Christmas Market Malaga - Berna Cristina

The Malaga Christmas Market is a completely different experience from the Christmas Markets in the German speaking World. This is not only due to the lovely weather but also to significant cultural differences.

Malaga is one of the oldest cities not only in Spain but in the World, inhabited for almost 3000 years.

The Christmas Market appears to have started in the late Middle Ages in Germany. The Middle Ages is a long historic period in Europe starting abt 500 AD with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and lasting to abt 1500 AD when the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery took over.

It started as the Welcoming of Christ the Child - "Christ Kind" in German - at the beginning of the four Sundays of Advent that ends with Christmas Day, which is the 25 December.

The Christmas market is a fair connected with the seasonal period and infused with our religion, which very much organized everybody's lives back then.

In Medieval times, rights to hold fairs were often granted by the feudal lords to convents and bishoprics both as income generation for the religious work and as a city development tool. Many towns trace their prosperity to the market rights. The close association between the local cathedral and the Christmas market is still evident although the taxes now go elsewhere.