Spring Holidays and Festivals in Germany

If you travel in Germany in the Spring you might be surprised to find that there is a holiday somewhere almost every week.

One of these festivals in Germany, celebrated by German of the “Kurpfalz” and the area around it, such as the Neckar Valley, is held a few weeks before Easter and is the Sommertagszug that can be translated as “Summer Day Parade”.

This special event, the Sommertagszug, is celebrated about three weeks before Easter (the exact date may vary from one town to another due to local traditions), on the Laetare Sunday (Sonntag Laetare), also called Mid-Lent, in the south-west provinces of Germany. It is a Frühlingfest (a Spring party) to welcome summer and tell winter that its time has come and it must go away.

A Zug (train-parade) made of lots of kids costumed as little ducklings wearing yellow rain jacket and duck’s head as hats parades in town holding big Bretzels placed at the tip of sticks decorated with multicolour ribbons. Some of these big Bretzels have a cooked egg in the middle.

There is also, pulled along by some happy men and boys wearing costumes, a snowman standing on a dried up tree made of straw representing old winter. And further along, on a green tree decorated with vividly coloured eggs garlands, we can see a rooster and a crane representing spring and summer. During the parade, the kids are signing a song telling winter to go, that summer is here.

At the end of the parade, the winter tree and the snowman are burned in a big bonfire with everyone standing around it and happily singing that winter is dead and summer day is here.

Also a few weeks before Easter, many towns hold Ostermarkt (Easter markets; a bit like the better known Christmas market). The shops in these markets sell beautifully decorated eggs, crafts and springtime ornaments of all sorts.

Of course, the chocolate bunnies and eggs also show up in stores soon after the St. Nikolaus disappear. But be careful with these chocolates: many German Easter bunnies and eggs are filled with Schnapps or other liquor.

Another word of advice: Germans like their silence. So, the rule of “Do not disturb your neighbours” applies on Holidays and festivals in Germany as well as on Sundays. No loud music outside, no mowing of the lawn or washing the car by the side of the house.

At Easter, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, modern-day Easter traditions still contain traces of even older pagan rituals. Dying eggs, for instance, goes back to a pre-Christian symbol of fertility. Over the centuries a variety of regional Easter traditions developed across Germany, some of which are still lovingly kept alive today.

One popular tradition that is still very much alive today is Easter egg hunting. Children especially love hunting for Easter eggs in the garden or around the house on Easter Sunday. Some families also hide nests containing small gifts, or they hold competitions at the breakfast table in which two people knock the tips of their hard-boiled eggs together and the one whose egg stays whole is the winner.

The kids have usually 2 weeks of vacation from school at Easter.

Another festivals in Germany in Spring is the Christi Himmelfart (Ascension Day) and it is on a Thursday, 40 days after Easter.

Since the late 19th century, this has been a traditional day for men to go on outings with clubs or groups that they belong to. And because it is celebrated as the day that Jesus returned to his father in Heaven, it is also celebrated as Vatertag (Father's day) in Germany.

As for Mother’s day, it is the same as in USA, on the second Sunday in May.

Still another holiday or festival, Pfingsten (Pentecost or also called Whitsun) falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter and is a real holiday in Bavaria (a very Catholic area of Germany) where the children have a two-week vacation from school for the Pentecost. In other regions of Germany, there might be shorter vacations or just the holiday itself.

The name itself, Pentecost, is from the Greek origin, meaning the 50th day after Easter. It is the celebration of the ascent of the Holy Spirit onto the Apostles after Jesus ascension to Heaven 10 days before. It is also seen as the real day of the foundation of the Christian Church.

Fronleichnam (Corpus Christi Day), one of the other festivals in Germany, is the Thursday after Pentecost. It is to celebrate the Christian sacrament of the holy communion.

In many towns, people will have decorated their houses with fresh greens, flags and small outdoor altars. A procession led by the children who have received their first communion a few weeks earlier march through the streets. Joining the procession, is the priest who carried under a canopy the communion wafers which are placed in a highly decorated container. Sometimes, the church service is held outdoors.

Now, on the first of May, in addition to be the international Labour Day, in Germany it is also the day of the Maibaum (Maypoles) one of the well known festivals in Germany.

The customs vary from region to region but a few things stay about the same. The young men of the town get a tall tree and cut off all the branches except the very top one. Then the tree is decorated with paper steamers or painted and put up in the town center on April 30th. This is usually quite a spectacle and most town people will be there celebrating.

And now, the real fun begins: the tree has to be guarded all night otherwise the young men of a neighbouring villages might come and steal it! And that would be a great dishonour for the young men but also for the whole town! And so, what better excuse than to stay up all night partying!

There is another reason to be on the look out on April 30th: according to German legends, this is the night that the Hexen (the witches) gather in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. It is called Walpurgisnacht (Night of Walpurgis) or Hexenacht (the Night of the Witches).

In the Land of Thüringen on or around the Brocken, the highest mountain in the Harz, there is much activity on that evening.

In other areas of Germany, children might play pranks on their neighbours: putting soap in the windows, toilet paper in the trees, moving garbage bins in the middle of the road, etc. And they can blame it on the witches!

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 883