Hexennacht, Maibaum, and Maiwanderung

April 30th is Witches' Night in Germany: Hexennacht.  During the night all of the witches get together and party because they are excited for the coming of spring. Or, youth go out on this night and play tons of pranks:

Hexennacht seems to be a sweet spot of nostalgia for many older Germans here in Saarland.  They speak of it the way many parents recall to their children "walking both ways uphill to school everyday- in the snow."  It would seem that the younger generation is lazier and less creative, resorting to base pranks like toilet papering, shaving creaming, and destroying property.  When adults were kids they did clever things like:

- Brick and mortar the door of their grandparent's front door shut

- disassemble a tractor and put it on the roof of a barn

- pick up cars parked on the street and move them sideways into the middle of the road

- cut all of the flower blooms off from a neighbor

People at work and around the house shared plenty of other great stories from the "golden years."

May 1st is Maibaum (May Tree/pole) day.  The entire village gathered at 11am in the rain in order to watch the pole get put up by the fire department:

Because Germany loves traditions, there was a band and a few speeches from prominent villagers. And, it is never to early for a beer:

It was rainy and slippery, and the pole looked really heavy.  So like any terrible person, I thought, "I should film this":

I took out the sound because my German is terrible, but at one point we start asking aloud "why are they standing under it?" and "should we tell them to stop?" and "is this going to be the tragic day we lost our entire fire department?"

Along the pole are the "coat of arms" from prominent clubs and businesses within the greater village area. The pole stays up until October or so.

 

After the Maibaum, I took part in another May tradition: Maiwanderung (May hike).  I believe the idea is to welcome spring weather with a hike, beer and grilling.  I was invited to an outing with the Uni, but it fell out due to the rain.  I tagged along with Fabi and his friends instead.

As tradition requires, we filled a wagon with beer, grabbed a boombox, and went wandering.  We stopped once and had our picnic and played a German drinking game that involves bowling- it was pretty fun.

Here is a time-lapse we made together for his friends:

Unfortunately the wagon gave up on the last stretch home, so we were forced to carry it.  All things considered, I give this tradition a 9 out of 10 and think it should find its way across the pond.