Festivals Today

The festivals of the earlier chapters are not museum pieces. They are run by councils, clubs and companies, visited by millions, argued over by politicians, and changed by new residents, new rules and new technology. This chapter looks at the pressures on the German festival year today: tourism and money, the festivals of communities that came to Germany in the last sixty years, safety rules and the pandemic, energy and waste, and the question of who decides what counts as a tradition. Names, dates and figures are from general knowledge and flagged "check", and this is a fast-moving subject.

Tourism and Money

New Communities, New Festivals

• Who lives in Germany. From the 1950s onward the "guest workers" from Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and elsewhere came to work, many of them settled, and later arrivals came from many countries (check). Millions of people in Germany have a family history of migration, including a large community with Turkish roots (check the figures).
• Muslim festivals. Eid al-Fitr, ending Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha are celebrated by Muslim communities, with prayers, family visits and meals. They are not public holidays in most states, and the question of whether they should be, or whether pupils should have leave, has been debated (check the position in each state).
• Jewish life. Festivals such as Hanukkah are celebrated publicly in some cities, with large candle-lighting events, in a country where Jewish communities were destroyed in the Nazi years and have been rebuilt since (check). Security for such events is a serious issue.
• Shared events. The Karneval der Kulturen in Berlin, held at Whitsun since 1996, is a street parade of the city's communities (check). Local Turkish, Italian and Greek festivals are part of many towns' summer calendar.
• Questions. Debates about which festivals count as "German" can be about identity as well as the calendar, and the history of this chapter shows that German festivals have always been changed by newcomers and by exchange with other countries.

Safety, Security and the Pandemic

The cancellations showed how much of local business depends on festivals, and the return of events in 2022 was widely reported as a revival (check). Safety rules are a permanent part of the festival year now, and some visitors and organisers find them heavy-handed while others find them essential.

Energy, Waste and the Climate

• Lights. In the energy crisis of 2022 some cities reduced Christmas lighting or the opening hours of markets to save energy, a decision that caused public argument (check).
• Fireworks. New Year's Eve fireworks produce fine dust and pollution in the first hours of the year, and injuries and the stress to animals. Cities have set limited zones, and campaigners and some police unions have called for a general ban, while others defend the custom (check the current rules and positions).
• Mugs and packaging. Deposit mugs for Glühwein, reusable plates and bans on single-use plastic at events are part of environmental rules (check).
• The Christmas tree. Debates over cut trees, plantations and artificial trees appear every year (check).

New Festivals, New Habits

• Public viewing. Large outdoor screens for football tournaments, called "public viewing" in German, became a mass habit at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, with flags and street parties that many commentators described as a more relaxed form of patriotism (check). It is a recent festival with its own rituals.
• Music and subculture events. The Gothic festival in Leipzig, the Love Parade and Wacken (Chapter 6) show how new communities build festivals that then claim tradition.
• Digital life. Streams of carnival and Christmas concerts, photographs on social media and online booking have changed how festivals look and who attends (check).
• Revival. Some old customs have been revived by local groups, supported by local heritage funding, even where the line of descent was broken (check examples).

Who Owns a Tradition?

Exercises