Autumn Festivals

The German Festival Year

Course 1 · Chapter 7 · Autumn: Oktoberfest, Harvest and Lanterns

Autumn begins with the world's most famous beer festival and ends with children walking through dark streets carrying paper lanterns and singing. In between come harvest thanks in church, new wine and onion tart, and, in recent decades, pumpkins and costumes imported from abroad. This chapter treats Oktoberfest briefly, because it has its own course, and then follows the quieter autumn customs: Erntedank, the new wine, St Martin on 11 November and the 31 October that is both Reformation Day and Halloween. Names, dates and figures are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

Oktoberfest in Brief

The origin

The first Oktoberfest is dated to October 1810, when Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (later King Ludwig I) married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The citizens of Munich were invited to celebrate on a meadow outside the city, later named the Theresienwiese, with horse races (check the details).

Now

Held on the same meadow in Munich for about two weeks from mid-September to the first Sunday in October (check the rule), with huge beer tents, a fair and several million visitors in a typical year (check the figure). The mayor taps the first barrel with the words "O'zapft is!" (It's tapped!).

The question

The festival is real and about two hundred years old, but the rule that it ends in October, the beer tents, the costumes and the song list are later developments (check). The full story, with the beer rules, is in German Beer, Oktoberfest & the Reinheitsgebot.

Many other places hold their own "Oktoberfest" or imitate Munich's, from other German cities to places in Britain and America, which is a pattern seen throughout this course: a local custom becomes a model and a brand (check).

Erntedank: Harvest Thanks

  • The day. Usually the first Sunday of October in Protestant and Catholic churches, though the date varies by region and church (check). It is not a public holiday.
  • Customs. The church is decorated with fruit, vegetables, grain and bread. A harvest crown (Erntekrone) may be carried in a procession, and food is donated to people in need (check).
  • Origin. Thanksgiving for the harvest is far older than the modern festival, but the fixed church date is a modern arrangement, and a national Erntedank was set up in the 1800s and 1900s (check).
  • Not like the American holiday. The German festival is mostly religious and local, with no turkey dinner or national story (check). It is a different custom with a similar purpose.

New Wine, Pumpkins and Potato Fires

Item (check each)Note
Federweißer and ZwiebelkuchenYoung, partly fermented wine and onion tart, a seasonal pairing in the wine regions in September and October. The wine is only sold for a short time, because it keeps fermenting.
PumpkinsPumpkin fairs, such as the large display at Ludwigsburg Palace (check), are a recent but popular autumn attraction.
Potato fires and kitesIn parts of the north, farm families burned stubble and roasted potatoes on autumn fires, and children flew kites. Both are mostly local memories now (check).
Wine harvestThe grape harvest (Weinlese) is a working season for the wine regions and often the centre of village festivals.

St Martin: 11 November

  • The saint. Martin of Tours, a 4th-century Roman soldier who, in the story, cut his cloak in two and gave half to a freezing beggar, later becoming a bishop (check). He is a popular saint in Germany.
  • Lantern walks. Children in many towns and villages make paper lanterns at school and walk in the dark after a church service, with a rider dressed as the saint on a horse, singing songs such as "Ich geh mit meiner Laterne" (check). The walk is usually ended with a bonfire and a sweet bread Weckmann or Stutenkerl (check).
  • The goose. A roast goose is eaten at Martinmas. A legend says that Martin tried to avoid being made bishop by hiding in a goose pen, and that the geese gave him away (check). Other explanations point to the end of the farming year, when tenants paid dues and geese were fattened and slaughtered (check).
  • Singing for sweets. In parts of the Rhineland children go from door to door singing and collecting sweets on the evening of 10 or 11 November, Martinssingen, which may remind a Scot of guising (check).
  • The Luther link. Martin Luther was born on 10 November 1483 and was baptised the next day, St Martin's Day, which is the reason for his first name (check).
  • The same date as carnival. Carnival's "fifth season" opens at 11:11 on 11 November in Cologne (see Chapter 4, check), and the two events happen in the same city on the same evening.

31 October: Reformation Day and Halloween

Event (check each)Note
Reformation DayOn 31 October 1517 Martin Luther is said to have posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Historians debate whether he nailed them to the door or sent them to the archbishop, though the date is traditional. It is a public holiday in the eastern states and a few others (check which).
All Saints and All Souls1 and 2 November. All Saints' Day is a public holiday in some mainly Catholic states, when families visit and decorate graves with candles and flowers (check).
HalloweenCostume parties, pumpkins and "Süßes oder Saures" (sweets or sour) spread in Germany mainly from the 1990s, driven by shops, television and American influence (check the date). Some churches objected, and some Protestant churches have used the evening for events on the Reformation (check).
Imported, not ancient German Halloween is a good example of a custom that arrived within living memory. It is not a Germanic survival, despite a claim that it links to an old autumn festival. The evidence points to commerce and media in the late twentieth century, and the question for a historian is why a foreign custom took root, as with Dinner for One in Chapter 3.
A British comparison Halloween is much older in Scotland, where children went "guising" in costume for treats, and carved turnip lanterns (tumshies) before pumpkins became usual (check). Robert Burns wrote a poem called "Halloween" in 1785. Some writers argue that the Scottish and Irish customs travelled to America and returned in modified form, which is why German Halloween arrived with an American look (check). Bonfire Night, on 5 November, falls between Halloween and St Martin's Day.
Check the details Dates of Erntedank, state holidays and festival start dates vary, and stories about Martin, Luther and the goose are traditional and partly legendary. Verify with the church, town or festival, and treat the origin stories as claims.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Make a timeline from late September to mid-November with the festivals of this chapter, and note which are religious, which are civic and which are imported.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Explain the legend of St Martin and the goose, and say what the other explanations of the goose dinner are and which is best supported.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Compare Halloween in Germany and in Scotland: when each took root, how it is celebrated, and what that shows about imported and inherited customs.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Oktoberfest: 1810 royal wedding; full story in German Beer, Oktoberfest & the Reinheitsgebot
  • Erntedank: harvest thanks, usually early October, church-based
  • New wine: Federweißer with Zwiebelkuchen
  • St Martin (11 Nov): lantern walks, the goose, Weckmann
  • 31 Oct: Reformation Day (some states); Halloween arrived from the 1990s