The lovely teenage girl clad in wings and golden dress who appears each year at Nuremberg's Christmas market symbolizes hope, love and inclusiveness, not shopping.
Nuremberg's Christmas Market has been held in the town's square every December for 400 years. It sells all manner of fascinating objects, including hand carved toys, hand-gilded tree ornaments, local iced gingerbread and traditional mulled wine. Famously, throughout December, the market’s Christmas fairy, the “Christkind”, glides through the browsing crowds, handing out little gifts and talking to passers-by. With long golden curls, a tall crown and flowing, star-studded robes, she’s always a beautiful teenage girl, radiant, smiling, and bringing love and happiness to all.
What the Fairy is Really About
In these cynical times, it’s easy to imagine that the Christkind must be all about bringing people to the town's famous Christmas market. But, although Nuremberg's Christkind is not specifically religious, she has her roots in religion, and she is very far from being a commercial mascot.
Young Eva Sattler was, like all Christkinds, elected by the people of the town for two years. As Christkind in 2005 and 2006, she is in no doubt about the figure's real purpose. “There is no way that the Christkind is just a sort of movie star figure, or a lady in a pretty dress who opens the market and then goes home again,” she explains when I spoke to her. “Her role is to be there for everyone who wants to see her, whoever they are. She is a symbol of love and acceptance .
"When I was Christkind, I knew that in representing the idea behind her, I was showing everyone - whoever they were - that she was there for them personally.”
The Christkind's History
The Christkind can be seen in Nuremberg from the start of December right up until Christmas Eve. On the first day of the Christmas market, she appears for the first time. Then, wearing warm clothes beneath her flowing robes, she mounts the dais that stands in the market square before the church, and introduces herself to the waiting crowds with a speech.
But even though Martin Luther thought up the idea of the Christkind in the 15th century, the present speech dates back only since 1948. In that year, ninety percent of Nuremberg had been flattened, and thousands of inhabitants killed. Not only there, of course, but all over Europe, people were hungry and freezing cold in the aftermath of a brutal and tragic war.
Amidst the rubble of their city, the townsfolk decided to revive the traditional figure of the Christkind as a symbol of love, continuity and faith in the future. A new speech was written for her, referring to the sadness that “it is not the old city of Nuremberg that I see as I return today after war and fire and hard times” but encouragingly reminding the townsfolk that she was still there for everyone at Christmas, whoever they might be.
Everyone Is Included
Today, the Christkind’s message of love and inclusion is as relevant as it has ever been, says Eva. “As a society, we’re richer, for sure - but we are less close to our neighbours than we used to be. The Christkind still comes to the healthy, the sick, the rich and the poor, to the locals and the tourists.
“She visits old peoples’ homes, reads fairy stories to children in kindergartens, visits homeless centres and prisons. Nobody needs be alone at this special time, because however lonely they are, the Christkind is there for them too.”
Although Eva has now relinquished her wings, she feels that being Christkind taught her one lesson that matters to her more than anything else. “I realised that you can make some people happy if you just give them your time or a lovely word. You make them happy if you just make them feel they are important to you. And that always applies, doesn’t it? Whether it is Christmas or not, that fact is always true."
For more on Nuremberg, visit A German Toy Museum at Nuremberg. For more on Germany, visit the German National Tourist Office.
