Family Day 2008 last Sunday and Father's Day in Germany yesterday...

Wir sind spät dran...
Zum einen, weil der Family Day 2008 schon wieder einige Tage zurück liegt, zum anderen, weil ich, ausgelöst über ein Gespräch mit James Castel (der immer die schönen Fotos macht) über Feiertage im allgemeinen auch auf den Vatertag zu sprechen kam, der m.E. der einzige Feiertag ist, den wir hier in Rodrigues nicht haben...Aber Pustekuchen - für James googelte ich also ein wenig, um auch mal was an deutschen Festen vorstellen zu können und da musste ich gleich 2 Sachen feststellen:
Erstens, es gibt offiziell auch in Mauritius den Vatertag, er wird immer am 3. Sonntag im Juni begangen, was mir offensichtlich 10 Jahre komplett entgangen sein muss, und zweitens, dass bereits gestern am 1. Mai Vatertag in Deutschland war...das werden die Männer nicht so gut gefunden haben....

And now especially for you, James, some infos on Father's Day in Germany and believe it or not, only one day after we have been talking about it, it was celebrated...very early this year and as it happened to be the First of May - anyway a public holiday, the gentlemen must have been felt a bit cheated - or did they just drink double as much?

And by the way - but keep it please a secret, Mauritius has been listed in Wikipedia as one of those countries celebrating it always on the 3rd Sunday in June...Bad news for the ladies and good news for the gentlemen...As to us, we did not know anything about a father's day celebrated in this region, we came to the conclusion that it must be the only holiday Rodrigues does not have...))

Germany

Hiking tour at the Vatertag

In Germany father's day, Vatertag, is always celebrated on Ascension Day (the Thursday forty days after Easter), which is a federal holiday. Regionally, it is also called men's day, Männertag, or gentlemen's day, Herrentag.

It is tradition to do a males-only hiking tour with one or more smaller wagons, Bollerwagen, pulled by manpower. In the wagons are wine or beer (according to region) and traditional regional food, Hausmannskost, which could be Saumagen, Liverwurst, Blutwurst (Blood Sausage), vegetables, eggs, etc.

More photos here of the typical wagons


More photos of the Family Day at Cotton Bay here! It must have been fun!