Foto

December 17th, 2009
Montpellier 340172 34000
Hérault Languedoc-Roussillon
43.600 3.883 25 m

The Christmas mulled wine, Montpellier

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

One sight of the Christmas market.
Other sight of the Christmas market.

On the "Place de la Comédie", Comedy square, the MARKET of CHRISTMAS, in the middle of the City, seeks to animate and stimulate the marketing activity and the attraction of Montpellier.

The "VIN CHAUD", mulled wine, is generally made up of heated red wine, often added with cinnamon, brown sugar, peel of orange, cognac, and is consumed rather when the weather is cold.

_The Christmas markets are in the beginning a Germanic tradition under name "Market of Saint-Nicolas", and made their appearance in France in XVIe century, in 1570 in Strasbourg more exactly under the name of "Christkindlmarkt", "market of the Child Christ".
They are with the time and the exchanges extended to all France. In wood maisonnettes, exhibitors make discover and buy the products of the culinary and artisanal traditions, in an environment of Christmas maintained by the illuminations, the traditional songs of this period, and the wine odors and roast chestnut.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/March%C3%A9_de_No%C3%ABl

_For believing, Christmas is a Christian festival celebrating each year the birth of Jesus de Nazareth who, according to the New Will, was born in Bethlehem without giving precise day, and is called Nativité, of Latin "natalis" meaning "day of the birth". This festival gives place to religious offices and habits various like the exchanges of gifts, the fir tree, the crêche, the meal of family celebration.

_Christmas becomes a religious festival into 354, when the Pope Libère or Liberus fixes the date of birth of Jesus de Nazareth at December 25 in the Gregorian calendar, to promote the rise of Christianity and to replace the popular and pagan festivals celebrated around the winter solstice.
The orthodoxe Churches, which follow the Julien calendar, celebrate Christmas on January 7 of the Gregorian calendar with a shift of a few days, i.e. on December 25 of the Julien calendar.
The real date of the nativity is a very discussed subject which goes from -4 to -1 front. J.-C., which for believing imports little since they celebrate an event, an advent.

_Before the Christian era, at prehistoric times and during antiquity, this time of the winter solstice, always was the subject of manifestation like fear or belief.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel

Montpellier is a french commune, and the chief town of the Languedoc-Roussillon area, populated of 244 300 (in 2005), Montpelliérains and Montpelliéraines en 1999, distributed on 57 km², is 3 963 hab/km².

It is on 985, in a donation of the county of Melgueil, which for the first time the name of Montpellier appears.

In 2015, according to the projections established by INSEE, the urban surface of Montpellier should count more than 600.000 inhabitants.
The urban surface gathers all the communes, of which at least 40% of the active people in Montpellier, that is to say 74 communes.

The Languedoc-Roussillon area comprises five departments: the Aude, Gard, Herault, Lozere and Pyrénées-Orientales. It has as a Montpellier chief town, which is also chief town of Herault. The area knows the strongest demographic growth of France, and could count to 3 100 000 inhabitants in 2030, that is to say a rise of 34% compared to 2000.

The climate of Montpellier is a Mediterranean climate.
Contrary to a spread idea, it does not rain less in Montpellier that in Brest, but precipitations are much concentrated.

My images of Montpellier.