Fasching is the Roman Catholic Shrovetide carnival as celebrated in German-speaking countries. There are many regional differences concerning the name, duration, and activities of the carnival. It is known as Fasching in Bavaria and Austria, Fosnat in Franconia, Fasnet in Swabia, Fastnacht in Mainz and its environs, and Karneval in Cologne and the Rhineland.

Fasching starts on the 11th day of November at exactly 11minutes after 11am and ends at the stroke of midnight on Shroud Tuesday – often referred to as Fat Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday). Fasching is more or less a Roman Catholic and Christian Orthodox celebration and most Protestant and non-Christian areas do not celebrate it.

Although the exact historical origins of Fasching are unclear, the observance of its rites is mentioned in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival (early 13th century). It was a festival that originated in the cities—most notably Mainz and Speyer—and was already established in Cologne by 1234. Traditionally, it was not only a feast before Lent but also a time during which the rules and order of daily life were subverted. This gave rise to such customs as handing over the keys of the city to a council of fools or ceremoniously letting women rule. It also inspired noisy costumed parades and masked balls; satirical and often impertinent plays, speeches, and newspaper columns; and generally excessive behaviour—all of which are still common elements of contemporary Fasching celebrations.

In Germany, particularly in the Rhineland area, the tradition can be traced to medieval times where many countries existed under harsh rules. Kings, princes and even smaller potentates maintained their own courts. In doing so, they flaunted before each other their own pomp and splendor at the expense of their population.

During Karneval time, the common people took a chance at ‘living it up” and “talking back to their rulers”. They would make a mock government of eleven people, as well as other officials. A price and princess were selected to rule the country during the Fasching season. Political authorities, high placed persons and sovereigns were the target of ridicule, and featured in humorous and satirical speeches. To avoid persecution and punishment, these antics were played out from behind masks and costumes. Parades, dancing in the streets, masquerade balls and comical skits filled the days and nights.

Karneval festivities have become annual events around the world. Also known as Fasching, Carnival and Mardi Gras, the most famous are located in the following places:

• Köln, Germany
• Nice, France
• Trinidad
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• New Orleans, Louisianna

Although Carnival in Rio is probably the craziest of all, Germany is undoubtedly the most enthusiastic Karneval center in Europe.

Nearly every town has its own festivities and it is celebrated in homes across the country with great enthusiasm. The Karnevals vary from area to area, but no matter where the celebrations are held, there is fun, happiness and laughter.

 

German culture is rich in traditions all the year round. Each season features main events in German daily life, cultural background and holidays which keep traditions of Germans for centuries.

Autumn is featured by numerous holidays, mostly devoted to harvesting and German music heritage. Harvesting is the most significant event in autumn in Germany, therefore, it created a vast variety of traditions and celebrations. But most of them are aimed to celebrate the only thing which is most important for people – good and rich harvest – which feeds the whole nation during winter.

The most popular festival is known as Oktoberfest which is celebrated for centuries in Germany and well-known all over the world.

Another big and important holiday is Wine Festival which cannot be described by common features because each land, region and even city has its own traditions how to celebrate this Festival. Mostly this Festival is popular in wine-growing lands along the Rhine. Naturally speaking you can visit at least four-five hundreds of the Wine Festivals and will never be bored because they are quite different even in neighboring villages. They may differ in costumes, food, wine ceremonies, music and dance. The most common feature is that you cannot miss any of them if you travel around the Rhine lands in the early October. That is because all Wine Festivals are usually celebrated after harvesting.

Autumn harvests are thanked by Germans during Thanksgiving celebrations. This holiday is called Erntedankfest in German and is translated as “harvest thanksgiving’. Wine-growing lands enrich this holiday with Wine Festivals, other lands celebrate it with vast variety of national food, drinks, music, dances and folk performances. Like Wine Festivals Erntedankfest has many variants and different features depending on geographical location. The most common feature is a bright mix of decorated fruit, vegetables, grain and national dishes, colorful costumes, national contests in singing, dancing, eating, sports etc. This holiday is worth visiting by tourists who want to learn German culture and history briefly, quickly and fascinatingly.

September and October in Germany is featured by the great music festival called Beethoven Festival. Its amazing sounds are produced by the best German symphonic orchestras and can be listened to along the Rhine for several weeks from September to October.

 

How Did Halloween Come to Germany?

In the mid-1990s, few in Germany had ever heard of Halloween, and even fewer celebrated it. Now, it’s a €150 million a year industry. The holiday’s success can be traced to a single marketing genius.

Most in Germany have never heard of Dieter Tschorn. And even fewer will be particularly concerned by the fact that he isn’t planning on dressing up for Halloween this year. But if one is looking for an explanation as to why millions of other Germans will be carving pumpkins, putting on costumes and begging for candy door-to-door, Tschorn is a good place to start. After all, more than anyone else, he is responsible for Halloween’s existence — and growing popularity — in Germany.

“In 1994, Halloween was largely unknown in Germany,” Tschorn says. “But then we began promoting the event. And it took off.”

Tschorn is a public relations consultant who went into business for himself in 1982. More to the point, however, he is also the spokesman for a division in Germany’s toy-making industry association responsible for Carnival, that annual season of costumed mayhem that culminates 40 days before Easter.

Back in the early 1990s, Carnival was cancelled in Germany as a result of the first Gulf War — and those who make their living selling costumes and party supplies took a major hit. But the industry also had another important design flaw. Whereas the Carnival season always begins on Nov. 11, the timing of Easter can vary widely. Last year, for example, Easter fell on March 23, making the Carnival season just 87 days long, the shortest it had been since 1913.

“The shorter Carnival is, the lower our turnover — each week less represents a 5-percent drop in sales,” Tschorn said. “We needed some consistency, which led to the idea to introduce Halloween in Germany.”

It seems to have worked. In 2007, 4,600 tons of pumpkins were sold in Germany, says Tschorn. One can buy Halloween bread at the baker’s, Halloween sausage at the butcher’s, Halloween cocktails at the bar and, of course, Halloween candy in the nation’s supermarkets. Tens of thousands of German children now go door-to-door, holding out their bags and saying “sweet or sour,” the German version of trick-or-treat.

The Halloween promoter says that the holiday has become an industry worth around €160 million in Germany, in third place behind Christmas and Easter. In 1994, that number was close to zero. This year, the costume industry expects Halloween-related consumption to be 5 percent more than last year.

“By the end of 1998, Halloween had become something of a cult,” Tschorn said. “It began growing all on its own.”

Nevertheless, many in Germany aren’t nearly as excited as Tschorn is about the place Halloween has managed to carve out for itself in the country’s social calendar. The Protestant Church is particularly irked that October 31st, the day on which Martin Luther launched the Reformation, is now more associated with a pagan holiday imported from Ireland via America than for Germany’s own contribution to religious history.

Related Articles:
Halloween’s Origins and Traditions of Celebration in Germany
All Pumpkins’ Night in Germany
Halloween: Trick or Treat?

Halloween’s Origins and Traditions of Celebration in Germany

Halloween is when all demons and witches are out for the night hunting, and when there are pumpkins glaring out of the windows, and when it’s better to give a treat instead of being tricked…

Halloween is celebrated each year on October 31. It had its beginnings in an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead. The Celtic peoples, who were once found all over Europe, divided the year by four major holidays. According to their calendar, the year began on a day corresponding to November 1st on our present calendar. The date marked the beginning of winter. All Hallows’ Even, later shortened to Halloween, was observed on the evening of October 31st.

Halloween is for the Celtic peoples (Scotch, Irish, and part of the English) the eve of the festival of Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween), Lord of the dead. The Celtic year ended on October 31, the eve of Samhain, and was celebrated with both religious and agrarian rites. For the Druids, Samhain was both the “end of summer” and a festival of the dead. It was the period for threshing and food preparation for the winter season. People believed that on this day the spirits of the departed visited their kinsmen in search of warmth and cheering as winter approached.

It was the biggest and most significant holiday of the Celtic year. The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living, because at Samhain the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the otherworld. People gathered to sacrifice animals, fruits, and vegetables. They also lit bonfires in honor of the dead, to aid them on their journey, and to keep them away from the living. On that day all kinds of beings were present: ghosts, fairies, and demons – all of them part of the dark and dread.

 

The Christian Church tried to wipe out “pagan” holidays, such as Samhain, through its missionaries. The Druid festival of Samhain was meant to be replaced forever with Hallowmas, or All Saints’ Day, on November 1. This did not happen, but the status of the traditional Celtic deities diminished substantially. The Christian feast of All Saints was established to honor all saints, known and unknown. Thus, the festival of the pagan lord of the dead became the festival of the Christian dead, in memory of early Christians who died for their beliefs and to honor all those who died in the faith.

Anyway, All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows (hallowed means sanctified or holy), continued the ancient Celtic traditions. The evening prior to the day was the time of the most intense activity, both human and supernatural. People continued to celebrate All Hallows Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but the supernatural beings were now thought to be evil. People continued to please those spirits by setting out gifts of food and drink. Subsequently, All Hallows Eve became Hallow Evening, which became Hallowe’en.

• Current Halloween traditions date back to those early periods when people paraded through the streets in costumes and masks. Wandering groups of celebrants blocked doors of houses, carried away gates and plows, tapped on windows, threw vegetables at doors (corn candy). In some places boys and girls dressed in clothing of the opposite sex and, wearing masks, visited neighbors to play tricks.
• The “trick or treat” custom resembles an old Irish practice associated with Halloween. Groups of peasants went from house to house demanding food and other gifts in preparation for the evening’s festivities. The poor begged from door to door and were given pastries. Prosperity was assured for the liberal donors and threats were made against the stingy ones.
• The “Jack-o-lantern” tradition most probably came from the Irish folklore. There is a legend about a man called Jack, the drunkard and liar, who once used one of his tricks to make the devil himself climb up the tree. As the devil was up, Jack carved a cross on the tree trunk, and the devil was imprisoned in the crown of tree. Then Jack promised to let the devil go if the latter would never ever seduce him again. … When Jack died, the admission to the sky was refused to him since he had done only bad, but even the hell remained blocked because he was also a pest for the devil. The devil gave Jack only one little spark with which he had to move through the complete darkness, and that spark was in a scooped carrot, so that it could glow longer. So the Irish also used carrots for their first lanterns, but when they arrived in America, they found lots of pumpkins – much better material for the lanterns. Thus appeared “Jack-o-lanterns” made out of pumpkins with light inside.
• Witches occupy a special place in Germans’ spiritual pagan past. The most famous spot for witches was in the Harz mountain region in Germany. Until the 18th century, German maps even showed witches’ hovering over this spot, namely the Brocken peak. The Brocken peak is said to be populated with witches, who were once forest goddesses, later priestesses, then female doctors and marvelous women of the night who were first worshipped, then stared at with awe and admiration, and finally damned. For Germans Halloween blended with the night of witches, the Walpurgisnacht, which took place in the Harz mountains on the night before May 1.

Related Articles:
How did Halloween Come to Germany
Halloween’s Origins and Traditions of Celebration in Germany
Halloween: Trick or Treat?

German Easter traditions

The Easter season starts in earnest on Thursday with Maundy Thursday marking the last meal Jesus had with his disciples.

Easter traditions follow the religious calendar with Friday a day of mourning (the crucifixion of Christ) before celebrating on Monday to mark his resurrection.

From rolling wheels filled with burning hay down a hill, to waiting for a fox to bring eggs, here are the nine best German Easter traditions.

1) Make a fire: On the night before Easter Sunday, thousands of Germans gather around huge bonfires. Traditionally the wood of old Christmas trees is used. It marks the end of winter and the coming of spring. It also drives away the evil winter spirits.

2) Make a wheely big fire: Not content with a standard fire, some regions stuff hay into a large wooden wheel, set it on fire and roll it down a hill at night. It is supposed to bring a good harvest if it makes it all the way down the hill intact. Lügde in Lower Saxony is particularly famous for its burning wheel rolling.

 

 

3) An Easter fox?: The Easter bunny bringing eggs to children can be traced back to Germany. German and Dutch settlers brought the tradition to the US in the 18th Century. But in some parts of the country children used to wait for the Easter fox or a stork instead to bring them their gifts. The bunny has now taken over, however.

 

 

4) Eat a lamb: The lamb is also a symbol of spring and fertility and is traditionally eaten at Easter. Germans also bake a cake in the form of a lamb.

 

 

 

 

5) Paint some eggs: Painting Easter eggs is a tradition now done in many countries but it is particularly strong in Germany. Painting the eggs was seen as a form of blessing them before they were eaten to mark the end of the Easter fasting period.

 

 

 

6) Get a tree: The painted eggs are often hung on Easter trees and this German tradition has spread to other countries. One of the most famous examples is this tree in Thuringia.

 

 

 

 

7) Laughing priests: To celebrate Jesus’s resurrection on Easter Monday, three days after his death, Germans are supposed to laugh. The priest should also traditionally give a funny service.

 

 

8) Eat your fish and be quiet: On Good Friday, “Karfreitag” in German, no church bells ring, no songs are sung and no music should be played as this is the day Jesus was crucified. The word “kar” comes from old German “kara” meaning lamentation. It is a day of fasting where the only meal eaten should be fish.

 

 

9) Eat something green: “Gründonnerstag” – Maundy Thursday in English – is the last time Jesus ate with his disciples before he was crucified. The word “grün” in Germany does not in this case come from the colour green but from the old German word “grönan” which means crying. But some people still eat just green food on this day, like these amazing eggs in green Frankfurter sauce.

 

Related articles:

Easter Bunny Recipes
Easter Eggs: Traditions and Recipes
Easter Feast

Halloween is when all demons and witches are out for the night hunting, and when there are pumpkins glaring out of the windows, and when it’s better to give a treat instead of being tricked…

Halloween is celebrated each year on October 31. It had its beginnings in an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead. The Celtic peoples, who were once found all over Europe, divided the year by four major holidays. According to their calendar, the year began on a day corresponding to November 1st on our present calendar. The date marked the beginning of winter. All Hallows’ Even, later shortened to Halloween, was observed on the evening of October 31st.

Halloween is for the Celtic peoples (Scotch, Irish, and part of the English) the eve of the festival of Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween), Lord of the dead. The Celtic year ended on October 31, the eve of Samhain, and was celebrated with both religious and agrarian rites. For the Druids, Samhain was both the “end of summer” and a festival of the dead. It was the period for threshing and food preparation for the winter season. People believed that on this day the spirits of the departed visited their kinsmen in search of warmth and cheering as winter approached.

It was the biggest and most significant holiday of the Celtic year. The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living, because at Samhain the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the otherworld. People gathered to sacrifice animals, fruits, and vegetables. They also lit bonfires in honor of the dead, to aid them on their journey, and to keep them away from the living. On that day all kinds of beings were present: ghosts, fairies, and demons – all of them part of the dark and dread.

The Christian Church tried to wipe out “pagan” holidays, such as Samhain, through its missionaries. The Druid festival of Samhain was meant to be replaced forever with Hallowmas, or All Saints’ Day, on November 1. This did not happen, but the status of the traditional Celtic deities diminished substantially. The Christian feast of All Saints was established to honor all saints, known and unknown. Thus, the festival of the pagan lord of the dead became the festival of the Christian dead, in memory of early Christians who died for their beliefs and to honor all those who died in the faith.

Anyway, All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows (hallowed means sanctified or holy), continued the ancient Celtic traditions. The evening prior to the day was the time of the most intense activity, both human and supernatural. People continued to celebrate All Hallows Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but the supernatural beings were now thought to be evil. People continued to please those spirits by setting out gifts of food and drink. Subsequently, All Hallows Eve became Hallow Evening, which became Hallowe’en.

☻ Current Halloween traditions date back to those early periods when people paraded through the streets in costumes and masks. Wandering groups of celebrants blocked doors of houses, carried away gates and plows, tapped on windows, threw vegetables at doors (corn candy). In some places boys and girls dressed in clothing of the opposite sex and, wearing masks, visited neighbors to play tricks.

☻  The “trick or treat” custom resembles an old Irish practice associated with Halloween. Groups of peasants went from house to house demanding food and other gifts in preparation for the evening’s festivities. The poor begged from door to door and were given pastries. Prosperity was assured for the liberal donors and threats were made against the stingy ones.

☻ The “Jack-o-lantern” tradition most probably came from the Irish folklore. There is a legend about a man called Jack, the drunkard and liar, who once used one of his tricks to make the devil himself climb up the tree. As the devil was up, Jack carved a cross on the tree trunk, and the devil was imprisoned in the crown of tree. Then Jack promised to let the devil go if the latter would never ever seduce him again. … When Jack died, the admission to the sky was refused to him since he had done only bad, but even the hell remained blocked because he was also a pest for the devil. The devil gave Jack only one little spark with which he had to move through the complete darkness, and that spark was in a scooped carrot, so that it could glow longer. So the Irish also used carrots for their first lanterns, but when they arrived in America, they found lots of pumpkins – much better material for the lanterns. Thus appeared “Jack-o-lanterns” made out of pumpkins with light inside.

☻  Witches occupy a special place in Germans’ spiritual pagan past. The most famous spot for witches was in the Harz mountain region in Germany. Until the 18th century, German maps even showed witches’ hovering over this spot, namely the Brocken peak. The Brocken peak is said to be populated with witches, who were once forest goddesses, later priestesses, then female doctors and marvelous women of the night who were first worshipped, then stared at with awe and admiration, and finally damned. For Germans Halloween blended with the night of witches, the Walpurgisnacht, which took place in the Harz mountains on the night before May 1.

Related Articles:
How did Halloween Come to Germany
All Pumpkins’ Night in Germany
Halloween: Trick or Treat?