Immerse yourself in Alsatian Christmas traditions

Uses and customs of Advent, Christmas and New Year in Alsace

We all know the cribs and the tree, but during the period before and after Christmas in Alsace, there are many other traditions that are sometimes strange, sometimes funny. Their origins often go back to the dawn of time.

Alsace is a land rich in traditions that go back a long way. The periods around the major festivals of the year concentrated many of them. This was particularly the case with Christmas. Certainly we know the cribs and the tree, but there were still many other traditions that were sometimes strange, sometimes amusing. They covered a period which already began on 1er November and ended on Epiphany, January 6.

Thanks to a guided walk in the city center of Haguenau, visitors will rediscover the meaning of these customs related to the march of the sun or stemming from ancestral fears… How were born Rüpelz and Hans Trapp, why the young girls to be married off ate a very salty cake, on November 30, where does the nursery come from, the reason why we shook the hives at Christmas, the way we predicted the weather for the next 12 months, the role played by the yule log at Christmas, the name of day of the bundle, given to December 26... These habits and customs will be discussed in this evening stroll falling, in a city dressed in lights.

The hour-long walk is extended by half an hour in the costume room Alsatian Museum, for an exchange with Marie-Antoinette, guide of the History and Archeology Society of Haguenau, on these old traditions.

Guided Christmas tour © BOOVStudio/Christian Brucker
Guided Christmas tour © BOOVStudio/Christian Brucker

Saturdays December 2 and 16, 2023 at 16 p.m.
Free, duration 1h30

Compulsory registration with the Tourist Office on 03 88 06 59 99 or at tourisme@agglo-haguenau.fr

Article written by:

Tourist Office of Pays de Hagenau

the Tourist Office
of the Land of Haguenau
Tourist Office of the Pays de Haguenau

The team of the tourist office is at your disposal to help you prepare your stay in the Land of Haguenau or to suggest activities during your holidays. Come and discover an authentic territory with its crafts, its forests, its Alsatian traditions ...