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SubTitle: Schwaebisch Thanksgiving
Posted by: DAN BLAINE (100.53680@germanynet.de) on 11/23/1997@23:41hrs:
In Reply to: Thanksgiving on Old SI posted by: rs on 11/22/1997@20:26hrs:
Bob, Charley, et al: They do celebrate the harvest in Germany, And I'll (eventually) describe it. But before I describe Schwaebisch Thanskgiving I have to set the scene.
Schwabenland (officially Baden-Wuertemburg) is southwest Germany. It is bounded on the West by the Black Forest, on the South by the Swiss Alps and the Bodensee (Lake Constance), on the East by Bavaria and on the North by the Neckar River and Heidelberg. It is roughly 150 miles North to South and 75miles East to West. Three rivers have their near the Bodensee: the Rhine, the Danube and the Neckar. These rivers and their feeder streams have created some of the most fertile valleys in Europe. Everything is grown in the valleys: wheat, all other kinds of grains, corn, potatoes, vegetables and hops. Further up on the hillsides there is an abundance of fruit orchards...apples, cherries, pears, plums, peaches, etc. On the hills with Western exposure and the right soil are grape vineyards. So the Schwabs have a lot to be thankful for when they celebrate their Thanksgiving.
The Schwabs themselves are descendants of many of the Germanic tribes that migrated toward the West, the most predominant being the Celts. The Schwabs are known for their ingenuity, industriousness and thriftiness. (the same Celts later migrated to the British Isles and the Scots have the reputation for being thrifty...but the original "thrifty Scot" was a Schwab). The countryside developed into small villages with common farmland and forests in between.
In our village (Hildrizhausen) of about 2000 people, 500 are probably "Ur-Schwabs" (descendants of the original settlers) and the other 1500 use the village as a bedroom community while they work in the hi-tech labs and factories of this German Silicon Valley. (Daimler-Benz, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, to name a few). For the Schwabs are not only farmers, they are inventors, scientists and engineers par excellance! It is not unusual for a Schwaebisch farmer to work as engineer for IBM (maybe on the development of a new microchip) and then come home at night and harvest his potato crop and or start squeezing the apples from his orchard to make "Apfel Most" (hard cider).
Some of the most famous Schwabs are: Albert Einstein, Johannes Kepler and the "Desert Fox", Erwin Rommel. Until he retired last year, the mayor of Stuttgart (the largest city in Schwabenland) was Manfred Rommel, the "Desert Fox's" son. The Schwabs also have their own dialect, which is about as tough for other Germans to understand as it is for the rest of the USA to understand people from the greater NYC area.
So, what is their Thanksgiving feast like? First, it is a communal feast, rather than a family and close friend feast we usually celebrate at home or in small groups at a restaurant. Second, it takes place earlier than ours: usually around the end of October (but not to be confused with the Bavarian "Oktober Fest"). Third, it lasts an entire weekend: starting on Saturday from noon till midnight and then on Sunday from 10am until 4pm. In our village it is set up in the gym of the local school and most of the villagers come on both days and have a least one meal there (which is being cooked and served continually during the "Erntedank Fest" (Thanksgiving).
There is no Turkey! (although they do raise them here!). In addition
to traditional German fare like roast pork and sausages there are some
unique Schwaebisch dishes" Spaetzele (Schwabisch noodles) and Maul-
taschen (Schwaebisch ravioli). There are huge loaves of "Bauerbrot"
(farmer's bread) and lots of Zwiebel, Zwetschen and Apfel Kuchen
(onion, plum and apple cakes) that were all baked in the communal
"bakhaus" stone oven whose fire is started with twigs and stoked with
logs out of the village's own forest land. There is plenty of local
wine and beer, my favorite being "Weisen Bier" which is made out of
wheat instead of hops, "Obstler" (an apple, plum and pear schnapps),
and "Apfel Most" (hard cider). There is usually a local band playing
and the music changes between traditional German songs, Schwaebisch
songs and oldie-goldie American rock and roll. To sum it up: "A Good
Time was had by All"...DAN