These are German Advent tablecloths. You don’t often see them except in December. Each of the four corners stands for one of the four Sundays in Advent. At the end of the day, the corner for that Sunday is ceremonially burnt, so after the fourth Sunday, there is only a charred heap remaining, and at the beginning of January embroidery starts on the one for the following December.
They really burn them?! Never heard of that before. My mother just places hers back after Advent.
Neither my wife nor I have ever heard of anything like this in northern Germany. Burning tablecloths must be a southern tradition, although it fits well with the German habit of celebrating holidays with open flames.
I apologize for this. I suppose it wasn’t very funny.
Why funny?
We just finished burning the third corner of ours.