May traditions in Germany: Scary witches and protests
Petra Lambeck als
April 30, 2019
Few months in the year can boast as many traditional celebrations in Germany as the merry month of May. Temperatures rise and with them, so does everybody's mood. The celebrations vary from region to region.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Gambarini
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Witching and demonstrating: May traditions in Germany
May is a very special month in Germany, with people ringing it in with dancing, bonfires, wine punch, and decorated trees. It all starts with Walpurgis Night.
Image: Matthias Bein/dpa/picture alliance
Walpurgis Night
Witches have supposedly been gathering in Germany's Harz since the mid-17th century to light fires and "hold revels with the devil." The event on April 30 still attracts thousands of visitors, and is spread across 20 locations around the Brocken Mountain. The focal point is Hexentanzplatz (Witches' Dance-floor) in the Harz Mountains.
Image: Swen Pförtner/dpa/picture alliance
May bonfires
Dancing around a fire is not just part of Walpurgis Night. People light big bonfires in villages around Germany. In some regions, a witch doll made of straw and old clothing is thrown into the fire to chase away bad spirits
Image: Frank Drechsler/epd-Bild/dpa/picture alliance
May Day trees
Decorated with streamers and sometimes wreaths, May poles are erected on market squares in many German villages. But in other places, even in big cities like Cologne, young male suitors place May trees adorned with hearts in front of their girlfriends' houses.
Image: Lars Klemmer/dpa
May dance
Some like to jig around as a witch, others like a traditional folk dance. In southern Germany, young people don traditional costumes and dance through their village, singing songs celebrating the month of May.
Image: Ursula Düren/dpa/picture-alliance
A night of parties
Then there's the more modern version of dance and partying. Many people gather on Walpurgis Night to "dance into the first of May." This photo was taken in Berlin's Mauerpark, a popular spot for the celebrations.
Image: Christian Mang /imago images
May punch
May punch is a beverage mixed according to people's old family recipes. A main ingredient, along with wine, is sweet woodruff. Fruit also takes a prominent role. Invented by a Benedictine monk in the year 854 as a "medicinal drink" to strengthen heart and liver, people nowadays enjoy drinking it on a balmy spring evening in a beer garden.
Image: F. Hecker/blickwinkel/picture alliance
May punch
May punch is a beverage mixed according to people's old family recipes. A main ingredient, along with wine, is sweet woodruff. Fruit also takes a prominent role. Invented by a Benedictine monk in the year 854 as a "medicinal drink" to strengthen heart and liver, people nowadays enjoy drinking it on a balmy spring evening in a beer garden.
Image: Fotolia/PhotoSG
May stripe
Drawing a line with a piece of chalk to point out a romantic relationship between two people is an old tradition in villages in Germany and Austria. The line can meander all the way through the village, ending in a great big heart in which the initials of the people involved are written.
Image: Bildagentur-online/Tetra/picture alliance
May Day
Demonstrating rather than celebrating: May 1 is International Labor Day. For those employed, it's an opportunity to take to the streets to demand better working conditions. Such demonstrations occur across Germany each year, but they go back to the demands of Australian demonstrators on May 1, 1856 for an eight-hour work day.
Image: Wolfgang Kumm/dpa/picture alliance
Mother's Day
Invented in 1644 in England, "Mother's Day" made its way to Germany in 1923, but the tradition of giving presents and flowers to one's mother didn't really take off until after World War II. Mother's Day is normally celebrated on the second Sunday in May.
Image: Patrick Lux/dpa/picture alliance
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They're ready to dance again — all those witches and devils. On April 30, in the night to May 1, the Harz region of Germany sees all sorts come out of the woodwork. Thousands of people, mainly women dressed in witches' costumes, gather together and dance around bonfires during the famous "Walpurgis Night." And they can certainly kick off their shoes and dance the night away since the next day, May 1, is a national holiday.
The festivities are based on ancient folklore according to which witches were believed to fly on their brooms to the Brocken Mountain on the eve of May Day. Together with devils, they would celebrate the arrival of spring there.
Bright trees dot the landscape
May celebrations are not just about devils, witches and bonfires. There is also plenty of eye candy around: young male suitors decorate trees with streamers and place them before their beloved's home as a sign of love. Police have cautioned about cutting down small trees in the forest, however, because it is considered an act of theft and can be punished with a fine.
Radio reports advise young men to buy their arboreal tokens of love at special outdoor markets or stands. Or, they can take advantage of a new "taxi" service in which specially ordered May trees are delivered to a young woman's doorstep. In southern Germany, people erect large May poles in the center of a market square.
Protests in Berlin
Things can get hairy in other parts of the country, however. For the past 30 years, there have often been violent protests in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, where more than 10,000 demonstrators voice their rejection of capitalism, racism and social ostracism. The past few years have, however, been more peaceful.
Click through the picture gallery above to explore Germany's unique May traditions; and below to relive last year's May Day protests in Berlin.
Berlin May Day protests
Each year left-wing protestors hit the streets of Berlin for "Revolutionary 1st of May Demonstrations." The protests often turn violent but in recent years have calmed down.
Image: Reuters/F. Bensch
Myfest celebrations
Tens of thousands of visitors attended the Myfest street festival in the district of Kreuzberg. With eight stages and hundreds of stalls, the police were hoping for a peaceful outcome.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger
Protests against rising rents
On the day before May Day, more than 3,000 people protested on the streets of Wedding against rising rents in Berlin. Police deployed more than 2,000 officers to deal with Walpurgisnacht events.
Image: Reuters/F. Bensch
Three protesters arrested
Just three people were arrested and one police officer lightly injured at the Wedding protests. Walpurgisnacht has been become steadily less violent in recent years as police implement a policy of de-escalation.
Berlin Mayor Michael Müller, took part in the traditional trade unions' march through the city.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Skolimowska
May 1, 1987
A tradition of May Day protests first started in 1987 when thousands of protesters forced police to retreat from the SO36 district of Kreuzberg. Hundreds of police were injured in subsequent years as protests gained notoriety.
