Bell’ Arte Salzburg – Seventeenth Century Christmas Eve (CD, Winter and Winter)

The shortest days of the year, those preceding the winter solstice and the date chosen by Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus, as a sign that Jesus Christ is Light and that he will drive away the darkness – this time of the year was once a quiet and peaceful one, free of the chronic chaos which we know today. It was a period filled with wonderful traditions: three hundred years ago, green twigs were carefully chosen to decorate the interiors of houses from floor to ceiling, transforming them into summery arbors, apples were hung to the branches to symbolize fertility, gingerbread biscuits were exchanged as wishes of longevity, paper roses stood for the prime of life, and the fruit of the mistletoe plucked by a couple meant that they would be blessed with children.