This time last year, the Viper Pilot and I were just getting used to our new house. It was mostly empty because we didn’t have our household goods yet. At the time, we knew that the Viper Pilot would be deployed for the summer of 2013, but it didn’t stop us from making grand plans for entertaining in our backyard. There’s always next summer.
We arrived in Germany for the kickoff of festival season, starting with Pig Fest. Säubrennerkirmes is a festival in our local village that celebrates, well, pigs. I told the tale of the festival in last year’s post so I’ll just copy and paste it here:
Legend has it that Wittlich was once a walled fortress constantly under attack by invaders. One evening, a guard charged with locking the gate to the besieged town couldn’t find the peg to secure the fortified door. All he could find was a large carrot (or turnip, I think the translation isn’t certain) to wedge in the door. Later, a pig ate the carrot, the gate opened and the enemy came in. After the enemy ransacked the town, the angry townspeople herded every pig into the town’s market square and roasted them. Since then, the town of Wittlich has been known as the town of pig burners.
It was weird going back this year without the Viper Pilot, but the group of girls (and a few pilots who are still here) I went with was a lot of fun. We watched the parade, ate, and celebrated as the Germans do (mit akoholfrei bier für mich).
The sacrificial pigs led the parade. The butchers walked behind the wagon but I didn’t get them in the picture because they were covered in blood and it just wasn’t very pleasant. |
Kids dressed as pigs handed out real carrots to the children. There was candy, too. |
Old tractors… |
And men (farmers) who walked through the streets carrying and drinking bottles of wine. |