Visitors to Dortmund’s Christmas market have been left confused after mulled wine mugs adorned with slogans promoting Luxembourg’s festive market appeared at the Germany city’s seasonal event.

Several such mugs, which were meant to be inscribed with the words “Dortmund Christmas City 2024”, instead refer to Luxembourg’s Christmas market on one side, and contain an image of the bridge – the Passerelle – that spans the Pétrusse Valley in Luxembourg’s capital, on the other.

The mugs are modelled on a penguin, which in turn is wearing a red and white scarf and holding a sign in one of its fins.

After the initial suspicion that the Luxembourg cups could have simply been brought in by visitors, there is now an explanation that seems far more plausible in view of the frequency of the cases.

It appears that the operator of the mulled wine stand at Dortmund’s festive market was simply supplied with the wrong mugs.

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“We also learned from the amusing reporting from Dortmund that travel-loving Luxembourg penguins have strayed to Dortmund,” Guido Schlepütz, managing director of the German company Mohaba, told the Luxemburger Wort.

The company, based in Düren, produces glass, porcelain and ceramic cups and mugs according to customer requirements and has clients in both Dortmund and Luxembourg. And something seems to have gone wrong.

However, Schlepütz is unable to provide a precise explanation. “Unfortunately, we cannot determine whether a box was packed up incorrectly in our warehouse or whether a few Luxembourg mugs were mixed in with their Dortmund counterparts at the factory,” he said. At least the customer from Luxembourg received all of the cups he had ordered, Schlepütz noted.

Most of these kinds of errors occur when the mugs are being packed. “When several million mulled wine cups leave the warehouse within a few weeks, there can be some stray items,” said the Mohaba managing director.

However, he remains relaxed about the latest incident, especially since the stand operator in Dortmund is unlikely to have suffered a loss as a result – quite the opposite. “Many people are trying to get hold of these exact cups,” explained Schlepütz. “The passion for collecting has been awakened.”

(This article was originally published by the Luxemburger Wort. Translation and editing by John Monaghan)