This weekend, we went to a parade in celebration of the anniversary of a town church. There are many of these celebrations throuought the summer, and one of the main highlights of the festivities is the raising of a pole with a tree on top. I have tried to find the symbolism of the tree on google, but have had no luck. It is something that we see all over town though, and it was the first "raising of the pole" that we witnessed. Our friend, "Safety Bob" would have had a hard attack watching the raising of the pole with no roped off areas and children wandering all around. They did wear hard hats though! I mentioned that the raising of the pole was only one highlight. The real highlight for the church celebration, came after the pole was raised with the ceremonial tapping of the keg. We always get such a chuckle out of the presence of beer here (kids activities, school functions, of course church activities). It is truly a food group here in Germany, just like meats and vegetables - I am serious - it is a food group!!!
4 comments:
Hi guys. I wonder if teenage drinking is as big a problem there, as it is here in USA?
I was also curious about the pole. I thought it might be a maypole or something. I did find this link but have no clue what it says. The pole on the picture looks very similar to your picture.
http://www.kultur.bamberg.de/_plaza/kuba2008.neo?veranstaltungid=157271
Love reading about your adventures. Hugs to you all.
Found out a little more. There's a big festival coming up in your town called Sandkerwa, which seems like a big Oktoberfest. And the tree may be called a Kirchweih or have something to do with that word. Found this site: http://www.sandkerwa.de/
and this one regarding Kirchweih: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchweih
From what I can tell you guys are in for a lot more partying before the summer is over. lol
Who is the German guy in the sunglasses and Roma shirt in the top photo and why is he the only one smiling? Well, maybe the guy on the left is smiling, but I'm not sure.
Chris/Dad
Love the food group thing!!! All those churches in Germany MUST be Methodist - gotta LOVE those kegs!!
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