Here in Germany, Mayday is a big deal. Most people have the day off, and it’s celebrated not only as a Pagan holiday – but also as Men’s Day.
I believe that last year I mentioned the Men’s Day tradition – so this year, I’ll go into the April 30/May 1st Pagan tradition, and the local Berliner traditions for May Day.
First off – the Pagan – Traditionally, April 30 is called Walpurgis Night.. According to local legend, on April 30 (or May 1), all of the witches from around the world come to gather at a place called Hexentanzplatz to perform the Spring Rights. These rituals are held in a huge flat topped area of the Harz mountains, known as Brocken (the highest peak in central germany) and they light a huge bonfire to dance around it. It’s traditionally a time of celebration, dancing, drinking (what else is there to do in Germany) and nekkid drunkenness.
Also, as a part of this, there are often jokes and pranks played on people on Walpurgis night. These can be anything from tampering with neighbor’s gardens, posessions, or graffiting. Normally, no one is hurt, but it usually does result in someone getting a bit miffed.
While I haven’t participated in the April 30 Walpurgis Nacht celebrations, I have been to the place called the HexenTanzPlatz. Now, it’s very very touristy and really doesn’t impress me so much. I did, however, take some video while I was there last year. I hope you enjoy.
Now, here in Berlin, the people celebrate May Day. They have a festival in Kreuzberg – and it’s got music, dancing and so on. Kreuzberg is a section of Berlin, and it’s known to have a huge turkish immigrant community. During the day, the festival is relatively calm, packed with people drinking, shopping, and just doing what people do at a festival. At night however, this is known as a dangerous area to be.
The Reason? Traditionally, the anarchists show up and start riots. Yep, Riots. They tip cars over, set them on fire, throw molitov coctails, rocks, spray paint buildings…. shoot off fireworks at each other and have a general rowdy good time. Now, I will admit I’ve never been a part of a riot, (probabally not a good idea) but I am kind of interested in trying to go down there and get some film footage and/or photos (you know— as safely as possible) . Thing is that I do have to work today – so it probabally wont happen (that I get down there). I will note that I’ve seen advertisments on youtube promoting the riots for this year (and even saying where they will be) and providing old footage of others – apparently it’s at 18:00 PM tonight – at some point during a protest march…
Humm… on second thought, maybe I’ll stay home and order a pizza in, and listen some 3 Days Grace while enjoying the film footage on the news and listening to the following (no video – just music):
