This week, we come back every day to our Alsatian traditions. Today is winter, the night is the longest of the year, or the shortest day, it depends on how you position yourself. No wonder humans want to compensate: a fire in the fireplace, candles, a lit advent wreath. It is sometimes said that the Light shines brighter in the darkness, and it is absolutely true. A true symbol of the Light brought to the world, the Christkindel who comes to bring gifts for Christmas in Alsace is a figure created in 1570 by the Lutherans from Strasbourg to replace Saint-Nicolas, adored by the Catholics. The figure of the baby Jesus, literally Christ-Kindel, is represented in the guise of a young girl with a veiled face all dressed in white, having the appearance of a fairy, and the kindness of an angel. She wears a golden crown made of fir branches and adorned with 4 lighted candles, yes, it is the advent wreath, but also the representation of Light.
She is the one who distributes the goodies to good children through the doors, and not through a fireplace! Until the mid-1970s, moreover, Alsatian children were entitled to a home visit from Christkindel, with the white dress, the veil, the lighted candles on their heads. But you must not see him, schonst bloost se in de Kinder d’Euije nüss, otherwise his breath will eject the children’s eyes from their sockets, that’s what the parents said. Fifty years ago, children would put up a drawing or a coloring page and their bulletin in the half-open window of the kitchen or living room. We checked at regular intervals, and suddenly, a bell!
There, the Christkindel had passed. Perhaps she will pass once again on Wihnàchte night? Or rather the Hàns Tràpp, the Rüpelz, for wicked children? Light and Dark are inseparable, one does not go without the other.