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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.
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Today is the first day of Hanukkah (or Chanukka...no matter which way you spell it, it's the Festival of Lights!) It's the perfect opportunity for you to learn about Chanukka - auf Deutsch!
Currently there are approximately 98,500 members of Jewish communities in Germany. These members are a part of about 110 Jewish communities all around Germany, which you can read about here.
More on Chanukka - auf Deutsch!
When you've learned the vocabulary words, try reading this short article on Chanukka.
Want to try your hand at baking Sufganijot? Try this German recipe here.
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2017 is a huge year for Germans: they get an extra national holiday, Reformationstag. It's the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door, which turned out to be a pillar event of the Reformation movement.
An extra national holiday means that everybody gets an extra day off work. Everything's going to be closed, however I suspect a lot of churches might have more visitors than usual.
So how does this make a 5-day weekend for Germans? Here's how:
Saturday and Sunday are normal weekend days. Tuesday is Reformationstag and also Halloween, which means that Wednesday, November 1st is Allerheiligen (All Saints' Day), which is also a holiday in 5 German states (Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland). Anyone who planned a vacation day for Monday, October 30th is taking a Brückentag, a bridge day, "bridging" the weekend to the Feiertag. So with one day of vacation a lot of folks extended their 2-day weekend to make it a 5-day weekend.
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Americans take a staycation und die Deutschen machen Urlaub auf Balkonien!
Although Germans are legally entitled to a minimum of four weeks of vacation per year (many have five, and some six), not everyone takes off to the mountains, to another city, or to another country. Many Germans have Urlaub zu Hause, or more aptly put: Sie machen Urlaub auf Balkonien!
When you take the word "Balkon" and add the "-ien" ending to it, it sounds like the ending of places that you'd like to take a vacation in. Spanien, Kalifornien, Brasilien, Mauretanien...Balkonien.
It doesn't take much to create a beautiful space at home to enjoy your own piece of Balkonien this summer. If you're not going anywhere, take a few tips from the Germans!
Pflanzen Sie Pflanzen!
Plants make everything nicer, and Germans are so good at the container gardens. They're good at all the gardens. (Seriously, have you seen the National Garden Show, the Bundesgartenschau? It'll knock your socks off.) So put your balcony and your time auf Balkonien to good use and plant a Kräutergarten like I did this week:
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Suchen Sie einen neuen Job?
Brauchen Sie neue Kunden?
Wollen Sie jemandem helfen, eine ganz neue Karriere anzufangen?
Dann brauchen Sie Vitamin "B".
"B" für Beziehung
Everybody knows you need vitamins, preferrably from fruits and vegetables, or from vitamin tablets. There are real B vitamins in Germany, like Vitamin B12, however they also have this special vitamin known as "Beziehung"...relationship.
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