 and I remember that I once managed to read through it in about a days‘ – or night’s – time.
I really hope I will still like the characters like I did when I grew up.

4. The end of the year is drawing near. Did you have any goals for reading this year? If so, which were they and did you manage to reach them yet or are you going to within the last few days of this year?

I put two challenges upon myself. On the one hand the Summer Book Challenge of BiblioSmiles (see link above) and on the other hand DarkFairy’s Alphabet Reading Challenge. Lo and behold, I managed to finish neither. 😀
While I’m slowly closing in on the eleven books from the Summer Challenge, I am currently thinking of replacing the majority of the books I had counted in Fairy’s challenge and therefore would have quite a bunch of letters left to choose books for.
Still, both challenges give me motivation to strive for actually reading the books I’ve chosen, even if I don’t manage them in the time frame they were set in.
As for my own goals: I didn’t really have any, I just wanted to read more and I’ve managed to do that. Though when I saw my statistic from Goodreads about how many books I’ve read this year, I do have the urge to complete the twenty now…
Maybe I’ll manage it. The Philosophers stone wont be a long read and there weren’t that many pages left in the Earthsea book either, so it might work…

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
This isn’t really book related, but as Unmei and I will be visiting the Harry Potter Exhibition in Cologne in January I thought it best to re-read it beforehand. 🙂
Leading up to our trip I will also host another Book-Week with reviews for the books I’ve read recently.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

Supernatural Summary – Season 1

Usually a review on [The EXTREMIS REVIEWS] is for a Comic Book volume, detailing what is happening and how the overall storyline is coming along. This one is instead about a TV series and also a bit different.

Supernatural by Eric Kripke is more or less a monster-of-the-week mystery drama show that started into its tenth season in the beginning of October. Because (nearly) every episode follows a certain pattern a proper review – episode by episode – would be rather redundant. Therefore I’ll give an overview of the storyline and a few important plot points so far, so that you will be well prepared for catching up.

Season One

Storyline

The brothers Sam and Dean Winchester set off to find their father John, who hasn’t returned from a hunting trip. Though, unlike normal families the Winchesters do not hunt game, but monsters; especially an yellow eyed Demon that killed their mother by pinning her on the ceiling and burning her alive. While not able to defeat the Demon, the boys at least manage to meet up with their father. He tells them of a weapon – a Colt, whose bullets can kill Demons – which he wants to use on their mutual enemy. Playing cat and mouse with the fiend, the three of them end up badly injured, after a Demon-possessed driver sends his truck crashing into their Impala.

The Monsters

From this short storyline you can see that the first Season focused on gaining its footing and showing off the vast collection of monsters the two protagonists would be facing. The term monster-of-the-week-show can be used here as each week there is a different foe, with the big bad lurking in the background.
For the first time we meet Ghosts – or rather Vengeful Spirits -, Vampires, Werwolves and of course Demons and many others. Without much explanation as to the why and how, the ways to deal with these creatures are simply thrown at us:
A Ghost’s remains need to be salted and burned; Vampires have to be beheaded and Silver Bullets do the trick with the Big Bad Wolfs.
With the Colt there is also a way to get permanently rid of Demons, whereas exorcising them would send them simply back to Hell.

Plot Points

In this Season we are not only introduced to the key characters – Sam and Dean, and to some extent John and the yellow eyed Demon – but also to some of the key elements of the show.
As mentioned before is most notably the monster-of-the-week theme. While a (version of a) monster might return, it is rarely the same creature two weeks in a row. These encounters aren’t by chance, but instead sought out by the boys. In newspapers and other media they look for strange sightings or freak accidents and then dress up as police, FBI or whatever necessary to pursue their so-called cases.
We also learn about the Colt and John Winchesters Journal, the latter holding information about all the monsters he had encountered in his time.  Both items are frequently referred to or used after their first appearance.  The Journal even seems to be like a Wikipedia for everything monster-related as it provides an answer to all the questions the boys have whilst searching for a way to defeat their foes.
Another big topic besides the search for their father is the search for revenge. I have not mentioned this in the summary, but Sam’s reason for joining his brother wasn’t to find his/their father. He wanted to kill the Demon that not just took his mother, but in the pilot also took his girlfriend.  Driven by revenge he feels their cases to be bothersome instead of a good/the right thing to do for the people suffering from the monsters.
In this Season we see Dean as the boy/man who would follow his father’s words to the letter and Sam as the rebellious kid that rarely agrees with either of them.  Their arguments are petty and childish and don’t always seem genuinely motivated.

Pro’s and Con’s

While it is unsatisfying that most of the plot is carried by dialogue of the brothers at the end of the episode – usually in or around the Impala -, it still isn’t that bad a reoccurring pattern. Though this is what makes it difficult to review it properly.
A plus point goes to the diverse range of monsters.
When I first watched the show during its original run on television (back in 2007), I was quite afflicted by it. A scene from the episode “Wendingo“, never left my memory. But when I re-watched it, it wasn’t as exciting any more. Though, I cannot tell if this was due to the show or my changed point of view. But I do believe it has a lot to do with the latter as seven years is quite some time (It would be ten if I had watched it on American television).
You need a magnifier to see the plot in this Season and the initial thrill of meeting new different monsters is soon replaced by the predictability of the episodes’ outcome. Still, it is an interesting concept, with some surprises and it has a finale cliff-hanger, where you simply want to know what happens next.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Until next time.
PoiSonPaiNter
Season Two: Supernatural Summary – Season 2
Originally posted on EXTREMIS REVIEWS: Carry On Our Wayward Sons: Supernatural Season One – The One In Which the Winchesters Become a Pair

Advent Calendar: Door/Türchen #23

Sie kam wieder spät von der Arbeit und hastete durch die Straßen. Es war dunkel und sie wollte einfach nur noch nach Hause. Ihre Hände tief in die Taschen gesteckt, den Kopf eingezogen und stur geradeaus guckend, versuchte sie sich vor der Kälte zu schützen.
Plötzlich knallte es hinter ihr.
Sie schrak auf und drehte sich hastig um.
Es hatte wie ein Schuss geklungen und sie wollte auf keinen Fall in eine Schießerei verwickelt werden.
Dann zischte etwas ganz in ihrer Nähe und sie erkannte das Geräusch. Schnell drehte sie sich um sich selbst und richtete ihren Blick auf den Himmel, um das Resultat der aufsteigenden Rakete zu sehen.
Bald fand sie die Reste der goldenen Funken und sogleich surrte ein weiteres Geschoss empor. Eine wahre Pracht von Raketenblumen erhellte bald den Nachthimmel. Mit einem breiten Grinsen beobachtete sie das Schauspiel.
Auch wenn Feuerwerke nur unter bestimmten Bedingungen erlaubt waren und das hier vermutlich illegal war, schaute sie ihm gerne zu. Doch bald schon war es vorbei und sie musste weiter ihrer Wege ziehen.
Diesmal jedoch hatte sie ein Lächeln auf den Lippen und ging aufrecht, die Kälte war vergessen und die Bilder des Feuerwerks begleiteten sie.
~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~
She came late from work again and rushed through the streets. It was dark and she just wanted to get home. Her hands deep in her pockets, her head ducked and stubbornly looking ahead, she tried to shield herself from the cold.
Suddenly she heard a bang behind her.
She was startled and turned around in haste.
It had sounded like a shot and she didn’t want to be caught in a shooting at all.
Then something fizzled close to her and she recognized the noise. She turned quickly around herself and looked up into the sky to see the result of an ascending skyrocket.
Soon she found the remains of golden sparks and immediately another projectile buzzed aloft. A real glory of rocket flowers soon illuminated the night sky. With a wide grin she watched the spectacle.
Even though there were certain rules for fireworks and this one was probably illegal, did she enjoy it. Though soon it was over and she had to go her ways.
This time though she had a smile on her lips and walked upright, the cold forgotten and accompanied by the pictures of the firework.

Behind the Scenes

I hope you enjoyed the twenty third story.
I really like fireworks, especially those that are perfectly scheduled with music. But here in Germany you are only allowed to sent up fireworks when you have an allowance (for celebrations like weddings or big parties or fireworks events) or it is actually new years eve, but people usually start as soon as you can officially buy the stuff a couple days earlier.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the story by me and for the picture by Anice. Do not use or repost either without my or her permission.

Advent Calendar: Door/Türchen #22

Ein beliebtes Symbol in der Weihnachtszeit war der Stern, der Stern von Bethlehem, wenn man es genauer sagen wollte.
Drei Weise aus dem Morgenland folgten ihm einst, um ihren Heiland Jesus Christus zu begrüßen.
Diese Geschichte war eine der ersten, die man lernte, wenn man in einem christlichen Haushalt aufwuchs, in dem man Weihnachten noch die Kirche besuchte.
Es war an sich eine schöne Geschichte vom Glauben, Engeln und einem Gott, der seinen eigenen Sohn aussandte, um die Menschheit zu erretten. Nur kannte heutzutage kaum noch einer die eigentliche Weihnachtsgeschichte. Weihnachten war kommerzialisiert worden und warb jetzt mit einem rot gekleideten, runden, lang bärtigen, alten Mann, der aus der Werbung stammte und Geschenke verteilte.
Auch wenn man sie verwendete verstand kaum einer die alten Bräuche, die dahinter standen.
Der Stern, die Krippenszene und was nicht noch alles auf die Christlichen Traditionen zurückzuführen war. Natürlich gab es noch andere, die wesentlich älter waren, aber mit denen kannte sie sich auch nicht so genau aus.
Für sie war es dennoch wichtig, ihre eigenen Familientraditionen aufrecht zu erhalten. Weit weg von zu Hause, hatte sie sich auf den Weg gemacht, um sich das Krippenspiel anzusehen.
Normalerweise ging sie mit ihren Eltern, aber dieses Jahr schafften sie es nicht gemeinsam zu gehen, also ging sie alleine.
Sie setzte sich in eine der mittleren Reihen und machte es sich auf der harten Kirchenbank so gemütlich wie es ging. Vorfreudig wartete sie auf die ihr nur zu gut bekannten Worte, mit denen jedes Jahr das Spiel begann.
Und dann fing es an…

„Es begab sich aber zu der Zeit…“

~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~
A popular symbol of the Christmas time was the star, the star of Bethlehem if you wanted to say it more exactly.
The Biblical Magi once followed it, to greet their saviour Jesus Christ.
This story was one of the first you learned, when you grew up in a Christian household, in which you still went to church at Christmas.
It was a nice story of belief, angels and a god that sent his own son to save humankind. Though nowadays barely anyone knew the actual Christmas story. Christmas was commercialized and promoted with a round, old man with a red coat and a long beard, who delivered presents.
Even if you used them, barely anyone understood the old customs they originated in.
The star, the nativity scene and whatever else arose from Christian traditions. Of course there were others, who were way older, but she wasn’t that versed in them either.
For her it was still important to preserver her own family traditions. Far away from home she had set off to attend a nativity play.
Usually she would go with her parents, but this time they couldn’t go together, so she went alone.
She sat down in one the rows in the middle and made herself as comfortable as she could on the hard church bench. She waited in anticipation for the to her well known words with which the play started each year.
And than it began…

„In those days …“

Behind the Scenes

I hope you enjoyed the twenty second story.
As I am officially protestant does Christmas for me also have a religious meaning and the nativity play is a small part of it. In the years leading up to my confirmation I played in it twice, once as a farmer and once as one of the magi/wise man, though I can’t remember which one I was. 😀
I only remember that one of those times we had trouble with the microphone and the narrator had to start over and over again with the quote I used in the stories‘ conclusion. It is by the way the first line of Lukes version of the Christmas story (You can find it here or in your own copy of the Bible in Lk. 2-1. 😉 ).
What are your must-have traditions around Christmas time?
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the story by me and for the picture by Babsi. Do not use or repost either without my or her permission.

Advent Calendar: Door/Türchen #21

Weihnachten war die Zeit der Lichter. Alle Straßen und Fenstern waren geschmückt mit Lichterketten, Sternen, Schwibbögen und anderen hell erstrahlenden Schmuckstücken. Doch nicht nur das künstliche Licht konnte man verstärkt sehen, je dichter der 24. kam.
Kerzen in allen Formen und Farben wurden nicht nur auf Weihnachtsmärkten angeboten, sondern fanden auch ein neues zu Hause bei verschiedenen Familien.
In gemütlicher Runde wurde dann eine Kerze entzündet und nicht zu vergessen die Adventskränze bei denen die erste Kerze halten musste, bis die vierte entzündet werden konnte.
Dadurch, dass der Dezember im Winter, der dunklen Jahreszeit, lag, bekam das Licht eine noch bedeutsamere Rolle.
Das Licht in der Dunkelheit, dass früher Leute zu ihren Heimen hat finden lassen und auch jetzt noch immer ein guter Richtwert in fremden Städten war.
Sie liebte die Beleuchtungen in ihrer Gegend und an anderen Orten anzuschauen. Sie konnte sich nichts Schöneres vorstellen, als das Lichtermeer zur Weihnachtszeit.
Doch war ihr bei all den Lichtern eines ganz besonders lieb.
Es war ein altes verrußtes Glas in das die Flocken eines Schneesturms eingraviert waren und durch ein simples Teelicht beleuchtet wurden.
Es spendete nicht viel Licht, aber das war nebensächlich.
Sie hatte das Glas einst von ihrer Mutter geschenkt bekommen, um in der Weihnachtszeit, die sie alleine in ihrer spärlich eingerichteten, neuen Wohnung verbringen musste, eine bisschen Weihnachtsstimmung zu haben.
Die Wohnung war mittlerweile eine andere, aber das Licht hatte sie mitgenommen und würde es noch anzünden, wenn man die Flocken nicht mehr erkennen konnte und das Geschenk weiterhin in Ehren halten.
Denn das Anzünden des Lichtes, ihres Weihnachtslichtes, war ihre Art sich an den Menschen zu erinnern, den sie verloren hatte.
~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~
Christmas was the time of lights. Every street and window was decorated with fairy lights, stars, Schwibbogen and other brightly illuminated trinkets. But not only the artificial light could be soon more and more the close the 24th came.
Candles in all shapes and colours were not just offered on the Christmas markets, but also found a new home with different families.
On evenings in the companie of each other they would light the candles and least not forget the Advent candles, were the first one had to last until the fourth one could be lit
Due to December being in the winter, the dark time of the year, the light gained an even more meaningful role.
The light in the darkness that used to guide people to their homes and even now are a good indicator in a foreign town.
She loved look at the illuminations in her area and other places. She couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful that the lightning seas during Christmas time.
Though amongst all those lights one of them was most beloved to her.
It was an old and sooty glass that was engraved with the flakes of a snowstorm and lightened by a tea candle.It didn’t shine that bright, but that was trivial.
The glass was a present from her mother to have some festive atmosphere in the Christmas time she had to spent alone in her new, barely furnished flat.
The flat was a different one by now, but she had taken the light with her and would still lighten it even if you could no longer see the flakes and treasure the present.
Because the lightening of the light, her Christmas light, was her way of remembering the person she had lost.

Behind the Scenes

I hope you enjoyed the twenty first story at least a bit.
When I started writing I didn’t expect this sad twist and I was surprised to find myself being quite emotional towards the end.
But remembering the loved ones that can no longer be with you, is another part of Christmas that one sometimes can’t ignore.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the story by me and for the picture by Friggs Photography. Do not use or repost either without my or her permission.