Submitted by Robert Ley on the 2015 spring semester DIS (Denmark’s International Study Program) program in Copenhagen, Denmark…
On the half birthday of Munich’s annual Oktoberfest, the Germans celebrate with a three week festival called Springfest. This traditional German celebration consists of a carnival, music, and many events throughout the festival. Myself and a few friends I met this semester decided to travel to Munich to get in on these festivities. The days consisted of hanging out in these humongous tents for hours eating oversized fresh delicious pretzels and meeting people in their traditional lederhosen outfits while listening to a German horn band play traditional German tunes. Between every few songs the band would play Ein Prosit, which is a cheers jingle that everyone would sing along to. The lyrics, Ein prosit, ein prosit, der gemütlichkeit, translates to “A toast, a toast, and a cheers to good times”. It was so much fun singing along with everyone, even though I definitely pronounced the last word wrong every time. The band switched over to American and popular German pop music as the night progressed. The atmosphere was unique, lively and extremely friendly so I had no trouble meeting many Germans and other Americans traveling abroad. It was also fun to walk around the carnival and ride some of the rides. Overall, it was just really cool to take part in a German tradition, and I hope to take part in as many other European traditions as possible before my semester abroad is finished.
