131. Festivals and Festivities

131.  Festivals and Festivities  

The German speaking world is renowned for its love of celebrating at festival time. Coming from a 'conservative' English speaking background where traditional holidays are celebrated relatively quietly, I was pleasantly surprised just how most people throw themselves with gusto into a German Fest.

The most important religious celebrations are Easter (Ostern) and Christmas (Weihnachten) and these are celebrated in the traditions most people have come to know around the Christian world. At Easter the houses, shops and restaurants are decked with all manner of decorations and the Easter Bunny (Osterhase) brings everyone's favourite chocolate. Children play games whereby dye-coloured eggs are hidden in the garden or around the house. Religious services are well attended at Easter.

At Christmas time, Sankt Nikolaus traditionally comes on the evening of December the 5th and leaves small gifts of sweets, candy, fruit and nuts in the shoes left out by the children. In the 4 weeks in the run-up to December 25th (der erste Weihnachtstag), a new door of the family's Advent's calendar (Adventskalender) is opened revealing usually a beautiful picture. A new candle on the Advent's wreath (Adventskranz) is lit. Decorations in the home and in the towns and cities are elaborate and the traditional white lights of Bavaria came as a surprise to someone used to the coloured variety in my world. The Christmas tree (Christbaum / Weihnachtsbaum) in the family home is brightly decorated and presents left beneath the tree are usually opened on Christmas Eve (der Heilige [holy] Abend) after the traditional church service. Many of the towns and cities are known world wide for their Christmas Fairs or Markets (Christkindlmarkt), the most famous of which is in Nuremberg (Nürnberg).

\

Oktoberfest and Karneval / Fasching (Fastnacht) are probably the best known festivals in the German-speaking world. Oktoberfest was introduced in Munich by King Ludwig 1 to celebrate his wedding to Princess Therese and is celebrated not in October but at the end of September by way of insurance against the onset of winter. Other towns also hold their own Oktoberfest as a last celebration before the cold sets in but Munich's is by the far the most elaborate. This takes place on the Theresienwiese ('d Wiesn') and runs for about 16 days. The fair ground is littered with massive beer hall tents, side shows and rides. Large quantities of food and beer are consumed at the time and Munich becomes a focal point for many tourists from all over the world at this time.

Karneval, also known as Fasching & Fastnet, is celebrated in the run-up to Lent and the city most famous for this celebration is Cologne. On Rosenmontag the city parade is broadcast on television for the rest of the German-speaking world and the colourful costumes are a feature of the celebration. Many towns hold a Faschingsball where participants are expected to turn up in costume, some of which are very elaborate and expensive. My own experience here was that the celebration was very lively and the locals were dancing on the tables (literally!). The dancing, to say the very least, was probably more enthusiastic than artful and the locals were never reluctant to join in the singing. 

There are numerous other festivals in this part of the world, the better ones being the Schützenfeste (shooters' festival) and Winzerfeste (wine makers' festival). With some luck you may stumble upon one of these as I did on a few occasions and local traditions will dictate activities there. One guarantee
e I can give you .... there will not be a shortage of Wurst, Bier and Wein!  Viel Spaß noch!

Easter Letter Box Berchtesgaden