German Festivals and Holidays

Festivals

With such an ancient history to draw from, and the influence of so many cultures over the course of the last four millennia, Germans have a rich and diverse collection of celebrations, festivals, and holidays. Many reflect the historical dominance of the Catholic Church in the region.

Summer’s Day

Children celebrate the end of winter by marching through towns in brightly colored socks.

Palm Sunday

This Catholic holiday is celebrated by decorating palm branches with ribbons and eggshells.

Ascension Thursday

Also known as Father’s Day, this commemorates the ascension of Christ by raising a figure of Jesus to the top of the church, accompanied by trumpets.

Feast of St. John the Baptist

This dramatic celebration involves laboriously pushing wheels to the top of hills near towns. The wheels are then set on fire and sent rolling down the hills, accompanied by loud shouting.

Dinksbuhler Kinderzeche

To commemorate the day during the 30 Years War when the children of the town of Dinksbühl saved the inhabitants by begging favor with the leader of the invading Swedish troops. The town provides a feast for the children and their teachers.

Slaying of the Dragon (Drachenstich)

Dating back more than 500 years, making it the oldest folk festival in Germany, this folk spectacle is held in Furth in the Bavarian Forest. A stage drama reenacts the slaying of a dragon which threatened the town in medieval times. Modern celebrations at Furth Drachenstich, the oldest popular theater in Germany, feature a gigantic robotic dragon that is the world’s largest quadrupedal walking robot.

Oktoberfest

The most famous, and largest, German festival, Oktoberfest has its roots in the harvest festivals of ancient times. But in 1810, the Crown Prince of Bavaria invited the entire kingdom to attend his wedding celebration, and more than 40,000 people took him up on it. The celebration was so successful and raucous that the people of Munich decided to make it an annual tradition. Despite its name, the celebrations start in late September and last for 16 days. The largest festival is held in Munich, although many areas have local versions as well. Thousands of people descend on Munich from all over the world to watch a parade that ends at Munich’s Therese’s Meadow, which is covered with rides, tents, markets, performers and attractions. Attendees feast on beer, barbecued chicken, white sausage, and oxen.

Harvest Festival

Farming villages in particular offer thanks to God for a successful harvest, and celebrate together by feasting on fresh fruits, vegetables, and grains.

Cannstatter Volksfest

Celebrants sing, dance, and feast around a giant fruit column set up on festival grounds.

St. Martin’s Day

Although it is also known as Old Halloween, Martinstag, Martinmas, Martinsfeuer, and Old Hallowmas Eve, this holiday is named for Saint Martin of Tours, a Roman soldier who converted to Christianity and who, according to legend, gave half of his cloak to a beggar on a cold winter night. He is considered the patron saint of the poor by Catholics. But in Germany, the day is also associated with Martin Luther, especially by Protestants. During the celebration on November 11, police close off the streets to allow a parade to wind through the towns just after nightfall. The streets fill with long lines of marchers carrying lanterns and candles, led by a man dressed up to play the part of St. Martin. The parade marches to a church or school in town, where the story of St. Martin and the Beggar is read and/or reenacted. The man playing the part of St. Martin draws his sword and cuts his play in half. At the conclusion of the festival, children donate their extra toys to less fortunate children, and celebrants stand around bonfires drinking cider and eating St. Martin’s Day cakes.

St. Nikolaus Day

Saint Nikolaus is much like Santa Claus, but dressed in the garments of a medieval Catholic bishop. Before going to bed on December 5th, German children place shoes outside their doors in preparation for the nighttime visit of Saint Nikolaus. It is believed that Nikolaus arrives with a book in which are recorded the names and sins of naughty children. He is accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht, who carries a great sack full of gifts and a stout birch rod. In the morning, if they have been good, children expect to find their shoes filled with candies, cookies, or fruit. But if they have been bad, they may find nothing but a stick.

Christmas

At around the time of Saint Nikolaus Day, the Christmas season begins in Germany about four weeks before Christmas Day. The start of the season is marked by Weihnachtsmarkte, the opening of Christmas markets around the country. On Christmas Eve, families gather to sing, open gifts, decorate their Christmas trees, and eat the traditional roast goose and red cabbage of Christmas dinner.

St. Sylvester Day

Named for a Pope Sylvester I, and celebrated on the anniversary of his death, December 31st, New Year’s Eve. In a practice that dates back to pagan times, young men dress in masks and walk the streets of cities and towns, using fireworks or other means to make noise to scare away any lingering demons, thus helping to assure an auspicious start to the new year. This is likely related to the modern practice of lighting fireworks on New Year’s Eve in many countries. German families may also practice Bleigiessen, a method of divination involving melting lead in an old spoon and then dropping it into a bowl of cold water. If the lead forms a ball, it is believed to signify a lucky coming year; the shape of an anchor indicates that the family may receive help in a time of need; a star shape signifies of year of happiness.

Feast of the Epiphany

On January 6, Germans (especially Catholic Germans) commemorate the revelation of God incarnate in the form of the man, Jesus Christ. Children dress up as the “three wise men” of Christmas tradition and travel to people’s homes to sing to them, bringing them good luck for the coming year.

Karneval

Also known as Fastnacht or Fasching, Karneval is actually a holiday season that runs from November to early February. It originated in ancient times, when celebrants dressed in costumes and made a lot of noise to scare winter away and inspire Spring to arrive. Traditions associated with this celebration were later blended with the Catholic holiday Lent. The days leading up to Lent are used by Germans (and many other Catholics the world over) to party and feast before the asceticism of Lent.

The Thursday before Lent is Women’s Day. Women engage in acts of mischief, like storming city halls to capture the key to their city, freeing them to do whatever they wish for the rest of the day. Toward the end of the season, signs and decorations appear all over Germany advertising Tolle Tage—“Crazy Days”—when people of all ages dress up in bright costumes, paint their faces, and dance in the streets. Parades of costumed revelers and bands wind through the cities, dancing, singing, drinking, and eating berliners, jelly donuts sold at street stands.

Walpurgis Night

In the Harz Mountains in the center of Germany, on the night of April 30th, people gather around bonfires to sing and dance in costumes and scary masks until midnight, when an effigy of a witch is hoisted into the fire and burned as a sacrifice to the Devil. This is the Feast of Witches, an ancient pagan celebration to chase away evil and welcome the May Queen and the brighter days of Spring. It was believed in ancient times that a great coven of witches gathered each year in the Harz Mountains to meet with the Devil. There, they welcomed the coming of Spring, symbolized by the burning of a dummy representing the last traces of winter, and the arrival of the May Queen, heralding the coming of Spring. Modern festivals are lighthearted opportunities to dress up, drink and dance around fires, and remember the ancient heritage of the German people.

Bibliography

Kathryn Lane, Germany: The Land (New York, NY: Crabtree Publishing Company, 2001).

Richard Lord, Festivals of the World: Germany (Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 1997).

“Germany,” The World Factbook, 15 January 2019, Central Intelligence Agency, accessed 19 January 2019.

“Meals and Manners, Eating Habits in Germany,” CMA Global Partners, LLC. 2019. Germanfoods.org. Accessed 20 January 2019.

Timothy Wilkinson

Traditions of the Ancestors

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