German Traditions / Rituals

Rituals are a set of multiple, symbolic behaviors that occur in a fixed sequence and are repeated periodically (Solomon, p 588). We take the rituals we know for granted and think everybody does it like us. But there are differences from country to country, from family to family.

After reading the article We gather together by Melanie Wallendorf and Eric J. Arnold for my consumer behavior class, I thought I share some typical religious as well as non-religious German rituals with you. Let me start in a chronological order at the beginning of a year of German rituals...

Fasching / Carnival
On November 11th at 11:11am starts the six weeklong carnival season ending on Ash Wednesday before Easter. Especially in cities in the western part of Germany, people celebrate carnival pretty excessively. Whole streets are closed, everybody is dressed up in a costume and carnival organizations arrange massive carnival parades. Even all of the German political parties have a carneval event where they have speeches about the other parties in a satire and ironical way. And on Rose Monday, the most people in Germany eat a jelly filled dounut called Pfannkuchen, Krapfen or Berliner depending on in which part of Germany you are.

Fastenzeit / Fasting
Based on western religion a 40 day-long fasting period developed to prepare and clear ones body and mind for the great feast of eastern. Back in the day, religious people denied themself treats then consume during the rest of the year. Nowadays people desacrilized this religious rituals and use it to loose some weight after the winter. The usual treats which will be abandoned for these 40 days are meat, sweets, alcohol and cigarettes. People want to discipline themself and conciously give up some bad habits for at least a certain period of time, after which they eat as much Easter candy and chocolate as they can.


Ostern / Easter
Another ritual originated in the Christian religion are Easter rituals in Germany. In the Easter traditions or rituals of the most German families, there is not much left from the religious background. My family kept a little bit of it: On Good Friday my family eats fish for dinner, like all religious people do. On Easter sunday, it is not about about Jesus' surrection anymore either: It is all about Easter bunnies and Easter eggs. In an average German family, the adults hide little presents either in the garden or the apartment and the children (mostly
                             the younger ones) have to find them.

Oktoberfest
More a ritual invented for the adults then for the children is the worldwide know Oktoberfest. The 16-day beer festival from mid September till October takes place in Munich at the Theresienwiese. This ritual started October 12 in 1810, at the wedding of Bavaria's Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Since then more than six million people visit this public festival every year. But not every brewer can sell ones beer. Only breweries with a production location in Munich are allowed to serve beer during Oktoberfest. In about 14 tents (some of them fit 10thousand people in them) people dressed in either Dirndl or Lederhosen drink 6.7million Mass (1l/33.8oz of beer) during these 16 days. This traditional but very international event of amusement is not realy cheep: A Mass costs about 10€ ($12.50), half a chicken about the same and a huge pretzel 5€ ($6.25). But Oktoberfest is not the place to think about money... It's all about fun and especially beer. Since a few years, Munich is not even the only place hosting an Oktoberfest anymore, many other cities in Germany as well as all over the world are copying this ritual.

Advent & Weihnachten / Advent & Christmas
The advent period takes place during the four weeks before Christmas. Most important are the four Sundays before Christmas, the four Advents. German families have either an Advent wreath or an Advent arrangement with four candles on top of it. Every following Sunday one more candle gets light until all four are burning the Sunday before Christmas eve. For children in Germany, Advent means opening and Advent calendar starting at December 1st. Every day until Christmas eve on the 24th, almost every child in Germany opens a little paper door on ones Advents calendar hiding a little treat behind it. December 6th is another important day during this pre-Christmas period - St. Nicholas day. On the evening of December 5th, the children have to clean and polish their shoes and place them in front of the door. When the child behaved well during the previous year, St. Nicholas will fill one's shoes with nuts, fruit and treats. Bad children gets coals and will be punished by St. Nicholas' birch. I have never met a child, which had experienced that.
Christmas eve on December 24th is the most important day of the whole Christmas period. Usually, the whole family comes together, a giant meal will be served and the children get way more presents than they need. In the afternoon, some Germans go to church (that is the only day of the year my family goes). Later after this, the candles on the Christmas tree will be light and everybody is amazed by all the presents lying underneath the tree. After everybody received their gifts and has started to drink, the preparation of the Christmas dinner begins. Some families have saved a piece of this also so desacralized religious feast: They serve fish for dinner on Christmas eve. The two following days are the Christmas holidays, days of more giant meals and tones of presents for the children.

Silvester / New Years
After this so glorious period of Advent and Christmas, the German year ends with Silvester. People dress up, drink a lot of Sekt (sparkling wine) and at midnight of December 31th everybody lights a firework and midage children / teenagers through firecracker down the streets. Some people celebrate the ritual of lead-pouring reading the personal fortune for coming year from the shape made by molten lead dropped into cold water.

If you wonna get more background information regarding all these German rituals, take a look at the following websites...
http://www.germany.info; http://www.germany.travel;