Is it time to break out the “brats”? Ach, ja!
Photo by 46137 
In my free time, I make pottery at a little ceramic studio in New York City, right down the street from the Yahoo! offices. Each year, we host what turns out to be our biggest public event: Oktoberfest. We invite all of the teachers, students, and resident artists to make mugs, steins, and other drinking vessels. We throw a big party and anyone who purchases a handmade cup gets it filled with beer (or soda for the youngsters) all evening. It’s always a great party: the artists make a little money, the studio gets a little publicity, and everyone indulges in a little (OK, a lot of) beer and brats. It’s something I look forward to every year. But as I was hard at work on my collection of beer steins last night, I realized that I have no idea what Oktoberfest is really about, other than an excuse to drink beer.
Apparently, the original Oktoberfest was a raging party thrown in Munich by Prince Ludwig of Bavaria on October 12, 1810, to celebrate his marriage to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. A horse race was planned, and copious amounts of beer and food were served. It was such a great bash that it became an annual tradition. The horse race was eventually abandoned, but the beer still flows to this day.
The modern Munich Oktoberfest lasts 16 days, ending on the first Sunday in October, and is attended by over 6.5 million people, with smaller celebrations taking place all over Germany and the rest of the world. Most events occur outside in grandly decorated tents or beer halls, and revolve around food, music, and (of course) lots and lots of beer served in huge mugs called mass or seidel.
Well, after doing a little research, I guess my original Oktoberfest impression wasn’t that far off – it’s pretty much just an excuse to drink beer. That’s my kind of holiday! “Oans, zwoa, drei, Gsuffa!”
How will you (responsibly) celebrate Oktoberfest this year?
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I found your article intriguing as I literally attended Oktoberfest two days ago with my father while in Munich on business. I must say, it is like a GIANT state fair with beer as its main point and lots of dressing up in German constumes. Imagine Hansel and Gretel at 60 and drunk– well, you get the picture.
I was looking very forward to visiting Germany and seeing Oktoberfest but I must confess, it is a place I will never return. The people were incredibly rude and did not hide their distaste for America / Americans. I was nearly held by the “polize” when leaving the airport for no other reason than the officer had decided to hate Americans and mistrusted me.
So, it is doubtful I will ever to anything for Oktoberfest again back home…I will most likely ignore it on purpose.
Well, you can’t expect much from a country that has been dissapointed by the americans so many times, Annie…
That sounds like fun in New York — and like it’s a big happy family there. What’s wrong with the Germans– they’ve had their overly distaste for whoever too much. Will they learn to love their neighbors… even their tourists? I’m part German and have a distaste for that heritage! I love my dad and grandpa and family that worked the soil by horse and plow through to 1960’s. He played the violin, or fiddle as we knew it. He did not stomach beer too much. I wonder is it good for digestion or not so good? A little of both perhaps… all in moderation.
When I’ve gone to Oktorberfest locally it seems rather boring. I’d rather have a Pool Table fest, or something fun like that. But life is much more than that. I would like to see neiborhood pot lucks come back, though. That’s fun.
Bratwurst ist sehr lecker! Ich mit catsup und onions sie essen!
To Annie. Im sorry you experienced Germans and the ppl there as rude. Actually germans are quite straight forward they say what they think and many may experience that as rudeness (it is only cultural differences). I have many friends who are german and they are very nice, at airports security has to be high USA s airports aren´t the exception the police there is way rude too. I think the only airport I have seen kind police around is Arlanda in Stockholm.
Oktober Fest is just an excuse to get drunk like Richard says but it is also fun and myself have experienced ppl to be more open and friendly. I hope I can go there any time soon eventhou im not much of a drinker but beer is one of my fav drinks!
Tschüs!
Your analysis about Oktoberfest is fairly accurate. It is the national “Let’s drink beer just because we can.” fest. Having lived in Germany, in Bavaria specifically, for more than 12 years now, I have found that the Germans, in general, have an excuse to drink beer at the drop of a hat. I’m not condemning this, since I sit around and quaff right along with them, but I have wondered how they manage to get anything done in between trips to the fest tents. Oktoberfest is the best known fest, but any time a church here has a “Kirwa” (This is the annual reconsecration ceremony), they have a fest tent and kegs. Seeing how there is a least one church in any town of 50 or more people, that’s a lot of fests. Most towns that are more than 300 years old, which means most German towns, also do 25-year, 50-year and centennial fests, in additon to an annual “Marktfest” (market festival).
This is rather long winded, but the best part of all the fests is that you can try at least one different kind of beer at each one. The variety definitely makes it worthwhile. So if you ever have the opportunity, come over and hoist one, or more. Prost!
I live in Kitchener, Ontario, home of the second biggest Oktoberfest in the world. My family and I will probably go to the Tapping of the Keg on Friday, maybe to the family fest day at one of the German social clubs, then on Thanksgiving Monday there’s the big Oktoberfest parade…there’s also barrel rolling, a pancake breakfast, polka and oompah bands downtown along with plenty of food vendors. There’s tons of things to do during Oktoberfest, and many of them have nothing to do with sausages or beer, although you can find plenty of both! If you want the genuine German Oktoberfest experience that’s much closer to home; come up to Kitchener where we love American tourists and all their American tourist money! We’ll make you feel right at home!
no thank you I’m a vegetarian and I do not eat tortured animals from big American Factory Farms
Oktoberfest also celebrates the end of the harvest. I lived in Germany for 3 years while in the Army and attended the Oktoberfest two of those three years. It’s a lot of fun.
One thing I miss here in the US after moving over from Germany are those huge fairs.
There is nothing quite like the atmosphere you get when you mix music, drink, food stands and lots and lots of carnival rides. To this day, I’ve never seen anything that comes even close to that kind of atmosphere in the US.
Theme Parks are fun, but they sterilize the grittiness of a real city fair like I’m used to.
I grew up in Berlin and near Bremen and Hamburg in the north of Germany and can honestly tell you:
if you want more fun, less lederhosen and less rude, drunk people, the north of Germany is the place to be
Festivals that are really fun to attend are the Dom in Hamburg (winter, spring and summer) and the Bremer Freimarkt.
Check out these links:
http://www.hamburger-dom.de/history_of_dom.html
http://www.freimarkt.de/daten_fakten_history.php
When I was 11, I visited my uncle while he was stationed in Heidelberg. Unfortunately, my cousin felt a need to shield me from The Germans, and I wasn’t worldly enough at that age to tell him, “DUH, I’m in GERMANY,” so I experienced very little of the place.
And now, I couldn’t partake of Oktoberfest even if I _could_ locate a celebration within 1000 miles. See, Germans must have a taste for the chemical “tyramine,” because their foods and beers are brimming with the stuff. But I cannot tolerate it. Oh, well.