One of the traditions here in Germany is the May Pole. Each city has a May Pole in their City Center. Sometimes rival cities (mostly based on the school system) will steal each other's May Poles, but they are always returned after :) Sometimes the May Poles need to be replaced and they town will wait until May Day to put up a new one.
We visited a very small town about 6km from us called Aschering. They were putting up their new May Pole and had a big celebration! Everyone was dressed in traditional German clothing, Lederhosen (mostly for men) and Dirndl for the ladies. Even the small children were in their traditional dress...so cute! (Yes, now I'm on the hunt for them for Drew and Anna!)
We watched them lift the May Pole and set it in place. When they were done, everyone clapped, and a group of men shot some guns! We were standing right next to these men and could not figure out what they were doing...we thought they had flasks or something over their shoulders (certainly they couldn't be guns), but we were wrong...they were guns! And they were very loud and unexpected! They must have shot them off 6 or 7 times too. It was tons of fun and very neat to learn about their traditions!
Here are a few pictures from our morning!
The May Pole
People in their Traditional Clothing
The May Pole in Place
The Men with Guns
A Steel Frame 7 Person Bike (this thing was hilarious!)
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