Deutsch Dienstag-Muhlbacher fest

 

Our little village had its fest this past weekend.  It was little. 

 

Each village puts up one of these big, colorful "sticks" for their fest.  I think that they are made with somekind of tissue paper stuff.  They don't rip in the wind, because they leave them up all year, but they turn grey-ish with the rain.  After talking to the landlord about them and their purpose, I am still in the dark as to the "why" of the stick.  Apparently a bunch of youth, late teens and early 20s, get together at nights and drink and make these to hang on the fest weekend.   There has got to be an explanation that is being lost in translation.  They are kind of fun to look at.  When we first moved here, the boys and I were thinking that they were advertising for Chimney Sweeps.  Kind of looks like a large bottle brush.

Darin in front of the fest. 

 

It consisted of a trailer selling food and a little 'throw the darts at the balloons' booth, music and the local Gasthaus.  We walked near, but it wasn't really necessary to go to the fest.  Nobody was really around making merry.  We must have gotten there in between festivities.  Maybe.

 

One of the funny things about the week after the fest is that a group of youth go door to door collecting for the fest or future fest...I don't really know, lost in translation again.  They want either euros or wine.  Last year they also collected eggs, which I gave.  (Landlord said that they sit around and eat all the eggs one night.  I am thinking that the German sense of FUN is a bit different when mixed with the wine.)  This year they only wanted euros or wine.  I gave wine.  I remembered this stash that we had gotten from our neighbors at Christmas time and ran and grabbed a bottle. Darin said that I shouldn't have given wine to youth.   I told him that they were already carrying bottles (drinking is legal at 16)  and they were just putting it all in the trunk of an old car.  I know, sounds really legit, but hey, they didn't ask for eggs this year.  I started to tell Darin that I didn't want to give euros because....then he interupted me and said, in his I'm a funny guy voice, "because, what?  They may buy alcohol with it?!"   I have no response.   Eggs.  Next year I'll give the drunk kids eggs whether they ask for them or not.