Very unwell and totally behind here. I wrote this days ago then keeled over before editing and sending it, but posting now, and will try and catch up in time.
@ChessieFL Hope Mum's op went ok.
@ExquisiteDecorations Love the tin can cakes.
@RainbowZebraWarrior So glad you're having a lovely time together.
@GlomOfNit @AgathaMystery @lucysmam Die Weihnachtgurke allegedly started either in Germany or the US where they're manufactured as bright green shiny thin glass and specifically as Christmas tree ornaments. Ours predates them, and was originally made for a end of harvest festival, and is mouth blown into a mould using very lightly tinted green window glass and silver mercury mirrored on one side only making it harder to spot until the light catches it. It was traveling as a family possession across Lake Baikal in the 1880's, believed to have been in use years previously. The cap's '50's. Original became rust powder many decades ago. Both Russian and Turkish glass makers supplied many cultures with ornaments in mid 19th C but most moulds were later burned in the revolution.
@GlomOfNit @AgathaMystery @lucysmam The Germans put theirs on last and the child finding it gets an extra present from Santa. Ours goes on first, hidden in layers of ornaments, and the child who finds it will have luck in the new year. Originally made for harvests end celebrations, and are the last vegetable of the pickling season, by which time women's hands were multi-coloured and nails suffering from much vinegar immersion and said to be preserved themselves.
Along with Christmas it was was later banned by Russia in the process of assimilating land and people from the Ottomans, with many on the move.
Because of persecution it was claimed it to merely be a humble weihnactgurke for a New Years tree (acceptable) and survived. Much didn't. In our family it's nicknamed 'Die zwielichtig weihnachtgurke' or 'the dodgy Christmas gherkin.'
@lucysmam Cake looks great. Belling the slayer relates to people living in and around wolf visited woods and plains long ago. Still ongoing in my childhood.
The full thing is a dark tradition and as a (weird meat and fur refusing) small child I was upset by its enactment. My wise Grandmother asked if I would prefer the systematic slaughter of our horses then...
A deer (some places a reindeer) would be killed, stuffed with aconite and loosely sewn up. It's head decorated with greenery and bells, then dragged round the encampment with lots of light and bells, scenting the area, and left at the entrance. The wolves watched from the tree line, and when people retreated, they'd investigate. One (usually the leader) would take the stomach, and die.
It's pelt would be stretched on a tree, the deer's head set in the branches, and the bodies burned there. The disrupted pack would stay away from the site for weeks after. If the head was taken from the tree, it was a warning the wolves were close to starving and dangerous. Grim but effective.
What we do here's symbolic. Antlers or horns decorated with bells are worn. The wearer traipses all entrances and exits of the home, first outside, then inside, with a lantern and a string of bells, jingling, singing, weaving and turning. (making themselves visible to wolves!)
Headdresses can be very grand and a full head with antlers or horns draped in bells, and a staff of bells, or a horned wreath of any level of elaborateness or not, including a couple of bells either side, with more held. A fire is lit if possible. Decorating can begin.