Striezelmarkt - Wooden Ornaments

Wooden Ornaments

Many of the stands at the Striezelmarkt sell wooden ornaments of a huge variety of shapes and sizes. This comes from the area's mining history. Dresden is the largest city near the Erzgebirge, or Ore Mountains, where silver and tin were discovered in around 1168. The discovery brought many miners to the area, who then lost their jobs as the German Peasants' War and competition from abroad took their toll. Needing a new way of earning money, the miners took up woodcarving, incorporating mining symbols and religious elements into their designs. These symbols can still be found in the Christmas ornaments sold at the Striezelmarkt.

• Candle pyramids

In many parts of Germany, the candle pyramid (lightstock) is brought out every year to light up the room at Christmas. Two to five round wooden tiers, gradually smaller towards the top, are built onto a central rod which rotates, driven by the heat of candles rising up into a rotor at the top. On each tier there are figures connected with Christmas. The whole ornament is usually about 50 cm high, but the tallest pyramid in the world takes pride of place at the Striezelmarkt, towering a full 14m in the air. Originally, the pyramid was a much simpler affair, simply a frame to hang sprigs of fir upon; the modern-day pyramid did not evolve until the early 19th century.

• Schwibbogen

Literally, the word Schwibbogen means an arch "hanging" (schweben) above you, between two walls. This candle-holder is indeed arch-shaped, representing the arched entrance to a mine hung with guiding lights; another connection to the area's mining past. Today the "candles" are often lit with electricity, and the scenes cut out of the wooden centre of the arch are not only on mining themes. At night during Advent, nearly every single window in Dresden is lit with these ornaments, traditionally bought at the Striezelmarkt.

• Räuchermann (smoking man)

Another ornament always present at Christmas-time in Germany, the smoking man is hollowed out with a hole leading to his mouth, hung with a pipe. An incense candle is placed inside him so that he appears to smoke as it burns. There is a wide variety of variations on the smoking man, including old ladies in rocking chairs, Father Christmases, and figures representing nearly every occupation. Smoking men first appeared on the Striezelmarkt in the 19th century.

• Nutcrackers

The type of nutcracker traditionally sold at the Striezelmarkt, carved and painted with a red coat like a soldier, probably became popular world-wide thanks to Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite". The first wood turner to carve the ornaments in this form, Wilhelm Friedrich Füchtner from the Ore Mountains, is said to have been inspired by the nutcracker in the story book Tchaikovsky's ballet came from.