Saturday, May 23, 2009

oh dear

Kevin and I were looking up the origins of Mothers Day and Fathers Day on Wikipedia when we found this little jewel:

In Germany Father's Day is celebrated differently from other parts of the world.[26][27] There are two terms and/or events of an older origin that while similar in name, have entirely different meanings. Vatertag, is always celebrated on Ascension Day (the Thursday forty days after Easter), which is a federal holiday. Regionally, it is also called men's day, Männertag, or gentlemen's day, Herrentag. It is tradition to do a males-only hiking tour with one or more smaller wagons, Bollerwagen, pulled by manpower. In the wagons are wine or beer (according to region) and traditional regional food, Hausmannskost, which could be Saumagen, Liverwurst, Blutwurst (Blood Sausage), vegetables, eggs, etc. Many men will use this holiday to get very drunk, to the point of having gangs of drunk people roaming the streets, causing much embarrasement to the German people who don't participate, and giving the holiday a very bad name in Germany.[28][27] Police and emergency services are in high alert during the day, and some left-wing and feminist groups have asked for the banning of the holiday.[28]

Some parts of Germany (such as Bavaria and the northern part of Germany) call this particular day "Vatertag", which is the literal equivalent to Father's Day.




That guy on the left isn't even German, I think he's South Korean or something.

2 comments:

Mama Bree said...

I think I'm going to pretend like I never knew about that.... ;-)

Unknown said...

Wow, that is the ultimate reversion of males in an adult body. It's like you're 5 again (wagon & hiking) and your an adult (beer). I would consider participating but I would probably get eaten by a bear.

The Casa deKillur boys are going on a goldmine tour. But that will be in a bucket train, not a wagon...