Life: Idiotropic

May 1: May day as we know it in the states, European Labor Day here... but in Germany, it is a mix of both. A day off for its workers and a traditional day of flowers and romance for its youth.


Traditionally, young men would go out and cut tree branches, form them together to make hearts, and present them on the doorstep of the lady that they were pursuing. Now, of course, they can't go randomly cutting branches off of trees, so florists make large floral hearts with streamers to sell with the initial of the girl on them, and tractors are go by full of branches for the taking.

On May 1st, when the moon was out and we were all trying to sleep, young men, probably quite drunk on German beer, drove up and down the streets of our little town and undoubtably others in the back of big trailers hauled by tractors that were playing techno music as loud as possible. Five times that night and at 6 in the morning, I was awaken to the vibrations of the drum beats as the tractors drove by. Jeff, having arrived just the day before and still a bit jet-lagged, thought we had a really obnoxious alarm clock.

In the morning town centers had their May poles up. Some had wreaths and crowns and others just had tree branches tied up on top of poles with colored crepe paper streamers hanging from them. Many homes had hearts from the florist hanging from the front of the house above the door. Other homes had tree branches covered in streamers attatched to the facade. Many places simply decorated their small trees in streamers. It was interesting, and even decorative... but now, two weeks later, it's looking a bit tacky.

The first photo above is of the May pole in downtown Geilenkirchen. It's actually kind of pretty with the branches up top, the crests of the city and area, then the wreath below with streamers. The tractor is full of braches for the young punks who kept me awake most of the night. Similar tractors had flat beds with walls for the guys to hang out in and drink. The last photo below is from Cochem - the town down on the Mosel river.