What does "zwischen den Jahren" mean?

At the end of the year a lot of Germans use the phrase zwischen den Jahren. Between the years?! That's not possible!

Or is it?

There are two things you need to know about this phrase zwischen den Jahren.

1. It's a real thing.

A lot of German offices shut down on Heiligabend (Christmas Eve) and don't open again until after Neujahr (New Year's Day). That means all their everything must be done on December 23rd! Since they won't be back to work until the new year has begun, then they have finished one year of business and they are truly "between the years" when they go home on December 23rd!

Some offices stay closed even longer, they take off through Heilige Drei Könige (Epiphany), which is the 6th of January. So they stay closed for a full two weeks or even longer, depending on how the days fall on the calendar.

Germans sure do know how to take a break, that's for sure.

2. It affects you.

Because I also don't work zwischen den Jahren. I wrote this blog post on December 20th and little elves from a Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale published it.

I feed the elves well.

We all work hard.

But seriously, I'm finally taking a break and you should, too!

It has been a very full year here at GermanWithNicole.com and in my personal life. There have been hundreds of hours of lessons this year, I moved (yet again, but I'm done for a good long while), finished everything in my certification course work except for one research paper, spent a lot of time outside (es war so toll!) and I successfully reached my one goal for this blog for 2017: to blog once a week for the entire year.

Blogging once weekly is a chunk of work and I can hardly imagine what it would be to blog three times a week or even every day. I blog because I want people to learn German. I want them to learn it for real, not just learn to talk about German. I want people to understand what German culture is and what it isn't. And if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here writing this tonight.

So to you go my thanks and my gratefulness for this year. Thank you for writing to me in support, for telling me your stories and be sure to keep it coming! It's a huge boost when you email me, rate the articles and open those newsletters because I know for every click there's a real person reading it.

I'll be back in 2018 with new ideas, a new plan, and new posts. And a new one goal for this blog for 2018. Until then...