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• Habits/Traditions
• Oktoberfest
• Wedding
• Christmas
• Karneval
• Easter
• Food
• Wine
• Beer

German habits/traditions

• German Genealogy Home Page
• Try the Internet Sources of German Genealogy
• Genealogy at MiningCo
• Genealogy.com

Most of the Americans seem to associate Germany with Bavaria but this is just a part of Germany. In Bavaria you can find leather-trousers, dirndel, Schuhplattler, one liter glasses of beer (Maßkrüge), Brezeln, the Oktoberfest
here some links:

• Oktoberfest 97,
• a comprehensive Guide,
• a guide in German from the TV station Pro-Sieben,
• the official Munich guide,
• Oktoberfest music

• Pumpernickel (a special kind of very dark bread)
• westphalian ham
• Korn (schnapps)
• Sauerbraten (sour pork with raisins or was that rheinisch?)
• our dialect: Plattdeutsch (Low-German)
• ....

Wedding Traditions

Wedding Traditions in Germany differ from region to region. Here are some of the highlights:

• Polterabend - this is an unformal (unformal dress and food) party at the evening before the wedding where plates and dishes are smashed (the broken pieces are thought to bring good luck to the bride). The bride and groom have to clean up everything.
• Rice - after the weeding when the bride leaves the church, friends throw rice on them and it is said that they will get as many children as rice grains stay in the hair of the bride
• Kidnapping of the bride - in some areas (mostly in small villages) friends kidnap the bride and the groom has to find her. Normally, he has to search in a lot of pubs and invite all people in there (or pay the whole bill). Sometimes this ritual ends badly.
• Veil Dance - this is a popular game for a wedding evening. Every woman or man who wants to dance with the groom or bride has to pay for it.
• Wedding Shoes - another tradition is to collect pennies for years and buy wedding shoes for the bride with this money
• White ribbon - the bride carries a lengths of white ribbon with her bouquet, after the church ceremony and the guests are leaving the church, she hands each driver a ribbon that they tie to the radio antenna.
• Dance - the first dance is danced by the bride and the groom, it is traditionally a waltz. The next dance is only for bride with her father and groom with mother, while bride's mother dances with groom's father.
• Germans wear wedding rings on the right hand - the groom and the bride have normally identical rings (wedding "bands" no diamonds)
• Flowers - besides the flowers of the bride and in church the hood of the wedding car is decorated with lots of flowers
• Car Procession - after the wedding a car procession is formed and drives through town honking their horns - others honk back wishing the couple good luck
• Junggesellenabschied - some weeks before the wedding the groom and his male friends go to a pub or sometimes other places to drink and have fun (the last time?)
• The first night - to make the first night as difficult as possible friends of the couple do lots of funny or sometimes cruel things. They fill up the all rooms with balloons, hide lots of alarm clocks in the bedroom, take apart the bed, and so on
• Wedding Evening - at the wedding evening a lot of games are played, speeches are hold (the first normally from the father of the bride), sometimes a wedding newspaper is handed out. songs are sung, and so on
• Costs - the father of the bride has to pay the wedding. This is an old custom but today normally both parents and the couple itself divide the costs for the wedding
• Wedding Cake - the wedding cake, mostly a large cake with lots of ornaments has to be cut by the bride and the groom together

Christmas in Germany

Christmas in Germany is very traditional. The preparation for this special feast begins with the advent season. In this time you will find a lot of advent calendars (with 24 small doors to open and some chocolate or pictures or other goodies behind) in German homes especially for children. Others pack 24 small presents and give them to a beloved person. Another thing which have to be done before christmas is the purchase of a christmas tree (it is mostly a fir or pine). In most German cities you will find some kind of Christmas markets where you can buy Christmas ornaments and lots of other things (Christmas cards, wooden things, ...) and eat sausages, baked potatoes, ... and certainly get mulled claret.

Christmas itself starts at Christmas Eve (24.). On this day shops are open until noon (to buy the last presents). Each family does it a little bit differently. Some first go to church and then give eachother their Christmas presents, have a great dinner together (on Christmas Eve it is often carp), sing Christmas songs and so on. Other families wait for the first Christmas Day (25.) to change presents. The second Christmas Day (26.) is also a holiday in Germany. A typical meal for this day is goose (as for Saint Martin). So you have three days of beeing together with your family and eating, drinking, talking.

• German Christmas Music
• Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt 1997
• German Christmas Songs
• German Smoking Men
• Christmas decorations and angels from Isny im Allgaeu
• Recipes for a German Christmas
• St. Nicholas
• Adventures at Christmas .. in Germany!
• Crips in Germany (in the internet) English - German
• Another Christmas in Germany Site
• Christmas in Westphalia (G)

Picture from Klaus Ibold

Karneval (Fastnacht/Carnival) in Germany

In a lot of cities there will be a Karneval parade - the biggest are in Cologne, Mainz and Düsseldorf but there are many more.

• Kölner Karneval
• Kölner Karneval - Schnieke Prunz
• Blaue FunkenOffizielle Homepage des Karnevalsvereins Kölner Funken Artillerie von 1870 e.V. Blaue Funken.
• Museum Kölner Karnevalsorden
• Karnevalsgesellschaften in Koblenz
• Pictures from Karneval from Klaus Ibold

Easter in Germany

• Easter Traditions (G) from the Spinnrad-Shops
• Easter Receipts, Coloring Eggs and so on (G)
• Easter Eggs - Gallery, Informations (G)
• Easter Poems, Receipts and Gifts (G)

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German Food

• German Receipts a collection of recipe-collections on internet
• The Internet Chef On-Line Magazine search for German food.
• World Wide Restaurant Guide - Germany
• Gabi's Küche - real German home cooking
• Household & Cooking Index of the German American Corner

Today there are a lot of vegetarians in Germany but it is still difficult to find a vegetarian restaurant.

• Vegetarianism in Germany
• A food service oriented internet-server

What can you find on a typical German Menu?

In Germany the price of your meal already includes the taxes and the tip. However if you enjoyed a fine meal and a not too bad service (you probably won't find the same great service as in the US) you should add a little bit extra to the bill (pay 45 DM instead of 43.20 DM). If you are a student or do not earn money by your own, you can go without tipping. Moreover, it is regular to round up the amount payable (pay 12 DM instead of 11.80 DM).

German Wine

• German wine and the German Vintage Guide

German Beer

• Bier aus Deutschland
• German Beer Purity Law
• Bayern Brewing Home Page - this is a US-Site
• Why German beer? - from DIEBELS
• Warsteiner USA Homepage one of my favourite beers.

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