Festival of the Fountains, Wunsiedel

Every country in this world is rich with their customs and rituals and celebrates them with festivals and events throughout the year.

These festivals, ranging from ancient to modern, are a fun way to meet the locals and get to know them. On these occasions people are usually friendlier and more open to meet others, here many new friends are made.

 Bavarians love to celebrate and thus love the opportunity for a good “Fest”, as shown by the many diverse festivals and events occurring during the year in every town, village and even single locations.

Some of these are based on historic events, some on religion, special products and annual markets, some are very small and only attended by the locals, some are celebrated in a whole region and others bring millions from all over like the biggest annual party in the world, the Oktoberfest in Munich,

but all Bavarian festivals have one thing in common and it is best described with the German word

Gemütlichkeit.

There is no single English translation, so here is my attempt to explain it.

Gemütlichkeit is the feeling when you experience good times, among good friends and acquaintances, relaxed and excited at the same time, some local beer, food and music can add to it. It is being snug and cozy and you feel accepted, comfortable and at peace. It is one of the best feelings in the world.

Picture borrowed from www.oktoberfest.de

These festivals start on the first day of the year and end, yes, you guessed it, on the last.

Our “Things Bavarian” website is devoted to introducing many of these festivals to you in our “Meet the Regions, Towns and Places” section. To give you a list of all the festivals in Bavaria would be too overwhelming, so we gave it a good start and add more as we work on the different regions and find out more from our contributors.