Männertag

Watch the old-timer in Khaki

I was perusing a 126-item list titled "You know you're German when..." slowly realizing that perhaps I don't have an ancestral umbilical cord to the heimland, when I read the following entry:

32. We are used to men getting drunk every Ascsenion Day (Himmelfahrt or rather "Männertag")

As it turns out, "Männertag" is the German equivalent of father's day, a celebration that occurs the same day that the church acknowledges Jesus' ascension into heaven - also known as Ascension Day.

The undated video didn't help much in explaining why fathers guzzle bier that day. To find out more, I called local German club and talked to a woman who said to call Sigrid, that she would know everything.

Old lady Sigrid picked up the phone. With a delightful German accent, this is what she told me:

"It's not a family day like here. But the men get together and use their walking sticks and they put some branches on and put some flowers on their head and go from pub to pub."

That could explain why they are in the middle of a forested road with backpacks: going from pub to pub could be difficult in a rural setting I guess if each pub is in a different town. Sigrid also told me that she hadn't heard of men getting drunk, even though it's possible some might.

"I don't know. In my family, my father and my grandfather, they never did that tradition. My mother cooked a special dinner, and we went for a walk. And because it's Himmelfahrt we might have went to church."

It does seem a bit irreverent for fathers to be playing the accordion and drinking beer on the one day a year reserved for Jesus ascending to heaven. Does that make it less awesome? No, indeed.

I'm still not sure what the song is that they play, but I'm determined that be the next song I learn on the accordion. Pah pah! Get your branches and flowers, and let's take a walk.