Categories: life, germany, translation, austria, switzerland
Date: 01 May 2008 13:46:44
It will not have escaped your notice that today is May 1st, May Day or Maifeiertag. Given that many of my gentle readers are churchgoers of one sort or another, you will probably also know that today is Ascension Day - or Christi Himmelfahrt. This has been an official holiday in Germany since 1936 - which is somewhat surprising given the regime in power at the time. It falls rather early this year because Easter fell early and so all these moveable feasts will take us by surprise, and confuse us all as to which month we are in, methinks.
If you are a German (and so far, I have only had 2 German visitors to this blog, so the likelihood is that you are not), you will be taking the day off today. It must be a bit of a let-down that two events, both of which are given a holiday of their own, happen to fall on the same day. But before you get too depressed on the Germans' behalf, I should tell you that if a bank holiday falls on a Thursday, it is often the case that schools and many places of work take a "Brückentag" or bridging day on the Friday to allow a nice long weekend. Sometimes May/June allows this to happen up to three times with May Day, Ascension and Pentecost. (I have a feeling it happened the year I lived in Austria as the courses held at the university on Thursdays and Fridays in the summer term seemed to be cancelled more often than they were held.)
Today is not only Maifeiertag and Christi Himmelfahrt, it is also Vatertag - Father's Day*. Father's Day is celebrated on Ascension Day because originally it was to do with being reunited with Gott, dem Vater. In the late middle ages, the religious side of things became less important and was rarely observed. In the 19th century, it was revived and was also called Männertag or Herrentag and became an excuse for males of any age and status to indulge in drunkenness and debauchery and it seems it became generally less to do with celebrating fatherhood and more to do with male bonding.
The 20th century saw the return of a more sober version of Father's Day and has also been observed in Austria since 1955 (or '56 - depending on your source) but officially, the Swiss have not yet added this day to their calendar.
I am not benefitting from the above holidays but am, rather fittingly, given the above, translating advertising material for a men's spa - you know, beauty...errr, I mean, grooming treatments. The spa has missed a trick, here. If this work had been given to me a month ago, they could have persuaded lots of women to buy their men a day at the spa today. (Unless, of course, the spa is closed for the day...) No women clients allowed - but lots of female beauticians (...I mean...oh heck, what am I going to call these people? grooming consultants?) are required, I note from their sits. vac. page.
*Oh yes, lots of opportunity for schoolboy sniggering here!