Happy October to all my friends and readers
New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch
"Herbst-Anemonen"
"Autumn Anemones"
Flowers are always pretty and the Koebsch couple can paint them very well. Don't you agree?
* * *
The Low German name for October is "Wienmaond", the English translation is "Wine Moon" as this is the month of the wine grape harvesting (Vintage).
* * *
In Germany, we start the month with "German Unity Day" on the 3rd. It's a public holiday in commemoration of the German reunification in 1990.
New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch
"Herbst-Anemonen"
"Autumn Anemones"
Flowers are always pretty and the Koebsch couple can paint them very well. Don't you agree?
* * *
The Low German name for October is "Wienmaond", the English translation is "Wine Moon" as this is the month of the wine grape harvesting (Vintage).
* * *
In Germany, we start the month with "German Unity Day" on the 3rd. It's a public holiday in commemoration of the German reunification in 1990.
In the West, we used to celebrate this day on the 17th of June (as "Day of the German Unity") until 1990 as a reminder of the East German uprising in 1953. In the East, "Founding Day" (1949) was celebrated on the 7th of October as "Day of the Republic".
But we don't celebrate it as much as we probably should, it is not to be compared with "Quatorze Juillet" in France or "Independence Day" in the States.
Our president (Frank-Walter Steinmeier) usually holds a speech, other politicians, as well. But that is about it.
Of course, there are also harvest festivals but we mostly celebrate them in church
as I have explained earlier (here).
My Canadian friends celebrate Thanksgiving on the 11th this month.
I wish them all a Happy Thanksgiving.
A lot of towns and villages have their autumn festivals/funfairs.
And at the end of the month, some of our states (those where the majority is Protestant) celebrate Reformation Day. The Catholic states celebrate a day later, 1st of November, "All Saints Day."
* * *
And last month, we had elections. In some states (including ours, Lower Saxony) we even had two. At the beginning of the month there were local elections.
And then the federal elections on the last weekend. We still don't know who is going to be our next chancellor or what our government will look like as coalition discussions are still ongoing, but there are going to be changes, that's for sure. The CDU (Christian Democratic Union) has lost a lot of votes and the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) won the elections.
But, same as before, they will not be able to govern by themselves as they won't have a majority, so they need the help of smaller parties. We give every party a colour and the coalitions all have names, as well.
At the moment, it looks like the Traffic Light Coalition could be the winner (Red-Green-Yellow, i.e. SPD, Green Party and Liberals) with Olaf Scholz as our new chancellor. We'll see.
Weather lore (or farmers' rule) for October:
Viel Oktober-Regen ist für die Felder ein Segen.
A lot of October rain is a blessing for the fields.
I'm sure there is a lot of truth in this. Our fields do need rain in order to give us their fruit.
Mit Crispin sind alle Fliegen hin.
With (until) Crispin all flies are gone. (= 25th of October)
I'm looking forward to that. I hate insects.
* * *
We had a few things to celebrate last month. My brother turned sixty and I had the family around for my birthday, as well. And we could have some outings which was fantastic.
But the best part of last month was seeing our sons. Our younger one was moving within Brussels into his first own apartment and his older brother came over to lend him a hand. So, we had some nice days together when the boys sorted out and relieved us of most of their stuff.
* * *
I want to say goodbye today with a quote by L.M. Montgomery in "Anne of Green Gables:
"I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."
I totally agree.
* * *
Have a happy October with this beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch.
You can find many more wonderful pictures on their website here.
You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about them.
Our president (Frank-Walter Steinmeier) usually holds a speech, other politicians, as well. But that is about it.
Of course, there are also harvest festivals but we mostly celebrate them in church
as I have explained earlier (here).
My Canadian friends celebrate Thanksgiving on the 11th this month.
I wish them all a Happy Thanksgiving.
A lot of towns and villages have their autumn festivals/funfairs.
And at the end of the month, some of our states (those where the majority is Protestant) celebrate Reformation Day. The Catholic states celebrate a day later, 1st of November, "All Saints Day."
* * *
And last month, we had elections. In some states (including ours, Lower Saxony) we even had two. At the beginning of the month there were local elections.
And then the federal elections on the last weekend. We still don't know who is going to be our next chancellor or what our government will look like as coalition discussions are still ongoing, but there are going to be changes, that's for sure. The CDU (Christian Democratic Union) has lost a lot of votes and the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) won the elections.
But, same as before, they will not be able to govern by themselves as they won't have a majority, so they need the help of smaller parties. We give every party a colour and the coalitions all have names, as well.
At the moment, it looks like the Traffic Light Coalition could be the winner (Red-Green-Yellow, i.e. SPD, Green Party and Liberals) with Olaf Scholz as our new chancellor. We'll see.
Weather lore (or farmers' rule) for October:
Viel Oktober-Regen ist für die Felder ein Segen.
A lot of October rain is a blessing for the fields.
I'm sure there is a lot of truth in this. Our fields do need rain in order to give us their fruit.
Mit Crispin sind alle Fliegen hin.
With (until) Crispin all flies are gone. (= 25th of October)
I'm looking forward to that. I hate insects.
* * *
We had a few things to celebrate last month. My brother turned sixty and I had the family around for my birthday, as well. And we could have some outings which was fantastic.
But the best part of last month was seeing our sons. Our younger one was moving within Brussels into his first own apartment and his older brother came over to lend him a hand. So, we had some nice days together when the boys sorted out and relieved us of most of their stuff.
* * *
I want to say goodbye today with a quote by L.M. Montgomery in "Anne of Green Gables:
"I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."
I totally agree.
* * *
Have a happy October with this beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch.
You can find many more wonderful pictures on their website here.
You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about them.
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