Congress- und Tourismus-Zentrale NürnbergVerkehrsverein Nürnberg e.V.
Frauentorgraben 3/IV
D-90443 Nürnberg
Tel.: +49 911 / 2336-0
Congress- und Tourismus-Zentrale NürnbergEach Nuremberg "Christkind" is the ambassador of the city of Nuremberg for two years, and in the period before Christmas has a full appointment schedule. As well as daily appearances at the Christmas Market and the Children´s Market, she visits charity organisations an welcomes guests from all over the world. The girl chosen by Nuremberg people is between 16 and 19 years of age, at least 1.60 metres in size, and since she opens the Nuremberg Christmas Market from high up on the balcony of the Frauenkirche with the prologue, she has to have a really good head for heigths.
The Christmas Angel at the Children´s Market
Because he believed that the Catholic venerations of saints distracted people from Christ, the only divine advocate, Martin Luther rejected the figure of St. Nicholas as a bearer of Christmas gifts. From now on the holy Christ should no longer bring children presents on 6 December, St. Nicholas`s day, but on Christmas Day. The more this custom spread in Protestant areas and later in Catholic ones too, the more the "Christkind" took on angel-like characteristics, acquired wings, golden locks of hair and precious flowing robes.
But what is the Nuremberg "Christkind" really about? Even hundreds of years ago, it was normal in Nuremberg to offer items on the markets to give to children. This tradition developed in the 17th century into the Nuremberg Christmas Market that today is world famous. From 1933, the Nazis took over the market for their own purposes, with religious-like ceremonies, and had it opened bay a girl in the costume of an angel, covered in gold foil. After the war, the Nuremberg Christmas Market was revived, and since then, it has been opened every year, not by a tinsel angel, but by the Nuremberg "Christkind" on the balcony of the Frauenkirche.
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