圣誕樹上掛根兒腌黃瓜！

Every family has its own holiday traditions. Maybe they open Christmas presents after dinner. Perhaps they hang stockings up for their pet. Some might display homemade decorations.

每一個家庭都有自己的節(jié)日傳統(tǒng)。有些人或許會在晚飯后打開圣誕禮物，有些人或許會為自家的寵物懸掛圣誕襪，還有些人甚至或許會懸掛自制的裝飾品。

Others might hide a Christmas pickle ornament in their tree, as simplemost highlights.

而其他人，則可能會在圣誕樹上隱藏一根腌黃瓜飾品，以此作為最簡樸的點睛之筆。

This tradition, which allegedly has roots in Germany, has been adopted by a growing number of American households in the Midwest and elsewhere. Usually, the glossy green ornament in the shape and texture of a pickle is hung somewhere deep in the tree. The first child to find the pickle on Christmas morning is the recipient of good luck in the coming year and a special gift. (The other children are presumably fresh out of luck.)

這一據稱源于德國的傳統(tǒng)已被越來越多的美國中西部家庭所采用。通常來說，這種外觀與紋理如同腌黃瓜的綠色光滑裝飾物會懸掛在圣誕樹的深處。第一個在圣誕節(jié)早晨找到這個腌黃瓜的孩子將會獲得來年的好運以及一份特殊禮物。

Many of these families are under the impression that the Christmas pickle, or Weihnachtsgurke, was brought over to the United States by German immigrants. It’s been said the poverty-stricken people of 19th-century Spreewald, too poor to have actual ornaments, hung pickles instead.

在這些家庭中，許多人都認為圣誕腌黃瓜，或者說是「Weihnachtsgurke」，是由德國移民帶入美國的。據說在19世紀，居住于施普雷瓦爾德的窮人由于窮到買不起真正的裝飾品，所以才會以腌黃瓜為代替品。

While all of this makes some sense—or as much sense as a brined holiday ornament is ever going to make—the reality is that the vast majority of Germans have never heard of this tradition. In 2016, after word of Americans hanging pickles was picked up by German newspapers, a survey found that 91 percent of German households had no idea about Christmas pickles or what they were intended to represent.

但事實上，絕大多數(shù)德國人從未聽說過這種傳統(tǒng)。2016年，美國人懸掛腌黃瓜的消息在德國報紙上傳開后，一項調查發(fā)現(xiàn)，91%的德國家庭都不知道圣誕腌黃瓜或其原本代表什么。

It turns out that clever marketing may be behind it. When retail giant Woolworths began importing German ornaments in the 1890s, they noted that some were in the shape of a pickle and began ascribing a deeper meaning behind it. This was no ordinary ornament—it was a pickle steeped in the customs of an exotic land.

事實證明，這可能是場精明的營銷事件。當零售業(yè)巨頭Woolworths在19世紀90年代開始進口德國飾品時，他們注意到有些飾品的形狀就像一根腌黃瓜，于是便打算在其背后賦予更深層的含義：這可不是普通的裝飾品，而是一根曾浸泡在異國風情中的腌黃瓜。

Much later, in the 1990s, ornament artisans began relating the apocryphal story of the pickle, saying its green color blended with the tree and that a child would be rewarded for their “keen observation” in finding it.

晚些時候，裝飾品工匠們便開始講述有關泡菜的偽造故事。據他們所言，腌黃瓜的綠色會與圣誕樹混合，那些找到它的孩子會其「敏銳的觀察力」而獲得獎勵。

Another, far more disturbing folk origin involves an evil shopkeeper in Myra, a town that hosted the benevolent St. Nicholas in the Middle Ages. As the story goes, the shopkeeper enjoyed dismembering children and stuffing them into pickle barrels. St. Nicholas prayed, and the mutilated children emerged from their briny fates alive and well.

除此之外，還有一個令人不安的民間傳說。相傳在一個名叫Myra的小鎮(zhèn)里，住著一個討厭孩子的邪惡店主。有一天，這個邪惡店主綁架了三個小男孩，并將它們切成小塊后放入了泡菜桶中。在仁慈的圣·尼古拉斯(譯者注：圣誕老人的原型)祈禱下，當泡菜桶再次打開時，殘缺不全的孩子們安然無恙地復活了。

Whether it had origins in Spreewald or gruesome fantasies, it seems Americans embraced the tale. .

無論圣誕腌黃瓜起源于施普雷瓦爾德，還是令人毛骨悚然的幻想作品，美國人似乎都已經接受了這項傳統(tǒng)。