Oktoberfest ist hier!

Oktoberfesters getting down. [Photo: oldworld.ws]

Actually, the Oktoberfest has been here since the last week, but anytime is a good time to eat bratwursts and drink lotsa beer, because during the festival everybody is from the Fatherland!

Top 10 Reasons for Being German :

1. Oktoberfest.
2. Wonderful sense of humor.
3. Oktoberfest.
4. World's largest manufacturer of beach towels.
5. Oktoberfest.
6. Sausages.
7. Oktoberfest.
8. Oktoberfest.
9. Oktoberfest.
10. Innate pacifism.

Oktoberfest traditionally starts in the third weekend in September and ends the first Sunday of October.

It began with the Royal Wedding on 12 October 1810. Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, was married to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on 12 October 1810. The citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields in front of the city gates to celebrate the happy royal event. Horse races in the presence of the royal family marked the close of the event that was celebrated as a festival for the whole of Bavaria. The decision to repeat the horse races in subsequest years gave rise to the tradition of Oktoberfest.

Today, the Oktoberfest in Munich is the largest festival in the world, with an international flavor characteristic of the 20th century.

Read the full story at Munich's Oktoberfest History page.

[List via Whimiscal Wits , Image and texts © 1990-2004 WCF.]