Ascension Day .....Christi Himmelfahrt.... Father's Day

  Today is Christi Himmelfahrt, Ascension Day, here also Vater/Father's Day in good old Germany. Isn't it a wonderful symbolism that Vatertag is celebrated on Christ's Ascension Day? The day always falls on a Thursday forty days after Easter. It is one of our six religious holidays, next one in ten days, Pentecost Monday.

If you think this Father's Day is like the one in Canada you are mistaken. This day for most fathers and men in our area has nothing to do with Jesus ascending into heaven or to do with family it is all about men getting together in groups, going hiking or cycling and having a few too many beer/ schnapps.

I sent my Dad a Vatertag card from here once and on the cover was a picture of beer, a wagon and walking cane and a nice poem about getting together with other men , going for a walk and drinking. The card had zippo to do with being a Dad.
The day is also called Herrentag or Männertag.

Unfortunately the romance of enjoying a nice day out and about with a drink or two very often turns into mischief, as young people have also taken on this day to gather in groups and venture out on their bikes or on foot. Usually a fight breaks out, or idiotic violence of some sort or another.

This means that Vatertag/ Men's day  is a day of high alert for the Polizei and hospitals, too bad for extra officers are required on this holiday, kind of ironic. Might as well call this day idiotic drunkard day.

For the most part the rest of us sober people enjoy the day off and many like us were out and about for an afternoon motorcycle drive for Kaffee und Kuchen and stayed out of harm's way.
My Herr decided to show his masculine side by spending the rest of the day in the woods, hoping to see a buck and eliminate one wild male.
This Spiegel article well describes the early traditions of Vatertag, and how it involved to be a day of booze brothers.

photo de.toonpool.com