Archive for 'Traditions'
Oktoberfest Celebrations Outside Germany Posted by Constanze on Oct 6, 2014
Oktoberfest is undoubtedly Germany’s largest and most famous festival, drawing in millions of visitors each year. Its home is in München, the capital of Bayern. This is where it originated, and where it has been held each year since the very first one in 1810. I recently wrote a post to mark the beginning of…
Ozapft is! Oktoberfest 2014 has begun! Posted by Constanze on Sep 20, 2014
Today marks the start of the annual Oktoberfest in München! Here are a few facts about the world’s largest and most popular beer festival. A brief history of Oktoberfest Oktoberfest began in 1810 – a whopping 204 years ago – when King Ludwig I married Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen, and invited all of the…
My Big, Fat, Bavarian Wedding Posted by Constanze on Jul 23, 2014
… OK, so the title of this post is a tad misleading. I didn’t have a big, fat, Bavarian wedding. But I went to one, and that was just as good! Last year, I attended my cousin’s wedding in Bavaria. It was the first Bavarian wedding I’d ever been to, and there were several things…
The German culture of cleanliness: Putzfimmel and Kehrwoche Posted by Constanze on Jul 6, 2014
Everyone I know who’s been to Germany has commented on what a clean country it is. Germany is stereotyped as being clean, anyway – although how much of this is a stereotype, and how much of it is the simple truth? There are two words in the German language that suggest Germany has a culture…
How to Watch Football Like a German Posted by Constanze on Jun 30, 2014
Tonight we’ll see the tense football match between Germany and Algeria. It’ll be the first time these teams have played one another since the controversy of the 1982 World Cup, which was claimed to have been “fixed” so that Germany and Austria would go through to the next round at Algeria’s expense (Click here to…
Sayings + Expressions 1 – the Will and the Thread Posted by Sten on Jun 23, 2014
Hi there! This is the first of some posts about great sayings and expressions in German. One of each every week. Many sound very wise in German. The language just helps you convey that wise, mysterious tone you want such sayings and expressions to have sometimes. Let’s start off with the saying! Wo ein Wille…
The Reinheitsgebot – what’s the story? Posted by Sten on May 28, 2014
The German Reinheitsgebot (Beer Purity Law) is not the oldest food law in the world. There are laws going back more than 3000 years before the Reinheitsgebot that concern food. The Law was introduced as a Landesverordnung (State Act) in Bavaria, and only in 1918 it was called Reinheitsgebot for the first time. Mostly, this…