THE OKTORBERFEST the Oktoberfest!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well its that time of year… which means that the Oktoberfest has started! This has made me very very nostalgic for that hops making beer drinking slap knee dancing land of BAVARIA!! So I decided to get some info about it and put it up!
The Oktoberfest for those of you who don’t know,is a 16 day festival, held in Munich, where you go to eat, drink , shop and go on roller coaster rides ( sounds like a great combination- in that order) . Over 6 million people attend the festival each year! It all started back on October 18, 1810 – it was originally a celebration for the marriage of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese (the Bavarian princess). It first started out as a horse race (which I can testify to be tons of fun) up until 1960 when it turned into the worlds’ largest festival!
The festival starts off with the traditional 12 gun salute and the tapping of the very first keg (at 12:00) by the major with a cry of “ O’zapft is”- means it’s tapped in Bavarian! Then the party begins: rides start up and the kitchens fire up the oven of the next 15 days! Classic foods served at Oktoberfest are ; schweinsbrate, haxn ( knuckle of pork), steckerfisch ( fried fish on a stick), wurstel, kasepatzel, brezeln ( pretzel) and my personal favorite … curry wurst!
If you’ve ever been to this “big” event you probably noticed all the people walking around wearing the traditional Bavarian attire… the dirndl (that usually consists of a full skirt, tight bodice and gathered shirt) and of course the men’s LEDERHOSEN!!! Which are practically leather shorts and suspenders … soooooo stylish!!
Fun facts: Around 6 million people attend, of that 72% of the people are Bavarians
The festival takes up 103.72 acres of land in the middle of the city!
About 6,940,600 liters of beer are drunken, 142,253 pairs of sausages and about 4000 items are lost by people including: 260 glasses, 200 phones and even wedding rings!
