Frohe Weihnachten! Below, you will find a free German wordsearch to practice Christmas themed vocabulary. Meanwhile, if you ever noticed the “nachten” in Weihnachten and wondered if it had anything to do with Nacht, you would be right! But what is a Weih? And shouldn’t it be Nächte (the plural of Nacht)?
Tja. It’s an old word. It comes the from Middle High German wīhenahten. Which came from ze den wīhen nahten. Which meant in the holy nights. Weihen still exists on its own, too. It means to consecrate.
And that brings us to Weihnachten. Sometimes, old words hang around in a language when they get attached to phrases or important Traditionen that are celebrated year after year for Jahrhunderte. Just like sometimes, when your degree is in something like Germanic languages and literatures, obscure knowledge about the history of Wörter hangs around waiting for an opportunity to be shared.
Which of these Weihnachtssymbole are you familiar with? The word list is below. How many can you find? For more German practice, check out my collection of interactive German exercises. And subscribe below if you would like to be notified of new content. Enjoy the free German wordsearch!
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