Maypole - Maibaum


There is one language, that I learn by total immersion, but will never speak: Swabian. Swabian is a German dialect, but it's quite unintelligible with Northern variants of German and the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg (located in the South-West of Germany) prides itself with the slogan: "Wir können alles außer Hochdeutsch" (We can do everything except speaking High German). I live deep in the Swabian country (aka Ländle) and my rough estimate is that 90% of my colleagues speak Swabian. I'm South German, but from another southern region and there are many expressions and also traditions, that I didn't know, before moving here.

Today I learned about a maypole tradition, that I didn't know. Surely, I knew about maypoles in general. It's a tradition, especially prevalent in Bavaria, Swabia and the Rhineland. Every village decorates a huge tree (there are competitions for the most beautiful maypoles) and sets its up, right before the beginning of the month May. Before setting up the maypole every village has to guard their maypole vigorously because there is also the tradition of stealing the maypole of another village. There are some rules involved (I only list here a couple of examples):
  • it is forbidden to steal a maypole, which is already set up
  • the maypole has to be stolen secretly
  • it is forbidden to damage or destroy it
  • it only counts as stolen, when the thieves manage to get it out of the village
  • the owners of the maypole have to buy it back (for example with a couple of beer crates)
  • the thieves often help to decorate the pole and set it up
Here is an example of a Bavarian village, which avoids stealing by preparing the pole in the early morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFEagpOEljo (the video is in German and Bavarian with German subtitles).

As soon as the maypole is set up, there is the tradition of dancing around the pole, but there are also maypole climbing competitions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfuSlkYzrnwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfuSlkYzrnw.

But today I learned about one maypole, well actually maytree tradition, that I didn't know before: young men secretly set up a birch or spruce in the front of or on the top of the roof of the house of their sweethearts. They also have to guard it, because it could get stolen and if they manage to keep the tree up for one month, then the reward is ... you can guess it .. a crate of beer... ;-) Well, and a kiss by the sweetheart of course. And with the third maytree comes the marriage proposal. Who could say no to that? In leap years, it's the women's turn to put up a maytree for their sweethearts.

The saddest news today: a small maypole in a village nearby, set up by kindergarten children was stolen and the decoration was damaged. That is a total no-go and now the police are going after the thieves.

Anyway, since I am sometimes feeling like living in foreign territory, I will also write regularly about the Swabian dialect and traditions on this blog. In the beginning, I admitted, that I don't speak Swabian, but I do understand it, quite well. Do you know the Bad Lip Reading videos? (Here's an example of the presidential inauguration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gneBUA39mnI)

There's a Swabian version and it is hilarious! If you learn German, try out the following videos and if you understand them, you can be proud of yourself. For every video, I jotted down a couple of words, with which you can guess some Swabian pronunciation rules. The basic greetings and some insults also come in handy, when you are traveling in the Ländle and to know about THE most important tradition of the Swabians, the Kehrwoche, is a must.

Trump and Clinton debatte: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKXz_qtEHuc
Grüß Gott: Guten Tag (Good day; also common in other southern parts of Germany)
vrzähla (verzählen): erzählen (to tell)
vrschdunga ond vrloga (verstunken und verlogen): erstunken und erlogen ("a pack of lies")
Grasdackel, Schafseckel: Idioten

Question: How to say "erleben" and "erwarten" in Swabian?
Answer: "vrläba" (verleben) and "vrwarda" (verwarten)

Obama's farewell speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2_FfX3pFg4
schwätzen: sprechen (to speak, talk)
Kehrwoche: a Swabian tradition of weekly cleaning duty
Tschüssle: Tschüss (Good-bye; the Swabians use the diminuitive -le a lot)

Question: How to say "Grüß Gott", so it sounds more Swabian and can't be mixed up with Bavarian?
Answer: Grüß Gottle!

Merkel's new year speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwPEuc6uICw
ist: isch
ois: eins
oifach: einfach
koiner: keiner

Question: How to say "nein" (no) in Swabian?
Answer: Noi!

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