Christmas & New Year's Eve Shooters
A week before Christmas Eve, starting on December 17th, the Christkind 'Christ-child' is 'rung in' by church bells and also 'shot in' to the sound of large saluting guns. In Germany, it is often Christkind who brings children gifts at Christmas and he is welcomed by a gun salute on Christmas Eve at the same time as the ringing of the church bells. As the evening proceeds, the Christmas shooting increases in volume between 11:30 and midnight reminding the inhabitants that it's time to go to midnight mass. Then silence returns to the hills.