Getting ready to call them to order |
Resetting the whips.... |
And GO!! |
I probably should have added this earlier, but there is a point to the whip-cracking. It is a tradition that when it gets to a certain point in the winter people literally "whip away the winter". Yup, these leiderhosen wearing men and women have took it upon themselves to whip winter into submission. I hope it works, it has been a wee bit chilly here! Their culture fascinates me....
After we had our shot to warm ourselves and watched a few more rounds of Winter Whipping, we went inside the brewery. It was a great hall filled with kids running around in even more leiderhosen and parents with pints of beer following. It was loud and raucous, just as a beer hall should be. We ordered some food and, of course, a beer. I, myself, had the Stiegl-Radler Grapefruit. Quite tasty if I do say so myself. Then, just as I thought I was not going to see this alleged brass band, A group filled on stage and took up playing. They were really good and fit the scene perfectly (and had a backdrop of crates of beer). As we were walking out, all of the professorial whip-crackers had gone in for a beer, but a bunch of small children were lined up and cracking mini whips of their own. Walking past them was one of the more frightening parts of my day. I have to say, giving unsupervised children things that break the sound barrier and could possibly take something off that shouldn't come off does not sound like a good idea. But that is why I love it here so much! Those kids have more self-control that quite a few adults I know back in the states. I guess that goes to show you that if I have kids, I must teach them how to crack a whip!
What an adventure to have on a Sunday afternoon, and full of information too! Although it seems all I got from today was that I really want to buy a Dirndl.
How cool is that! Maybe next winter I will get a whip and you can come visit my back yard and whip winter away here and start a new tradition! Of course you'll be needing that Dirndl! :D
ReplyDeleteI will! Also, I will have to learn how to crack a whip....details! Although one of the leading men had a large bandage across his face, I'm not sure what that means!
ReplyDeletethat means ouch !! :D
ReplyDelete