GERMAN TRADITIONS

Do you remember all those holiday traditions from your childhood? Decorating a Christmas tree. Baking gingerbread. Hiding Easter eggs. You might be surprised to learn how many of the traditions you know came from Germany. Especially in parts of North America, England, Australia, New Zealand and Western Europe the world seems very German certain times of the year.

 

Family's across the globe color eggs, hang Christmas ornaments, put candles close to the winter solstice, and wait for the bunny to hide eggs around spring equinox. But the coolest part of these popular traditions is that when you visit Germany, you'll really get a sense of "home for the holidays". Because you'll see and do things you've done for years.

Christmas Time

The last four weeks before Christmas, Germans celebrate Advent, a romantic and delightful time of the year, which is strongly linked to fine tradition.

Christmas markets in wonderful settings invite you to share in the joy of the pre- Christmas season. Germany's first Christmas market was recorded way back in 1393. Today there are more than 2,500 beautiful Christmas markets with fairy lights and romantic huts all over the country. You'll find plenty of hand-crafted Christmas decorations, cute little incense burners, Christmas pyramids and nativity scenes to place at the heart of your Christmas display.

 

Both gingerbread houses and the Nutcracker came from German stories. In fact, before the Nutcracker became a Tchaikovsky ballet, he was the hero of an 1816 story by Berlin's Ernst Theodor Amadeus (E.T.A.) Hoffman. The gingerbread house has a similar beginning. It first appeared in the Grimm brothers' tale of Hänsel and Gretel, then in Humperdinck's short opera about the two lost children. It became a Christmas tradition in German opera houses soon after its world premiere on December 23, 1893. Few people outside Germany remember the opera any more, but the old crone's gingerbread house survives. It's rebuilt each December. Families strategically place gumdrops and frosting on the little house, while bakeries display it in their windows.

 

Gingerbread has quite a history on its own. It dates back to ancient Egypt. But it was in Nuremberg, in 1643, that gingerbread bakers were first allowed to form their own trade guild, independent of the cake and bread bakers. They had already been negotiating freedom from tariffs and developing export markets for some 250 years then. Today, one Nuremberg exporter produces about three million pieces of gingerbread a day in the months before Christmas, for shipment around the world.

 Another Christmas tradition, Advent calendars, were first printed in Germany in 1908. They're the calendars with a month's worth of treats hidden behind little paper doors. And even St. Nicholas himself, originally a 4th century bishop in Asia Minor, was first recognized in Germany. He became the patron of sailors, merchants, bakers, children and students. But in Germany, he comes on December 6th, not the 25th, and leaves his gifts in children's shoes.

 

Sing Christmas carols? Well, "Away in a Manger," is composed of 15th century words by Martin Luther. "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," is a 19th century melody by Felix Mendelssohn. "Still, Still, Still," is also German, about 1800. "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" was first written down in German in 1588 and "O Christmas Tree" ("O Tannenbaum"), written down in 1799. And of course, "Silent Night". It was famously improvised 19 years later, when a church organ broke down. The organist, Franz Gruber, quickly wrote out a song for guitar accompaniment with words by the local curate, Joseph Mohr. So even if you sing out of tune, you can still sing these popular carols in Germany. Just not too loud.

Oktoberfest

You may think German when you celebrate Christmas. You might have a feeling of German influence on Easter. But when you hear Oktoberfest, it's unmistakably a German tradition. This 16-day festival in Munich attracts over six million visitors per year. And they make about 1,320,860 gallons of beer, 400,000 pork sausages and 480,000 spit-roasted chickens disappear. By eating and drinking, of course.

The Oktoberfest started October 12,1810, at the wedding of Bavaria's Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Against tradition, the couple invited Munich's common people to the festivities. The events were held over five days on the fields in front of the city gates—now called Theresienwiese (Teresa Meadow) after the bride. Forty thousand people showed up. A year later, they decided to throw the party all over again as an anniversary tribute to the royal couple.

The big event at the first festival was a horse race and then an agricultural show. By 1818, events included a carousel and swings, tree-climbing competitions, wheelbarrow and sack races, barrel rolling races and goose chases. Mechanical rides were added in the 1870s. And in 1908, the Oktoberfest boasted Germany's first roller coaster.

To really get the party started, makeshift beer and food stands began cropping up by 1818. They kept coming until 1896 but were soon replaced by sponsored beer halls, much like today's local brewery-hosted beer tents. The horse races ended in 1960, and the agricultural show now happens once every four years.

Over time, the fair's dates were extended and eventually moved forward, to the end of September for better weather. The first Sunday in October marks its finish. It still takes place on the Theresienwiese, known to locals as "Wies'n." For two weeks, the meadow's 103 acres become a metropolis of beer tents, amusements, rides, performers and booths, peddling gastronomic delights and traditional confections. Visiting photographers are amazed by dirndl-sporting waitresses carrying almost six gallons of beer at a time—the equivalent of 66 12-ounce bottles.

Munich's mayor always opens the festivities by driving a wooden tap into a barrel of beer and proclaiming, "O'zapft is!" ("It's tapped!").

On the first Sunday, the Costume and Riflemen's Procession takes place. About 7,000 performers, marching bands, riflemen, groups in traditional garb and historic uniforms, horses, old-fashioned carriages and floats parade for two-and-half hours through the city center. The second Sunday features an open-air concert by 400 musicians from all of the Oktoberfest bands. Between events and beer tents, guests can ride a Ferris wheel, roller coaster or water slide, navigate a labyrinth, visit a haunted house, watch a variety of performers or play dozens of midway games.

Not surprisingly, Oktoberfest has inspired many similar festivals around the world, all modeled on the Bavarian original. The largest by attendance each year is in the twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. The largest in the U.S. is Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati in Ohio with a half-million visitors each year. And there are at least 110 more U. S. Oktoberfests in 36 of the 50 states, including eight each in California, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

The Easter Bunny

From the name to the bunny, it's all German. The name Easter was first appropriated by the Christian calendar. But first it was a pagan festival Ostara, celebrated on the vernal equinox, around March 21 in the Northern hemisphere. Ostara was named for the pagan goddess of spring, Eostre.

According to legend, she once saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a rabbit. Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could lay eggs. And so it became the Easter Bunny.

The bunny as a symbol for Easter is first mentioned in writings in 16th century Germany. The first edible Easter bunnies, of pastry and sugar, were also produced in Germany in the early 1800s. Around that time, children made nests of grass and settled them in their parents' spring gardens for the Easter Bunny to fill during the night with brightly decorated eggs.

Pennsylvania Dutch settlers brought the Easter bunny to America in the 1700s. Their children, who used their hats or bonnets to make their nests, believed that if they were good, the "Oschter Haws" (literally Easter Hare) would fill their upturned headgear with colored eggs.

The Easter egg hunt remains as much a tradition in German towns and cities as it is on the White House lawn in Washington, D.C. Children race to find the Bunny's colorful eggs across the world every year.


Mardi Gras' German Cousin

Many of Germany's visitors remember this event. It happens about six weeks before Easter, or the week or 10 days leading up to the beginning of Lent. It starts with Cologne's two-and-half hour Rose Monday parade.

It includes huge "Karneval" floats bearing dozens of wealthy citizens dressed as Napoleonic-era soldiers. They toss fistfuls of chewy candies to the noisy crowds on the sidewalks, exactly the way New Orleans's Mardi Gras crews toss plastic-beaded necklaces and coins. Like New Orleans, parade-float humor leans toward political satire with a local flavor. And also like New Orleans or Munich (where the pre-Lenten carnival is called Fasching) the best parties are private, organized by the parade societies. Tickets to Karneval and Fasching parties are fairly easy for non-members to obtain.

Düsseldorf, Mainz and Basel, on the Swiss border, all have pre-Lenten festivals as well. Each carry unique traditions. North Americans craving a taste of the events can find some closer to home. On Long Island, there is the 40-year-old Cologne-style costume ball. It's sponsored by an official New World offshoot of one of the most prominent Cologne Karneval societies. Other cities with Karneval parties include Windsor (Ontario), Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, Sun City (Arizona) and Indianapolis. Even a delegation from Indianapolis has participated in the Cologne Karneval as honored guests with Cologne, in turn, sending a group to Indianapolis. And a 1999 Karneval Narrentreffen (fools' meeting) in Las Vegas was videotaped by German TV's Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).