With the Muslim fasting time of Ramadan just a few days away, a new version of the Christian Advent calendar has started appearing in the shops. And while it may seem like crass commercialism, it is worth exploring what the Christian and Islamic traditions in Germany have in common. After all, 6.6% of people living in Germany are Muslim. So there is plenty of money to be made.
Prices range from €79.99 for a large luxury Ramadan calendar down to the humble €4.99 Aldi supermarket version. Each of the little doors on the calendar is opened on successive days to reveal a verse or scripture and a halal sweet or chocolate.
And – because this is Germany – there is also a wide range of do-it-yourself kits for parents or older children to make a customised version. Basteln (Making things at home by hand) is almost a national sport. Shop-bought cakes – or Advent calendars – are generally regarded as less valuable and meaningful than homemade ones.
In the Muslim Family Centre in Duisburg, there are workshops where children can create their own.
The first Muslim calendar, known as the Iftarlendar (Iftar is the Arabic word for the ritual breaking of the dawn-to-dusk fast), was created by Nadia Doukali, a German mother of Moroccan origin living in Frankfurt. Doukali hid a sacred word from the Qur’an behind each little door to help her children understand the meaning of Ramadan and make the time pass more quickly until the Zuckerfest (sugar festival) of Eid al-Fitr, which falls this year on March 31.
At my local neighbourhood centre in Leipzig, Eid al-Fitr is always a big family party. Huge trays of Syrian and Turkish sweets like baklava and halva take centre stage and the children race around, energised by the sugar rush.
This year there will no doubt be samples of the latest confectionery sensation, Dubai chocolate. This rich confection of fried angel-hair pasta, pistachio puree, chocolate and edible glitter is crazily expensive to buy ready-made. But all the ingredients are easily affordable in supermarkets. Plus, as every German knows, homemade is always best.
And fasting is not such a new thing here. In the early days of Christianity, Advent was also a time of fasting.
The Council of Tours in AD567 decreed that monks and nuns should fast from Saint Martin’s Day (November 11) until the Feast of the Nativity (December 24, since Christmas comes one day early in Germany).
German Lutherans in the 19th century began marking off the days until the Christmas feast with chalk marks on the wall. Children would add one small piece of straw each evening to their model of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus in the stable.
Later, the Munich-based publisher Gerhard Lang launched the first mass-produced printed advent calendar in 1901. They became significantly more popular after 1926, when a small sweet or chocolate was added behind each numbered Türchen (little door).
A collection of early Advent calendars is on permanent display at the Weihnachtsmuseum (Museum of Christmas) in the little town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, near Nuremberg. Contemporary versions have developed further to include Lego figurines for children and even small sex toys for adults.
But in these days of far right anti-Islam extremism, politicians from the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) are quick to seize on any evidence of what they call the Islamisation of Germany.
Former Bundestag member Frank Pasemann started the hate debate on social media as long ago as 2015, when the Ramadan Advent calendar first arrived in his local branch of the Kaufland supermarket chain.
And then on February 23, the AfD doubled its support to take second place in the German federal elections, with 21% of the vote. Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative alliance who will be the next chancellor, has warned centrist parties to heed the surge in support for the anti-immigration AfD.
Jane Whyatt has worked as a journalist, newsreader and independent producer for the BBC and commercial TV networks
