Let's Hang Out When the Black Plague is Over ch10: Christmas / Nativity

That day has arrived again this year.

The year 2009, in the Tokyo Metroplitan area of Japan.
The year 1345, in the Franken District of the Holy Roman Empire.

A noisy and fun December.

...There is a custom that is beloved by all no matter the era or the country.

One year ends, another begins. People's feelings continue one.

The year 1353, in the Franken District of the Holy Roman Empire.
Schwonwald Village, a small estate governed by a knight.

Today is St. Nicholas' Eve...
To put it in modern terms, it's December 5th.
Rachel is baking some special bread.

Today's bread has a pretty weird shape, doesn't it?
I'll show you once it's baked.

And then...

Okay~ They came out well!
Uwah~ Cute~!!

Hey, what are these??
Why did you bake animal bread!?
They're presents for the children!
Today it's the day Saint Nicholas comes (December 5th)!
Eh???

Aren't you supposed to give presents on December 24th?
Santa's in too much of a rush!
Santa??

Ema, it's not just Nativity Day that we celebrate in the Winter!
Starting this week, we celebrate what's known as Advent!

Tomorrow is the Saint Nicholas's Day,
so tonight is night Saint Nicholas delivers presents to the children.
Nov 30th - Saturday - St. Andrew's Day
Dec 1st - Sunday - First Sabbath
Dec 4th - Wednesday - St. Barbara's Day
Dec 5th - Thursday - St. Nicholas' Eve
Dec 6th - Friday - St Nicholas' Day
Dec 8th - Sunday - Second Sabbath
Dec 13th - Friday - St. Lucy's Day
Dec 15th - Sunday - Third Sabbath
Dec 21st - Saturday - Winter Solstice, St. Thomas' Day
Dec 22nd - Sunday - Fourth Sabbath
Dec 25th - Wednesday - Nativity (Christmas)
Twelve nights from here (long holiday)
Jan 6th - Monday - Three Kings' Day (Last day of Christmas)
Eh~? I was wondering why there were so many holidays!

*Incidentally, working during a holiday back then was a crime, with fines too, so make sure you rest your bodies.

Uwah~ I've been missing out~
Everyone's already in the Christmas spirit~...

...Everyone's probably having fun with they're families~

...

Fun with family...

Master!!
Missus!!
Look!!
There was animal bread by my pillow!!

That's a present from St. Nicholas, Rachel!
Really!?
St. Nicholas likes good children like you.

...
You're wrong, Ema.
Nativity isn't just about spending time with family...

Geez~ Ema!
Don't sulk!
You have me, don't you?
!

We should have a fun Nativity together!

...
Yeah...
You're right!

Let's get back our fun Nativity starting now!
You bet!

First, let's deliver bread to the lord's mansion.
Animal bread is a staple present of St. Nicholas' Day.
Nicholas' Day...

Hey, who is this St. Nicholas?
Isn't it supposed to be Santa Claus?
Santa Claus??
Hmm~... Maybe that's what they call St. Nicholas in far off countries?
*Santa Claus is a variation of the Dutch pronunciation of Sint-Nicolaas (Saint Nicholas).

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children!
On the fifth, not the 24th, he goes around houses delivering snacks and toys as presents for the children!
He's a kind old man with a long white beard!

Heh~ Sure sounds like Santa to me~

But y'know, Ema...
St. Nicholas is only kind to good children...

If you've been bad, he'll send his horned servant Ruprecht to whip you!
Do it...
Like a Namahage...? [tn: A folklore demon who villagers dress up as on New Year's Eve to frighten children]

I've got it, Rachel.
A Halloween mask should have some impact.
Halloween...?

Wait a moment~

Thanks for waiting~
??

p10

Waaah!!
KYAAAAAAAAH!!

How'd you like my Halloween mask?
Think it'll be good for playing the Ruprecht role?
That's no good, Ema...
You'll give the children heart attackes...!!

Hallo!
I've baked some animal bread~!

p11

Ooh, Ema! Rachel!
We're already to the brim with presents!
Yes, my lord!!
Over here, you two!

They're sure to be happy with your bread, Frau Becker~
Surely not...
Wah~!

Nuts and apples! There's toys too~!
Everyone's gonna love them~
I can't wait to see the look on their faces!

Rachel.
Ema.

p12

*Erwin
I'll be playing St. Nicholas this year!
A noble such as myself is the prefect man to play a saint!!

I know! Since you're a witch, Ema, maybe you could play Ruprecht!
Wahahahaha!
...

Indeed, my lord...
Take a look at Ema's transformation...
??

Waaah!!
Uwaaaaah!!

p13

Hey, Erwin!
Think we can use this?
St. Nicholas shouldn't let himself be attacked by his servant~!
That's no good, Ema...
You're going to give the village kids heart attacks...!!

But still, your skills are truly splendid!!
You two wil play as my servants!
Yay!!

One hour after the evening bell... (In modern terms, about 7pm)
St. Nicholas comes like the wind.

First is Theresia's house.
Lutz has been a good boy, so we have a present for him!

p14

To the children in this house.
Have you been good this year?
Children who only play games will be swept away~

St. Nicholas~!!
Welcome! Please come in~!!

You've been doing well with your prayers and helping your sister.
Have some animal bread and a toy!
Let's play~

p15

Thanks for your hard work, servants.
Frau Hebamme.

Here's a present from me.
??

It's a Barbara branch (cherry tree branch) from yesterday's St. Barbara's Day.
...You probably don't know much about our culture and magic,
so you missed out in this, right?

What's this? Barbara?
It's a cherry blossom branch! You pluck it on St. Barbara's Day and if it blooms flowers before Christmas,
you'll be happy all the next year!
Heh~ So it's like a Christmas tree.
*Some argue that this is where Christmas trees originated from.

p16

...
Giving and receiving presents really is great...

Even the same things are filled with feelings and joy...
with souls inside...
It's as wonderful as magic...!!

Why so serious?
This mysterious time isn't over yet!
Now then, onto the next house!

p17

One by one, flames are lit and presents are handed over.
Along with the children's smiles, the winter in the village gradually becomes warmer.

After the night of St. Nicholas' Day
comes the second Sabbath Day.

St. Lucy's day, where you can take it easy.
Nice and warm~

The third Sabbath Day.

p18

Several nights of celebration,

St. Thomas's Day, perfect for fortune telling.

The fourth Sabbath Day.

Christmas Eve.
Papa!
Mama!
We're home!

p19

Welcome home, you two.
It's cold!

Spending Christmas with the family sure is nice!
Isn't it?
It's so warm!

Hah~
We're here!
Pardon the intrusion~

p20

Tomorrow is finally Christmas.
How was it?
More fun than spending it with your family?
Hmm~...

...
...Huh...?

...That's right...
...Back when I was in the future...
...I didn't go back home to my family...

...In the future, moving around is convenient...
Whether it's family... or friends... you can go see them whenever you want, or so I thought...

31 Sunday December

By the time I noticed it... I had stopped seeing the people dear to me...

p21

...
...

...Why is that...?

Thinking back on it... we stopped our tradition of giving presents too...
It was just convenient or unique or high-class things...
I was satisfied with just the things themselves...

...
Ema...?

Come to think of it, we future people don't believe spirits exist...
We thought of the form as everything...

We laughed at people for believing in spirits...
Even though we have so many things... we're always craving more...
...We only believed in what our eyes saw and felt.
We stopped seeing the precious formless something that lied deep within.

...
I see...
The people of this area...
were really human-like...

p22

I see...
That's what it was...

p23

That's it...
I remember, Rachel...

Soaking in the vibe of the two with someone.

Someone playing the role of Santa for me.

Sharing cake with someone.

I remember that those
were really fun times...
They were amazing...
in our world too...
Rachel...

I can't... go back anymore...
but I wanted you to see
our world too...

p24

...
...
...

Ema...
We Germans have a legend...

It is said that when the sun stops during the Winter Solstice,

the concept of time is extinguished...

The distinction between the past, the present and the future ceases to be.

p25

Surely now, you can go back.
To the future...

p27

I...
went back...
I went back...

~... I'm back!
I'm back!!

p28

Thank you, Rachel!
I love you!
I love you so much, Rachel!!

Ah, Rachel...
This world is amazing!!
It's not actually a golden country or anything,
but still...

There's amazing technology
and fun cultures
and delicious food
and kind people...
...I wanna brage about it right away~!
Rachel... Rachel~!!

p29

It really is a pretty work.
I know!
It's really amazing, isn't it?

In the 700 years since your world,
the people of the world created this wonderful world...

To make things more convenient.
To make things more comfortable.
To bring people more happiness...
What kind and beautiful magic...

p30-31

It's pretty...
It's pretty...
It's pretty...
Pretty...
Pretty...
Pretty...

p32

Simply taking in the scenery...

Eating food with a precious friend...

I never noticed before...

that these priceless and peaceful days
were overflowing with such happy magic.

p33

Happy... Happy... Happy... Happy...

p34

Ah~ That was fun~
The future...
truly has some wonderful magic.

It really...
was fun...

...

p35

Well then...
I had better get home now...

...

Ema, thank you for everything.
I'm really glad to have met you.

I made lots of fun memories just like today.
I've learned that our culture and soul...
will keep on moving us towards to a wonderful and ideal world...

p36

...I'll never forget out time together for the rest of my life.
Take care of your family.
I love you.

Me too...
I love you, Rachel!!
...

I'm sure that some day...
we'll hang out again!!

p37

Let's Hang Out When the Black Plague is Over! - Christmas in Middle Age Europe

Thank you for reading the final chapter! Now then, what kind of day is "Christmas" to you all? This holy religious holiday became commercialized through the ages and is now celebrated even in Japan. Children with gleaming eyes over presents, lovers spending a romantic day together, and maybe even some adults among you who look at it coldly. So how did they celebrate Christmas in Middle Age Europe? This time, we'll take a look at its roots of this festival and how it evolved through the ages.

St. Andrew's Day (November 30th)
The start of Advent. The Sunday closest to this day is called "the first Sabbath Day" (somewhere between November 27th and December 3rd, December 1st in the year 1353, when this work is set, according to the Julius calendar), followed by the second, third and fourth Sabbath days. In the middle ages, folklore and Christian teachings meld together, so all sorts of fortune telling ceremonies are held on this day.

St. Andrew is the third person from the left in Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper".

p38

St. Barbara's Day (December 4th)
It is customary to cut off a cherry tree branch and place it in a water pitcher as a decoration. This led to the history of Christmas trees that followed.
St. Nicholas' Day (December 6th)
The night before is when children are at their happiest. This led to the history of Santa Claus that followed.
St. Lucy's Day (December 13th)
An important event for North and South Europe.
St. Thomas' Day (December 21st)
The beginning of Winter Solstice. Time stops, souls wonder, and many fortune tellings that make use of them take place.

Christmas (December 25th)
The day Christ was born. But from reading the bible, this day being his birthday brings forth a contradiction. It was actually the birth of Ancient Rome's sun god, which Christian teachings replaced. It varies depending on the region, but most regions in Europe treated this day as the start of a new year. This led to December becoming a long holiday, so let's rest our bodies after a year of hard work!

Three Kings' Day (January 6th)
Also known as Epiphany. The day in which three kings from the East (representing Asia, Europe and Africa) arrived and recognised Christ as the embodiment of God. This is the last day of the long twelve day holiday.

p39

Christmas Trees
In Germany, it was customary on St. Barbara's day to cut off a cherry tree branch and place it in a water pitcher in a warm room. Another custom was to place an evergreen tree outside your room on Winter Solstice as a protective charm. In Austria and the Alsace region (presently Northeast France), they would decorate with Norway spruces and permisson trees, which bring up images of modern Christmas trees. In the 14th century, before the forrestation of Norway spruces in Nuremberg, deciduous broadleaf trees completely ruled over the Franken district. I imagine decorating the typical home with a persimmon tree would've proved difficult.
Germany also had a tradition known as "musikdrama", in which a cherry tree was used to represent the tree of knowledge from the bible's "Garden of Eden". This tree of paradise would soon come to be decorated, and several years after decorated trees were sold in 1605 Strasbourg, they came to be known as Christmas trees.

Santa Claus
Unlike Christmas trees, Santa Claus has a more definitive origin. Just like in the chapter, St. Nicholas was the patron saint of woman and children, and was also believed in Southern Europe to be the patron saint of travellers and sailors. According the legend, Nicholas took pity on a father who could not afford weddings for his three daughters and threw gold nuggets through his window into each of the girls' shoes. This is where the custom of putting presents in shoes and stockings began.
With the reformation of the Lutheran church, the day of giving presents was moved from the 5th to the 24th. Furthermore, when Holland handed over New Amsterdam to the British, turning it into New York, the culture of St. Nicholas remained, with the Dutch pronunciation Sint Nicolaas becoming Santa Claus, and with the influence of many different works, America established the present day image of Santa Claus.

p40

And that was Christmas in the middle ages. The history of Christmas is objective, taking a long road from the story of the bible through the religious etiquette of the middle ages before arriving at the present day commercialization. So how has this culture managed to perservere through all these years? Why, even after it went from a conceptual culture to a commercialised one, do people accept it without any misgivings? The answer is that within the true essence of Christmas lies warm spirits that bless people with happiness.
We'd probably think of the people who lived in the past were foolish, but for us, whose genes have been passed down through 700 years, our beliefs and essence aren't something that will change even after 700 years. The emotional people of the middle ages, who built up a community based on religious belief and magic in the midst of harsh nature. The pragmatic people of the present day, who struggle against exploitation and isolation as what was originally a society that should've helped each other turned into survival of the fittest due to capitalism. Despite how different we are the outside, we're all on a journey to find the truth and essence deep inside ourselves. Maybe the day will come when we can overcome our eras and walk towards the same truth together.
Surely someday...

Rachel...

p41

If you'd like, let's hang out again tomorrow too!

I'm got lots more warm culture from 700 years later to show you.
So please...
...allow me to keep feeling the warmth of your world!

p42

Don't worry.
I'll be sure to say hi to my family first!

Y-...
Yeah...!!

2024 AD, December 24th, 11:59pm.
Whoops...
I guess I should say Schwonwald Village, the year 1354, December 25th, 2am.
Happy new year!

p43

Well then, Rachel.
Yes, Ema!

Even when the year is over,
let's hang out!

Two worlds coming together...

Warning