The John-Henry Westen Show - December 22, 2022


Celebrating Traditional Christmas with Germany's Princess Gloria — PART 1

Topics
traditional German Christmas market Christmas traditions in Germany
Hosted by
John-Henry Westen
Mentioned
Saint Elizabeth Advent Donar Oak John Henry Weston Saint Bernard Stille Nacht Mother Earth Pope Francis Jim Hale Regensburgs Augustus Lisieux Johnny Justin Gloria Avila
1,000+ Communist Priests Infiltrated the Catholic Church in America Celebrating Traditional Christmas with Germany's Princess Gloria — PART 2

Episode Stats


Length

22 minutes

Words per minute

134.66

Word count

3,047

Sentence count

285

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

11

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Join us for a beautiful and traditional Christmas in Germany, where Princess Gloria leads us through the most glorious Christmas market in all of Germany! We are in the middle of the Frontenau Schloss, the Fronternes Schloss in Regensburg, and our host is Princess Gloria. We wanted to bring you, all of our great supporters, listeners and viewers of Life Site News, a glimpse of a traditional beautiful Christmas. We know we ve been deprived of that at the White House over the last year, and unfortunately, also at the Vatican for the last couple of years. So we wanted to give you a beautiful Catholic holy, real Christmas celebration, no better place to do it than here in Germany with Princess Gloria!

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to Regensburg in Germany, where we are in the middle of the
00:00:11.320 Fronturne Taxes Schloss, the Fronturne Taxes Castle, and our host is Princess
00:00:16.040 Gloria. We wanted to bring you, all of our great supporters, our readers and
00:00:21.280 viewers of LifeSite News, a glimpse of a traditional beautiful Christmas. We know
00:00:27.160 we've been deprived of that at the White House over the last year and
00:00:32.080 unfortunately also at the Vatican for the last couple years, actually the last
00:00:35.920 number of years. So we wanted to give you a beautiful Catholic holy real Christmas
00:00:42.320 celebration. No better place to do it than here in Germany with Princess Gloria.
00:00:47.260 She's going to take us through a number of things. First of all the beautiful
00:00:53.680 Christmas market that they have right here in the castle. These walls of the
00:00:59.920 castle surround the most glorious Christmas market in all of Germany. Please
00:01:06.120 join us for a beautiful and traditional Christmas in Germany.
00:01:11.600 So you have the Christmas tree on. So of course, most of the things are culinary. You can
00:01:17.840 eat the Bavarian specialities, but you can also buy local handicrafts. You see here you
00:01:25.320 have the tradition. This is food that sweets that are always good. You also get in
00:01:29.920 Octoberfest, but here all the nuts is more for Advent. Yes, this is a typical time where
00:01:37.480 because it's cold. You need a lot of calories. Then you eat the nuts, which are good for
00:01:42.800 your nerves. Now here you have the traditional way that for the swine. This is pork. Very nice
00:01:51.960 pork. And of course, in these temperatures you love to eat this kind of food. Very, very
00:01:57.480 traditional for Bavarian. And look, this beautiful little Christmas tree. Isn't it wonderful? She
00:02:07.480 designs it herself. This is fantastic. This is a stand to warm up. This is a high percentage
00:02:15.600 of course. A liquor. We drink for the LiveSide News, for the international visitors or the international
00:02:27.600 viewers of LiveSide News. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We have to drink
00:02:32.600 this because it's so cold now. Merry Christmas. What do you think, Johnny? Beautiful. It's very,
00:02:43.600 very strong, but very good. Very, very good. It's got a, it's got a taste. It's very, very
00:02:49.600 strong, but it's got a beautiful taste underneath that. Beautiful. And of course the sausages.
00:02:57.600 That's very Bavaria. Look at the sausages. Oh, wow. This is the Regensburgs facility.
00:03:02.600 It's got a good nap. And it's also very, very tasty, very strong. Justin? How much are
00:03:10.600 you? A little bit. A little bit.
00:03:15.600 Let me remind you, the only way we can do what we're doing right now is with your support.
00:03:20.600 And as you know, we're in the last couple of days before the end of our Christmas fundraiser,
00:03:25.600 so we'd love it if you could support what we're doing to bring you tradition and truth
00:03:30.600 from around the world. Let's begin as you always do with the sign of the cross. In the name of the
00:03:36.600 Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. So I would love for you to tell us about
00:03:44.600 Christmas in Germany. Yeah. I would love to. So Christmas has a great tradition and it starts
00:03:52.600 with the Advent and we sit around the Advent and we basically sing Christmas carols like
00:03:59.600 we will do this afternoon. And the Christmas carols are nothing else but prayers sung.
00:04:05.600 And so through the Advent you have special foods. And we have the Lebkuchen, we have Spekulatius,
00:04:15.600 we have a lot of sweets that are only eaten during Advent. You will not eat them in January.
00:04:23.600 You only eat them in Advent and they have special spices and they are totally connotated with Advent and Christmas.
00:04:34.600 And so everything that you eat and smell is something that remains in your tradition.
00:04:43.600 So in the Advent you also have special masses where you only have candlelight.
00:04:49.600 We call them the Rorate masses, candlelight mass, which is also beautiful.
00:04:55.600 This is all to prepare for the arrival of Christ. And then of course, finally, on 24, which is Christmas night,
00:05:07.600 we celebrate Christmas night. The Anglo-Saxon world celebrates Christmas morning.
00:05:14.600 But here it is Christmas night and the children believe that it's baby Jesus who brings them the presents.
00:05:23.600 The angels, we do not have Father Christmas.
00:05:27.600 Father Christmas is a Protestant Anglo-Saxon invention. 0.93
00:05:35.600 In the Catholic world, in Germany, it's Jesus, baby Jesus and the angels.
00:05:42.600 The Italians, again, have another tradition.
00:05:45.600 They don't have the same Christmas tradition.
00:05:48.600 I think the only Christmas tradition that took on in the whole world was in the German-speaking, 1.00
00:05:56.600 including Austria, Switzerland, and Germany.
00:06:01.600 And so what happens is on Christmas Eve, we all get dressed up very elegantly.
00:06:07.600 The man put on a black tie.
00:06:09.600 The ladies put on either a long dress or a cocktail dress. 0.99
00:06:13.600 And we gather at 5 o'clock when it's dark outside, and we have the candles lit, and we sing our Christmas carols.
00:06:22.600 And then one of us, or from the employees maybe if there is somebody from the employees in the house,
00:06:29.600 otherwise one of us will leave the room silently and will ring a bell.
00:06:35.600 And then the children will say, we heard the bell, we heard the bell.
00:06:39.600 And, oh, that means that baby Jesus has just left, and baby Jesus is telling us we can come.
00:06:46.600 And then we go singing in a procession to the room, which is decorated as a Christmas room.
00:06:53.600 It will have a Christmas tree.
00:06:55.600 The Christmas tree is a pine tree, and it will be decorated with glass balls and candles.
00:07:04.600 And when you can stay with the tree, you can use some real candles for the smell.
00:07:10.600 Otherwise, better use the electrical, because we already had an incident in the family.
00:07:15.600 A little boy burned.
00:07:17.600 Oh, wow.
00:07:18.600 Yes, because when it lit fire, it's very quick.
00:07:22.600 Very quick.
00:07:24.600 So we enter in the room, and there is a lit Christmas tree.
00:07:27.600 Everything else is dark, and we will have the Nativity scene.
00:07:31.600 And we will kneel down in front of the Nativity scene, and we will read the Gospel of Lucas.
00:07:39.600 In these days, Emperor Augustus called everybody to be counted.
00:07:46.600 And we read this, and then after it's finished, one of us reads it.
00:07:51.600 And then we sing Stille Nacht, maybe one Strophe. 0.86
00:08:01.600 And then when that's done, we open a champagne, and we wish each other Merry Christmas, and we
00:08:08.600 give each other our presents.
00:08:10.600 And that can take some time, because if there's 10 people in the room, it takes some time.
00:08:16.600 Then we go and have dinner.
00:08:19.600 And then after dinner, we will wait until 11 o'clock.
00:08:26.600 And then we go to church.
00:08:28.600 Wow.
00:08:29.600 Very late at night.
00:08:31.600 And then after church, we have to stay up all night and enjoy the festivity.
00:08:39.600 And then the next day on the 25th, we go to church again, because it's Christmas Day.
00:08:48.600 And it will be a festive day as well.
00:08:51.600 Everybody gets dressed up, and we will gather not in the kitchen, but in the drawing room
00:08:57.600 and in the nice dining room.
00:08:59.600 It will be beautifully decorated, and we will still enjoy our presents.
00:09:04.600 And maybe something hasn't been opened last night, and we will open presents.
00:09:10.600 And we basically sit together and enjoy the Christmas cakes, the different Christmas sweets, and be together.
00:09:23.600 And in Germany, do you still have the tradition where Christmas sort of starts on the night of the 24th?
00:09:30.600 Does it continue on as well?
00:09:32.600 Because in the old rite, it used to go to February 2nd.
00:09:35.600 But is there that continuation as well?
00:09:37.600 Exactly.
00:09:38.600 Exactly.
00:09:39.600 We go.
00:09:40.600 We continue to.
00:09:42.600 I know that the Vatican II stops, I think, on January 10th or something.
00:09:50.600 We don't do that.
00:09:51.600 We leave our Christmas decoration.
00:09:53.600 I thought it's February 7th.
00:09:56.600 No, it is Lichtmess, we call it.
00:09:58.600 February 2nd.
00:09:59.600 February 2nd.
00:10:00.600 Until that day, for us, is Christmas.
00:10:04.600 Beautiful.
00:10:05.600 Beautiful.
00:10:06.600 Please have a drink there.
00:10:13.600 What is the...
00:10:14.600 So, my understanding is that the tradition of the Christmas tree, which really everybody has,
00:10:20.600 but it comes from Germany.
00:10:23.600 The Christmas tree is basically from its original, it is a pagan thing.
00:10:31.600 Mm-hmm.
00:10:32.600 It's a pagan tradition that found its way into the Christian tradition.
00:10:37.600 But that happened very often because the Christians of the old times who were missionaries were clever. 0.96
00:10:43.600 Because why take away from the pagans the things they really love?
00:10:47.600 Let's transform them and make them Christian. 1.00
00:10:50.600 It's a much smoother way to missionary than to say that your stuff is all bad and it has to be abolished.
00:10:57.600 No.
00:10:58.600 So, you bring in rites that are not harming.
00:11:02.600 All the rites that are not satanic in any way can be incorporated in the Christian tradition.
00:11:09.600 And that's exactly what happened.
00:11:10.600 And that's why the tree has now a very fixed and very important role because also very decorative.
00:11:16.600 A tree, a green, a tree that is green all year round and that you can decorate looks wonderful in the room.
00:11:23.600 Mm-hmm.
00:11:24.600 Absolutely.
00:11:25.600 Tell us if you know the story of St. Boniface and the Donar Oak.
00:11:29.600 Donar Oak.
00:11:30.600 Oh, yes.
00:11:31.600 Well, apparently, the Germanic people were not old.
00:11:38.600 They had several gods, which is very confusing, of course.
00:11:42.600 But one god was the oak tree.
00:11:46.600 The oak tree was worshipped and Mother Earth and, I don't know, many, many gods.
00:11:53.600 And that was a problem for the pagans because the pagans, if they served one god, another god was aggressive and jealous.
00:12:01.600 So, people were kept in fear because you could do one good, you did the other one something bad.
00:12:08.600 So, when Christianity came, in a sense, it was a great relief to the people that they learned that their god loves the human being and wants you to worship one god and not 50 and certainly not a tree.
00:12:24.600 And when St. Boniface came and he knocked down the tree and wanted to build a church or an altar instead, of course, the pagans got angry and eventually he was killed.
00:12:41.600 But his missionary work and his legacy fell on very fertile ground because he started the Christianism in Germany.
00:12:56.600 We would still be heathens today if we didn't have St. Boniface.
00:13:00.600 Beautiful.
00:13:01.600 And so, the tradition of the nativity scene is a very great tradition here in Germany.
00:13:10.600 In Rome, we always used to go and see the nativity scene.
00:13:14.600 And then with Pope Francis, we had a couple of very strange ones.
00:13:19.600 First, it was a scandalous one around homosexuality. 0.96
00:13:22.600 But then the next year, we had the Martian one. 0.95
00:13:25.600 We didn't know how to describe it.
00:13:27.600 But Germany has a lot of tradition in both the carvings that are just so beautiful.
00:13:36.600 I think probably more beautiful than anywhere else in the world.
00:13:39.600 Probably the most famous is from Obamagau.
00:13:44.600 Yes.
00:13:45.600 Where both crucifixes, but also the carvings.
00:13:47.600 The carvings, the woodcarvers.
00:13:48.600 It's the home of the woodcarvers.
00:13:50.600 But we have to say also Italy, especially Naples.
00:13:54.600 I have a small collection of nativity scenes which I would love you to look at.
00:13:59.600 Oh, great.
00:14:00.600 And I showed one.
00:14:01.600 I hope you will take a picture of it also because we decorated the altar with it.
00:14:07.600 Yes, Bavaria, especially Bavaria, has an old tradition of nativity scenes.
00:14:13.600 And it's wonderful because it shows the children what Christianity is all about.
00:14:19.600 Because Christ was born and with the message of the God, the Savior of the world was born.
00:14:28.600 Of course, the devil got into action and wanted to kill him immediately.
00:14:31.600 And that's what we celebrate.
00:14:34.600 When we celebrate just a day or two before, on the 28th, we celebrate the children that were killed by Herodes.
00:14:41.600 Because Herodes wanted no other king next to him than himself and he was fearing.
00:14:47.600 And that's what we have today. 0.99
00:14:49.600 We kill children in the womb of their mothers. 1.00
00:14:52.600 That's nothing different than killing children altogether. 0.98
00:14:57.600 And therefore, the Christian message is so strong and the Christian iconography and the pictures 0.98
00:15:07.600 and everything that you can see and touch.
00:15:10.600 It's very important to teach the children what the religion is all about.
00:15:19.600 There's great preparation in terms of what you do to set up the creche.
00:15:25.600 It's a tradition that is not in America, some people do it, but it's not nearly as widespread and as carefully done with such, you know, concern and beauty as it is here.
00:15:38.600 What do you think grounds it here?
00:15:40.600 What do you think has held up that tradition here?
00:15:43.600 Well, because, of course, Europe is a thousand year old Christianity. 0.99
00:15:48.600 And, of course, the traditions are given, passed on generation by generation.
00:15:53.600 And it follows a protocol.
00:15:55.600 For example, in our country, for the Catholics, it's not seen well if you put up the Christmas tree too early.
00:16:02.600 The Christmas tree has to be up on 24th before you only have the advance cards.
00:16:08.600 So everything follows a protocol and has its time and it makes it more fun because there's more variety in what's happening during these four weeks.
00:16:20.600 And the creche, as you say, or the nativity scene, for example, we do not put the three kings until the three kings day.
00:16:33.600 Or if they are there, they are far out.
00:16:36.600 If you have like the one that I have on the other, it's complete with merchants and the city life and this whole Neapolitan scenery.
00:16:48.600 But still, the musicians and then closer to the three kings.
00:16:55.600 January 6th.
00:16:56.600 They move further on in the dramaturgy of the setting.
00:17:03.600 Now, it's really funny because I think a lot of people regard a lot of the biblical stories as merely fables.
00:17:11.600 Yet, in more ancient countries, especially like Germany, there's a real, not only tradition, but history to it.
00:17:19.600 In fact, the city of Köln or Cologne, as they call it in America, is actually Dreikönigstadt, the city of the three kings.
00:17:30.600 Why is that?
00:17:31.600 Because they have this amazing relic of the three kings.
00:17:36.600 It's in a beautiful, large sort of cathedral coffin.
00:17:43.600 And it's where the bones are inside.
00:17:46.600 And it is since, I think, 800 years it is there.
00:17:50.600 And so, that's why it's called the city and a great veneration for the three kings.
00:17:56.600 Because, again, the three kings show the international aspect and the non-racist aspect of Christianity.
00:18:05.600 It's the only religion that is totally not racist because everybody who joins the faith becomes brother and sister.
00:18:15.600 And how can you be racist with your brother and sister?
00:18:20.600 And you see with these three foreigners that look so totally different than the population in Israel, 1.00
00:18:30.600 it's also a sign that the Christian message has spread all over the world.
00:18:35.600 And these very high and mighty persons have said, oh, we have to go and worship.
00:18:43.600 And they go for this very, very long trip to find baby Jesus in the cradle.
00:18:51.600 What are your favorite saints?
00:18:56.600 Okay.
00:18:57.600 Oh, that's a very difficult one.
00:18:59.600 Because I am surprised every day when I read in my saint book, The Saint of the Day.
00:19:08.600 And I must say, I encounter so many fabulous saints.
00:19:15.600 And I like the saints because I like the history of the early Middle Ages.
00:19:23.600 And because they had it so tough in those days because it was ice cold in the castles.
00:19:31.600 And for example, I like very much Saint Elizabeth.
00:19:34.600 Saint Elizabeth was a daughter of a king and she got sent to Bavaria to be a queen here.
00:19:44.600 And her husband was not very nice to her, but still she was trying to do her very best.
00:19:50.600 And she was very kind to the poor.
00:19:52.600 I like Elizabeth.
00:19:53.600 Elizabeth of Hungary.
00:19:55.600 Elizabeth of Hungary, exactly.
00:19:57.600 And then I like very much also Saint Teresa from Lisieux.
00:20:04.600 And I like very much Saint Teresa from Avila.
00:20:09.600 And I like so many.
00:20:12.600 I like also very much Saint Teresa Avila's very, very good friend Saint John.
00:20:20.600 And, of course, I love Saint Bernadette because she helps the sick.
00:20:30.600 And I like, of course, Saint Anthony because he's so helpful.
00:20:35.600 Just the other day he helped me again.
00:20:37.600 I lost three things.
00:20:39.600 Three things I lost.
00:20:41.600 And I said to Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony, I don't know what I did wrong.
00:20:45.600 Maybe I didn't pay you.
00:20:47.600 I cannot believe I never paid.
00:20:49.600 Because that's what you cannot do if you promise him.
00:20:51.600 Because it's for the poor.
00:20:53.600 If you promise Saint Anthony, you are giving to the poor.
00:20:56.600 But if you don't give what you promised, you are going to lose something else.
00:21:00.600 And he is going to make it very difficult for you.
00:21:03.600 So I was asking him, did I ever not pay you?
00:21:06.600 Please, please, please.
00:21:09.600 I know that you will help me.
00:21:11.600 And sure enough, the three things reappeared.
00:21:14.600 Beautiful.
00:21:16.600 Hey, friends of LifeSite News.
00:21:18.600 I hope you have enjoyed our traditional Christmas here in Regensburg, Germany.
00:21:23.600 We are standing right now on an 11th century stone bridge.
00:21:28.600 And here you are.
00:21:29.600 You can hear bells tolling in the background.
00:21:33.600 Iconic clock behind us here.
00:21:35.600 This is a traditional glorious Christmas, which we've been so happy to bring to you.
00:21:40.600 We couldn't do this without your support.
00:21:42.600 I want to thank you for that.
00:21:44.600 And we're not going anywhere.
00:21:45.600 In fact, if you tune in tomorrow, we're going to be talking with Princess Gloria again about
00:21:51.600 traditional faith in Germany.
00:21:52.600 You want to catch that for sure.
00:21:54.600 And we'll be back also on the 26th.
00:21:57.600 Remember, Christmas just starts now.
00:21:59.600 We're into the last week of Advent.
00:22:01.600 Christmas just starts on the 25th.
00:22:03.600 And on the 26th, we'll be back again with another piece with Princess Gloria.
00:22:09.600 And we'll be looking at her feeding the poor, hundreds of poor, every day for the last 0.75
00:22:16.600 more than 100 years here in Germany at the Thunentaxes Castle.
00:22:20.600 From Regensburg, from Jim Hale behind the camera, and myself, John Henry Weston, we wish you a happy
00:22:26.600 and holy Christmas.
00:22:27.600 May God bless you.
00:22:28.600 .