The Same, Only Different

Experiencing a country’s regional customs and celebrations can enliven any journey. Many regions of Europe were formed from amalgamations of small towns that joined together for trade, for protection, because of a common religion or similar language, or for other mutually beneficial reasons. It is not uncommon for the customs and dialect of one area to be strikingly different from those of another lying just a short distance away (recognizing that today’s “short” distances using modern transportation may have taken weeks to traverse on foot hundreds of years ago). Traditions borne from the historical formations of the regions can offer outsiders remarkable and insightful glimpses into a living past, helping to preserve the character and flavor of a place, and to make rural travel enjoyable and interesting beyond the scenery.

While visiting Pfronten-Berg, Germany (in the far south of Bavaria, near King Ludwig’s famous Neuschwanstein alpine castle and the Austrian border), we saw a poster on a street side bulletin board, directing us to the Engel, a popular local restaurant, promising delicious home-style cooking and a Trachtenfest [traditional singing, dancing, and music making performed in costume]. By the time we arrived at the restaurant for the festivities, quite a crowd of other visitors and locals had assembled in the restaurant’s great rustic dining room, leaving a scant few unoccupied seating places. In Germany, large dinner tables are customarily shared with other guests, so we squeezed ourselves onto a dark wooden bench among eight other happy, hungry culture seekers…all German couples vacationing from the central and northern parts of the country.

Having traveled extensively throughout Germany and Austria, our conversational German is not Goethe Institut quality, but it is reasonable, and we are not afraid to speak; most people are very tolerant of foreigners attempting to use their language, and when “mehr langsam, bitte” [more slowly, please] is requested, a German speaker typically obliges to give the foreign listener more translation time. Surrounded by the clinking of thick glass beer mugs and of forks and knives on heavy ceramic dinner plates, and the heavy aroma of sauerkraut, fried potatoes, and broiled Wurst and other meats, we all chatted about our families, professions, and towns…and about politics (a German’s “favorite” subject). It is amazing how much cold, frothy Hefeweizen beer can be consumed on a warm summer evening while making and enjoying new friends.

Finally, the entertainment began as four young women wearing pink flowered aprons, long black skirts, and feather-studded green felt hats sat around a large oak table playing a lively melody on zither, guitar, flute, and harmonica. Next, the Festfeuhrer [Master of Ceremonies] stepped up to the microphone in his decorative, green and brown suede knee-length lederhosen with deer antler buttons, and slowly crooned an old, regional ballad in his low guttural voice; the song was a bit risqué, and my “Cheshire cat” grin widened with each new verse. When the singer concluded, applause and laughter erupted from the crowd, and it was obvious that the audience liked what it heard.

As the room quieted down, and the entertainers prepared for their folk dance number, a woman who lived in Würzburg (a city located about two hundred miles north) leaned across the table and asked, “Verstehen Sie das Lied?” [Do you understand the song?]. Sheepishly confessing to her that only about seventy percent of the words were successfully recognized, she seemed intent on offering me the language assistance to ensure a complete cultural experience. To my surprise and amusement, though, she asked ME to explain the song to HER; the singer’s accent and dialect were “so strange and foreign”, that she barely understood a word. I had to smile, because my wife and I were supposed to be the Auslanders [foreigners] at this event. Thanks to my Würzburger friend’s request, my cultural experience was MORE than complete; I never expected a German to ask me to translate German into German.