Liebesmaien

Public Holiday in Germany today - Ascension Day - but more commonly called Father's Day and always on a Thursday so always a day off work and hang on a day's normal holiday on Friday to make it a long weekend. Fathers deserve sucha an honour. This coming Sunday is Mother's Day but not a public holiday!

I guess most Mothers and Fathers once did some courting  - does one still use this term?. A May Day (night of 30th April/ 1st May) tradition which apparently is becoming less common, is young, unmarried men putting up birch trees on the house roof of their sweethearts, decorated with coloured bands and a red heart with the girl's name. The higher and more firmly secured the better as the trees are prone to being stolen by others to use for their girlfriends or possibly to remove a competitors token of love.In most parts, the trees stay in place until 1st June (Bavaria they leave them standing all summer) when the young man "redeems" his token by getting a cake from the girls mother, a crate of beer from the father and a kiss from the girl. As he has probably needed help from his mates to get the tree cut, transported, decorated and heaved in to position, the helpers would normally be handed over the cake & beer.

Birch is the chosen trees in most parts as it is the first to flower and a sign of strength, charm, light and cheerfulness. Maien or Mayen is also a reference to "standing in sap". Some of the foresters are only too happy to help provide the young trees as birches are often used as in-filling in newly planted forest plantations to give shelter to the young trees but are then not required once the others are established and are simply cut down and left to rot.

This example is a little bit different as it has been attached to the garden fence and the heart shows two initials "S+L". I guess this could be a sign that we don't have much crime or rivalry in the village or perhaps, as it is a Leap Year, it was placed by a girl who didn't trust herself to climb a ladder with the tree. In Leap Years, the roles can be exchanged. In one town, someone had placed a tree on top of the local brewery tower. The intentions of the culprit are not known.

Today we had a wonderful warm sunny day but with a rather stiff cooling east wind. As predicted a day or two ago, this combination got most of the farmers out abandoning the traditional event today of men going out in groups on expeditions by foot, bike, tractor or any other form of movement and consuming large quantities of beer.

So all the grass fields are being atacked by swarms of tractors. Just hope the swarms of motorbike riders out for the first good day of the year take care. This part of the world is well liked for a days outing and opening up the throttle.

We spent most of the day catching up on garden work and only in the evening did I get out for the dog walk when I took the photo and for the first time bought a litre of fresh raw milk from Farmer Blanks Milk Filling Station. I haven't done this for almost 20 years when we always got our milk from our then next-door neighbours, Heidi & Sepp's, tank. I had stopped using raw milk as I thought it may be the cause of stomach problems. There is now a theory that raw milk may, in fact, be far more positive for the stomach than pasteurised milk. Will try it out from time to time. The first litre which I quickly consumed certainly had no adverse effects and it was a joy to see the cream settle on the top of the glass bottle I had taken along. Haven't seen this for the last 20 years of Tetrapac containers. Out of interest, the litre cost 0.90 Euros. Normal farmers are getting around 0.28 Euros from the dairy - in northern Germany as low as 0.22 Euros. I think in Aldi & Co, the litre costs 0.55 Euros. Shows people are prepared to pay if they think it has a health benefit.