Octoberfest

Leavenworth, a town nestled in the Cascades just on the fringes of the Wenatchee National Forest, celebrates the famous holiday of Oktoberfest every year in its own pseudo-Bavarian style.

During October. Just October.

See, most people fail to realize that Oktoberfest isn't just a weekend-long rager. In actuality, the Bavarian holiday spans 16 days, starting in late September, and lasts until the final kegs have been tapped by the first weekend of October. It may just sound like the perfect makings of a dope grad-trip, but Oktoberfest's roots are buried in tradition. German nobles married in 1810- and as celebration of their consummation, King Ludwig I and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen invited the entirety of Munich to celebrate on the lawns in front of the city gates. The celebration was held nearly every year after- though the event has been cancelled a total twenty-four times, primarily as a result of cholera outbreaks and war, neither of which make a very solid party.

After the mid 20th century and the establishment of Oktoberfest as the place to be, people became quite comfortable with the image of Germans clad in lederhosen and Dirndls, stereotypes which stuck through to modern times. Nowadays, party-goers come from far and wide to celebrate the festivities and overestimate their drinking abilities.

Fun fact: only certain brewers meet the criteria to vend their wares at Oktoberfest, and thus an elite six organizations peddle their concoctions at the Bavarian celebration.

Oktoberfest, at least from what I've heard, (in Leavenworth, anyway) is an awesome weekend-long party of kegstands, beer-bongs, and drunken mischief. Yet nobody realizes that this American adaptation doesn't really hearken back to a long-standing German tradition. The purpose of this holiday isn't just to get trashed and wake up with a phallus drawn on your face. It's about tradition, the tradition of a proud people, a people of whom I am not a part, but respect nonetheless.