Festivals and Fun
Carnival, or Fasching, actually starts at 11.00 on the 11th day of 11th month, gradually building up to its climax in January and February. There are street fairs, parades and all sorts of costume balls and other indoor events, usually including high jinx and outrageous fancy-dress outfits. The Rhineland is Germany's "Carnival capital," and is said to be the biggest and best of parades, also in Koblenz, Cologne, Mainz, Bonn and Düsseldorf. There is also plenty of activity in Munich with numerous balls and celebrations gradually building up to a large carnival party gathering around Marianplatz and Viktualienmarkt on the three days leading up to Shrove Tuesday (Fastnacht, Faschings-Dienstag).
The religious calendar has a strong influence on lifestyle in Bavaria, shown more visibly with the approximate 12 public holidays each year. There are also numerous festivals which most visitors enjoy for their fun and entertainment, but they are all steeped in history of the Saint's days, which are celebrated (some more than others) on every day of the year.
There is not even a break during the cold winter months; there are outdoor markets at Christmas time, and they only have to set up a ladder once after Christmas, using it both to take down the Christmas greenery and hang the coloured streamers for the Carnival season. The following gives a brief insight into the regular events throughout the year.
(2-middle weeks of March)
Carnival was supposed to be the last fling before the grim days of fasting for Lent, a period during which you wouldn't expect to see many festivals. Nevertheless, there is the "strong beer season" in Munich, with bands and merrymaking in most beer halls. It grew out of a Lenten practice where the consumption of meat was verboten, so they came up with a typically Bavarian solution: strong, nutritious beer to sustain them during these cold days! Beer halls hold 'Starkbierfests' most notorious of them is Nockherberg, a short walk from Rosenheimerplatz S-Bahn. Built on the Nockherberg Hill site of the former monastery. Mariahilfplatz
The Starkbierfest (literally, strong beer festival) has all the main ingredients of the much bigger, bawdier Oktoberfest, but without the rampant commercialism and tour groups. There's drinking by the litre mug, roast chicken, sausages and pretzels galore, long tables of swaying lederhosen, and ear-splitting oompah bands. Present day Starkbierfest rituals involve the city major and the Bavarian state premier tapping the first Salvator barrel and receiving the first litre mug of the "season." There is much wearing of lederhosen; the rough, green woolen Trachten jackets; and swirling ladies' dirndl dresses.
Once the prominent first-day guests have all been served the first mug of Spring Cure, bratwurst and sauerkraut, they settle down to the other quintessential feature: the adulation of the Bavarian language, Bayerisch, or Baierisch. It's not just a heavy dialect of German, but almost a language of its own, which can be impenetrable to a northern Prussian; there are books written in Bayerisch, too. The Starkbierfest has become a kind of guardian of the local lingo. A prominent "patriotic" thespian, suitably lubricated, is commissioned to recite poetry or tell a Bavarian fairy tale, accompanied by a gentle Bavarian harp or xylophone. The raucous brass oompah band comes later.
Most of Munich's 13 large and micro breweries produce a beer called 'doppelbock' during March but, unlike the Oktoberfest when all of the main breweries are involved, only one of them is the focal point of these festivities: Paulaner, producer of the original Salvator Doppelbock.
The unique Paulaner speciality, Salvator, is strong, and has the typically malt flavour of the "original Paulaner". The bottom-fermented Doppelbock beer, brewed according to an old monastery recipe, forms a perfect symbiosis of the finest hops and dark barley malt.
Information: original wort: 18.3%, alcohol: 7.5%, calories: 70.6 kcal/100 ml
Although the Salvator beer testing ("probe") is the chief feature of the Starkbier season, rival Lowenbrau Brewery holds is own fest at the same time, with its sweeter and heavier Triumphator Doppelbock. The Lowenbrau fest is held across town at the Lowenbraukeller next to the brewery. Instead of poetry and tongue-twisting dialect, the Lowenbrau fest celebrates the strong beer season by organizing feats of strength and endurance. Muscular figures in lederhosen are invited on stage to challenge previous years' records. One of the strength tests is to see who can hold a full litre mug of Triumphator at arm's length the longest without spilling any. It is an endurance in more ways than one as the perspiring, red-faced contestants stare longingly at the tempting beer wobbling at the end of their arms. There are far easier ways of "probing" a doppelbock.
There are the Good-Friday/Easter Monday holidays with similar celebrations as in UK, with church festivals and easter-egg hunts for the children, and a large festival to celebrate Spring with the "Frühlingsfest" held on the Theresienwiese site. This is known as the 'mini-Oktoberfest' with a large funfare and two beer-tents.
May-day celebrations of maypoles being hoisted in all towns, the history here is each "maypole" has carvings of tradesmen or main trade in the area (carpenters/iron mongers/farmers etc) and this is hoisted as a tribute to them. However as history tells us, each year neighbouring towns steal these poles in the middle of the night, leaving a scroll for the Town in which they ask for payment for the return of the maypole, payment is usually required in the form of huge quantities of beer!
Since the year 1756, three times a year, travelling merchants, antique dealers and migrating sales people, gather under the Mariahilf (Maria-help) church to display and sell their wares. Kids can jump on their favorite mardi gras rides and enjoy cotton candy and toasted almonds while father and mother dig into a juicy Currywurst or Fischsemmel (fish sandwich). Everything from bavarian blue china to the latest in "chop" technology can be found. Though try aiming for the real classics with decades of fast selling experience like the billige Jakob ("inexpensive Jack") in the far back. Amazing how he puts together instant improvised "specials", you just want to watch, but you end up buying 10 pairs of shoe laces, a small purse and hand lotion for €3, how could you resist!
Throughout the summer months most villages in and around Munich hold Street Festivals (Strassenfest), with outdoor entertainment of live music, hot foodstalls and beer tents, these Street Festivals show a great community spirit and are am excellent opportunity to meet all your neighbours socially.
Two additional larger Summerfestivals are held in Munich, firstly the Olympiapark Summer Fest, with an open-air amphitheatre on the lake offering wide variety of live music (for free!), the next is also in the grounds of the Olympiapark, this Summerfestival is called Tollwood and is a much larger-scale entertainment of International entertainers and various productions with food, drink and numerous multi-cultural sales stands. (Tollwood is also held in December as a Christmas Market, but sited at the Theresenwiese location).
In October 12, 1810, four years after Bavaria had become a Kingdom, crown prince Ludwig of Bavaria (Ludwig I), married princess Therese of Saxon-Hildburghausen. The official festivities lasted 5 days and included parades of riflemen,
music, eating and drinking, ending with a horse-race held on a park area named Theresienwiese (in honour of the bride), over the next years the horse race was repeated, and the Oktoberfest (also known as "Wiesn") was born. The Munich Oktoberfest in September and October (starting usually on the third Saturday in
September, lasting 2 weeks) is probably Europe's biggest festival in terms of attendance. There is Bavarian band music and large crowds in the vast, elaborately decorated beer halls. The fare, in addition to liter mugs of beer, includes roasted oxen, roasted chicken, roasted venison, pigs' knuckles, sausages by the ton. Outside, the crowds mingle at the numerous funfair rides and amusement tents.
In Germany, the Christmas season extends for the full month of December. Sankt Nikolaus (St. Nicholas), who has a long beard and a bishop's mitre and staff, comes on the evening of December 6, bringing sweets to those children who have been good. Christmas presents are exchanged on Christmas Eve and this is the main time for the family Christmas celebrations. As with other major religious holidays, both the festival day and the day following are legal holidays. Thus, both December 25 and 26 are celebrated as Christmas (die Weihnachtsfeiertage). The season officially ends on January 6, the day of the three kings (die Dreikönigstag).
Enjoy the sweet smell of nutmeg, orange and clove carried by hot wine served at the many Christkindl Markt (Christ-child market place). The big feature of the Christmas season in Germany and its neighbouring countries is the outdoor Christmas market, which takes place in every large city, and also in many of the more picturesque smaller communities. It usually surrounds a big Christmas tree, and features events like choral singing or brass bands from a church tower. The many stands at each market sell Christmas decorations, handicraft items, toys, ceramics, wooden items and all sorts of food and drink; much of it designed to keep out the winter cold, like hot sausages, hot spiced wine and thick, rich bock beer. There are also rides for the children and, usually, a heated tent for food and drink.
Within most villages and City districts you will find a Christmas market, for example in the City Centre there are excellent markets at the Chinese Tower (Englisher Garden), Rosenheimer Platz, Munchener Freiheit. Marianplatz in the town centre also has a very large market but tends to be very commercialised and extremely busy.
The biggest and most famous of the markets is the Christkindlesmarkt in Nürnberg, though the oldest of them is said to be in Leipzig (both held in the first 3 weeks of December). The markets often feature the local handicraft items. The one at Nürnberg. for example, features: the "prune man", of dried fruit, nuts and a scrap of cloth, and the Rauschgoldengel of tinsel and paper.
A visit to markets in the smaller, more picturesque communities can be a unique experience because of the atmosphere. Typical of these smaller markets is the one at Füssen, near Neuschwanstein Castle. It's relatively short, running only from December 1 to 10, but the atmosphere, directly under the Alps in the town's old quarter, is incomparable. The medieval surroundings make it a veritable picture postcard of the Christmases past we remember. Brass choirs and choral groups, the sizzle of bratwürste on the grill, glühwein and all the other seasonal treats make Füssen unforgettable. A trip to Königswinkel to see the musical Ludwig II, the spectacular stage show dealing with Bavaria's famous, ill-fated monarch, is wonderful entertainment.
