Saturday is the Autumn Equinox. Lying between Summer and Winter, Autumn has a languid feeling, especially at the beginning. The nights are shorter, but Daylight Savings Time is still in effect. The days are cooler, but not cold. Football comes into its regular season.

And best of all, Oktoberfest begins in Munich this Saturday and continues until October 7.

Wait, what? How can Oktoberfest begin in September? It’s all about the weather. October has more rainfall. Requests to start the festival earlier began in 1828.

Oktoberfest has always been more than a harvest festival. The first event occurred on October 12, 1820 with the royal wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Try saying her name three times fast. Everyone had such a good time, the festival became an annual event.

Of course, now Oktoberfest draws over 7 million tourists.

What’s the first word you think of when Oktoberfest comes to mind?

For most of us it’s BEER. At the Munich festival all beers are from their own breweries: Paulaner, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, Augustiner, Hofbräu and Löwenbräu. And all meet the Reinheitsgebot standards established in 1516. Among the rules: The recipe can only include barley, malt, yeast, and hops. After processing, the beer has up to 6 percent alcohol.

Oktoberfest bier steins hold one liter, and patrons consume about 1.98 million gallons of beer – enough to fill three Olympic swimming pools. When the beer arrives, hold up the stein, and shout Prost!

Oktoberfest has become an international festival with venues in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, Okinawa, Brazil and even China.

If you want to go in 2019, tour groups are taking reservations.

So, if you’re not attending Oktoberfest in Munich, what else is there to do in the fall?

Gardners are busy. It’s time to plant bulbs for next spring’s gardens. Raking leaves becomes a frequent occupation. Pulling leaves out of gutters, preferably before rain turns them into a yucky mess, also keeps householders busy. Those leaf piles are fun to jump on. Of course, you may have to rake the leaves again.

With the cooler weather, some people start their seasonal baking. Did you start a Christmas Cake? It’s not too late. Pumpkins and apples are also available for fresh pies.

If you have children, or plans for a Halloween party, it might be time to start thinking about costumes.

And don’t forget to go outside as deciduous trees put on their annual show.

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Illustrations

Autumn by Alphonse Mucha. 1896. Public Domain.

Schuhplattler dance. By Harald Bischoff. Creative commons Attribution.

How to rake leaves by Bigmouth1. Creative Commons Attribution.

Pumpkin Pie by Alcinoe. Public Domain.

Autumn in New England by Muffet. Creative Commons Attribution.

Oktoberfest Statistics 2017.

“Oktoberfest 2018 and Beyond. BucketList Events.

Kaeli Conforti. “15 Things You didn’t Know about Oktoberfest.” Today. Sept. 26 2012.

The post OKTOBERFEST STARTS SATURDAY first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

The popular Chicken Dance has an unusual history, as many dances do.

Werner Thomas, a Swiss musician who played the accordion at Swiss holiday resorts, said he came up with the tune about 1955 as he watched skiers on their downhill runs. The athletes’ movements reminded him of ducks, so he composed Der Ententanz, aka Duck Dance, and performed it with a dance he devised.

A Belgian music producer heard Thomas play the tune at a resort in Davos, Switzerland. In 1973 he collaborated with a band called Bobby Setter’s Cash & Carry to publish it as a song called Tchip, Tchip. The words don’t sound like a duck quack, but they do have a bird-like quality. The song became known as the Birdie Song and within a year the single sold over a million copies in Europe.

If you want to, you can listen to it here. It lasts a little over two minutes, which is plenty of time.

De Electronica, a Dutch band, released a new cover of the music in 1980. They called the song De Vogeljesdans aka Dance Little Bird. The music video included choreography that would become the Chicken Dance.

BUT HOW DID THE CHICKEN DANCE COME TO AMERICA?

A band at an Oktoberfest in Tulsa, Oklahoma brought Dance Little Bird to the American public in 1981. Organizers wanted to teach people the Duck Dance, but couldn’t find a costume. They did, however, locate a chicken costume. And the Duck Dance became the Chicken Dance we know today.

The Chicken Dance became hugely popular at any event featuring a polka band. In 1994 Oktoberfest Zinzinnati sponsored the World’s Largest Chicken Dance with 48,000 participants. The event, attended by the Crown Prince of Bavaria, was documented in the Guinness Book of Records, 1995-1997 edition. Since then, Oktoberfest Zinzinnati dubs itself the World’s Largest Chicken Dance.

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World’s Largest Chicken Dance. 2015. 30,000 participants, led by former Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson. By Ctomasetti. Creative Commons Attribution. Wikimedia Commons.

Chicken Dance. Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, 2017.

History of the Chicken Dance and Oktoberfest. Old World.

Mark Mancini.”A Brief History of the Chicken Dance.” Mental Floss. Nov. 28, 2016.

The post The Chicken Dance Comes to America first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.