21st Century May Day
1 May 2005 1 Comment
Well, it finally happened! After two years of disappointment, I finally got to witness the raising of the Maypole today! The weather was warm and beautiful and I took a whole bunch of pictures.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly as traditional as I had hoped it would be. Oh sure, there were lots of people running around in Lederhosen and Dirndls with mugs of beer in their hands and nibbling on pretzels. There was even a little Bavarian band playing music with little girls in pigtails dancing a jig. (Do they even dance jigs in Germany? I don’t know.)
According to what I have read, there are many traditions surrounding May Day in Germany, and Bavaria in particular. Certain traditions such as placing a tall straight tree in the village and decorating it with a wreath of spring flowers and colorful ribbons or stealing the Maypole of the neighboring village holding it for ransom take place a couple of days before May first, so I didn’t think I would get a chance to take part in them.
However, I was hoping to witness a Maibaumkraxeln (Maypole climbing) contest where I could watch guys battling each other in order to see who could climb up the shaven and polished tree trunk the fastest to impress the girls. I am sorry to say though that there was no such contest. In fact, rather than a bare tree trunk with ribbons around it, the Maibaum had already been painted Bavarian blue and white.
If truth be told, today’s Maifest was very 21st century. In addition to the prefabricated Maibaum, there weren’t 20 guys in Lederhosen heave-hoeing the Maibaum into place, but rather a crane that merely raised the Maibaum into place. I was slightly disappointed, but enjoyed the spectacle nonetheless.
As a matter of fact, the highlight of the day turned out be that our village had a new Maibaum this year. This in and of itself wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but the new Maibaum didn’t quite fit into the Maibaum stand. So, while still being held into place by the crane, the guys had to use an axe and chainsaw to chip enough of the base of the Maypole away so that it could be secured.
It was rather amusing. First they cut a couple of little squares a centimeter or two deep with the chainsaw on the base of the pole and then they hacked them away with the axe. They then tried to bolt the pole to the stand, but it still didn’t fit. So they had to do it over again.
Once the Maibaum was finally secure, no one even climbed up the pole to remove the crane’s chain from it! A fire truck came, extended its ladder, and a couple of guys (who weren’t even wearing Lederhosen) took it off. Bah! 
After the Maypole raising “ceremony,” the band starting tooting their horns again and everyone else went back to drinking beer and eating pretzels. Behold “The Raising of the Maibaum”… 21st Century Style!
Filed under: expatica blog, germany, holidays & special occasions, photos | Tags: bavaria, may day
