In the merry, merry, merry month of May

May is the month of neverending holidays in Germany.

Germans have something like 14 official holidays, which makes the average American green with envy. There are two catches, however - if a holiday falls on a weekend, it's gone. There's no "Independence Day, observed" kind of save to preserve the day off. The other catch is, that it feels like half of these holidays fall within May, leaving the rest of the year rather thinly populated.

What's in May? Well, May Day, which is celebrated as Labor Day is in the States. Even without the rather modern overlaying of the labor holiday on it, May 1st would still probably be celebrated here as a rite of spring. There are still Maypole observances here, but perhaps more popular are the Dance into May parties (actually happening April 30th) in tents, sports clubs and bars around the region. Then comes Christ's Ascension, which unfortunately fell on May 1st this year (see the weekend rule above). This is also Germany's unofficial Father's Day, which is celebrated (according to my father-in-law) by father's removing themselves to beer tents set up on the carnival fields on the edge of town.

Next comes Pfingsten, or Pentacost. This turns out to be something of a unofficial start to summer type holiday. It is followed by Pentacost Monday, which is then often followed by a gratuitous day off from school on Tuesday for the kids. Therefore, this weekend is often called "Pentacost Vacation", and 50% of the country tries to get away for the weekend starting at 2pm on the previous Friday. Last weekend, when it occurred, the radio broadcasters weren't even bothering to warn people about backups of less than 10 km (~6 miles).

Finally to round out the month comes Corpus Christi. We haven't reached this one yet, but it's another Thursday holiday, and so Friday is also a school holiday.

Interspersed with all these real holidays are various celebrations - for example, Schutzenfest, celebrating local militias and their deeds in prior centuries; or Kirmes (what American's would call a carnival). Sometimes the local kids get more holidays for these (but not for the poor kids in Moers - they only have 6 days off in May!).