Lederhosen
Greetings from Bavaria, where leg warmers never went out of style.
Oktoberfest 2002 has begun and the city is alive with tourists, parades, and Germans dressed in traditional clothing. It's not so unusual to see people dressed that way here anytime -- it seems much more common in Bavaria than in other parts of Germany I have visited -- but right now it is very normal to ride the subway with men in lederhosen and women in dirndls.
The picture above is from this morning's parade, the Trachtenzug (the parade of costumes). Over the course of about 2.5 hrs, hundreds of groups from all over southern Germany marched by in the traditional costumes (Tracht) of their villages. Many of the groups featured marching bands, as well, so it was a lively and fun parade to watch.
There were also horses, goats, sheep, oxen, dogs, and hunting hawks.
These fellows above were sporting one of my favorite looks -- short lederhosen (as opposed to the ones that reach below the knee) and hand-knitted leg warmers instead of socks.
I understand men buy their lederhosen (leather pants, literally) when they are young and grow into them. The older men tend to have very well-worn, form fitting pants. The younger boys in the marching bands often wore hosen that were obviously brand new, and still a little too big. Then there's the little boy in the picture above, who is too young to have his real grown-up lederhosen yet, but I suppose the ones for children can be passed on to younger cousins or brothers.
A German friend here (whom we met up with yesterday for a different parade) tells us that sometimes fathers pass their lederhosen down to their sons. But our friend had his own pants on yesterday; he said his father is still using his and doesn't want to give them up.
The women were mostly dressed in dirndls although there was a huge variety in types and styles. All of the costumes were very, very beautiful. I took about a hundred pictures.
After the parade we went to lunch near Marienplatz and had some Nurnberger wurstl. They are a real treat if you like wurst at all. And after lunch, we climbed the Alter Peter (a very old church tower here in Munich) from which we could see all across the city in every direction. We could see the Oktoberfest grounds, the Olympic stadium and tower, the English Garden, the church right near our apartment, and to the south, the Alps.
Greetings from Bavaria, where leg warmers never went out of style.
Oktoberfest 2002 has begun and the city is alive with tourists, parades, and Germans dressed in traditional clothing. It's not so unusual to see people dressed that way here anytime -- it seems much more common in Bavaria than in other parts of Germany I have visited -- but right now it is very normal to ride the subway with men in lederhosen and women in dirndls.
The picture above is from this morning's parade, the Trachtenzug (the parade of costumes). Over the course of about 2.5 hrs, hundreds of groups from all over southern Germany marched by in the traditional costumes (Tracht) of their villages. Many of the groups featured marching bands, as well, so it was a lively and fun parade to watch.
There were also horses, goats, sheep, oxen, dogs, and hunting hawks.
These fellows above were sporting one of my favorite looks -- short lederhosen (as opposed to the ones that reach below the knee) and hand-knitted leg warmers instead of socks.
I understand men buy their lederhosen (leather pants, literally) when they are young and grow into them. The older men tend to have very well-worn, form fitting pants. The younger boys in the marching bands often wore hosen that were obviously brand new, and still a little too big. Then there's the little boy in the picture above, who is too young to have his real grown-up lederhosen yet, but I suppose the ones for children can be passed on to younger cousins or brothers.A German friend here (whom we met up with yesterday for a different parade) tells us that sometimes fathers pass their lederhosen down to their sons. But our friend had his own pants on yesterday; he said his father is still using his and doesn't want to give them up.
The women were mostly dressed in dirndls although there was a huge variety in types and styles. All of the costumes were very, very beautiful. I took about a hundred pictures.
After the parade we went to lunch near Marienplatz and had some Nurnberger wurstl. They are a real treat if you like wurst at all. And after lunch, we climbed the Alter Peter (a very old church tower here in Munich) from which we could see all across the city in every direction. We could see the Oktoberfest grounds, the Olympic stadium and tower, the English Garden, the church right near our apartment, and to the south, the Alps.
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