Social rituals

In Germany, the national celebrations are mainly corresponding to the Christian calendar with Easter or Christmas holidays for example. But the main celebration is on the 3rd of October with the German Unification Day, celebrating the unification of East and West Germany in 1990.

Moreover, the main German cultural event is the Oktoberfest starting on Saturday, 16 to 18 days before the first Sunday of October. Mainly happening in Bavaria, the Oktoberfest is a huge cultural and social gathering where people enjoy cultural activities. Even if it is also composed of many activities (such as concerts, games…) the key point of this event is the beer ! In fact, during these days, people from Germany and around the world, are drinking huge quantities of beer and activities are made around it. As an example, Oliver Strümpfel broke a world record by carrying 31 glasses of beer during this event !

Since I arrived in Berlin, I also noticed the following cultural elements:

·         Many Berliners are dressed in simple dark clothes; I’ve almost never seen people wearing clothes that catches the attention.

·         The well-known German desire for orderliness is not a legend and can be seen almost everywhere: The streets and the public transportations are looking way more clean than in France; everyone is respecting the traffic lights even when walking; a shop or an office is always respecting its opening hours and won’t close 10 minutes before…

·         Berliners are stoic people who could look a bit cold for foreigners. But the fact is that they don’t want to annoy you and they let you leave your life. But if you need them, they will help you when asking. As an example, I’ve lived in 3 different places and every time I was asking the owner about who the neighbor are; they always tell me that they don’t know each other !

·         German students are really direct when working in groups. If something doesn’t meet their expectations, they won’t be so diplomatic and will easily criticize someone’s work.

·         The German government is acting a lot against gender inequalities or other discriminations. Many adverts (especially on TV) contain the symbols of a community in order to represent it and avoid more discrimination by showing it every time in a suitable context. As a good consequence, Berliners are really open-minded and is willing to mix with everyone.