May Day

We were invited to spend May 1st with one of my coworkers, who is a German local. She lives in Sankt Leon-Rot, about 15 minutes south of Heidelberg. We met another coworker of mine at the school and followed him out to the town. He was driving a little bmw and, even though he's an american, he drove like a crazy european zipping around corners and speeding like a banshi down the autobann. I think I got him in trouble later on when I commented on his nascar-esk driving, because it turns out he was borrowing someone elses car. Sorry Peter!

We had a big cookout, ate good food, and visited. We brought Maddox and Carson with us and, thankfully, they behaved well. Everyone marveled at how much they both look like Ben. I guess my hopes of Carson looking like me are going out the window, but at least his hair isn't blond.

Later I asked what the significance of May 1st is. It was explained to me that it is an international european holiday for the celebration of workers and rights, similar to our Labor Day. It is also a festival to welcome spring weather and drive away evil spirits.

Traditionally, people believed that witches held Walpurgis Night celebrations on the night between April 30 and May 1. They would destroy everthing in thier path, (especially plants, flowers, and crops - later realized this is because of late frost).People believed that it was dangerous to be outside on this night so they lit fires and danced wildly to deter the witches from coming too close to them or their homes. These traditions led to the custom of lighting fires and erecting maypoles still seen today.

Here is a maypole:


We had a great time at the cookout (due to german rules you can only cook out a certain number of days in a month. It is part of thier laws about being a good neighbor.) Both of the boys fell asleep on the way home around 5:30. Carson woke up, but at 7pm Maddox was still sleeping. We thought that maybe he was so exhausted he would sleep through the night. No such luck. He woke up around 9pm. I have no idea what time he went back to bed because I handed him off to Ben!