A couple of months before Easter, German of the “Kurpfalz” and the spot about it such as the Neckar Valley, celebrate a further Spring occasion. It is identified as “Sommertagszug”, that I freely translated below “summer season day parade”.
This specific occasion, the Sommertagszug, is celebrated about 3 weeks ahead of Easter (the exact day might range from 1 city to a further thanks to nearby traditions), on the Laetare Sunday (Sonntag Laetare), also termed Mid-Lent (Mittfasten, or in French, la mi-carême), in the south-west provinces of Germany. It is a Frühlingfest (a Spring bash) to welcome summer season and notify winter season that its time has appear and it should go away.
A Zug (prepare-parade) produced of a lot of youngsters costumed as minor ducklings wearing yellow rain jacket and duck’s head as hats parades in town holding big Bretzels put at the idea of sticks adorned with multicolour ribbons. Some of these major Bretzels have a cooked egg in the middle.
There is also, pulled along by some content men and boys sporting costumes, a snowman standing on a dried up tree designed of straw symbolizing aged wintertime. And additional alongside, on a environmentally friendly tree decorated with vividly colored eggs garlands, we can see a rooster and a crane symbolizing spring and summer time. During the parade, the little ones are signing a tune telling wintertime to go, that summer is listed here.
At the conclusion of the parade, the winter season tree and the snowman are burned in a significant bonfire with every person standing all-around it and fortunately singing that wintertime is useless, we have been delivered from dying and “Strih, Strah, Stroh, Der Sommerdag is do” (summer months day is here).