Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Wild Boar Hunt in Germany!

I know you've all been asking yourselves, "When is Claire finally going to do some wild boar hunting?" and I finally have an answer for you: this past weekend. I visited Sarah in Marburg this weekend for her birthday, where the yearly wild boar hunt took place. This wild boar hunt wasn't exactly your traditional wild boar hunt, however. By that I mean, we weren't really hunting wild boars. Ok, I'm starting to sense your doubt, your confusion. Let me elaborate.

The Wild Boar Hunt is a game. Granted it's a game that not many people, not even Germans, know about, but it's great. A well kept secret really. Here's what happens: You get together with your friends on an evening in late fall or winter; put on your warmest, darkest clothes; fill your thermos with some hot, mulled wine; bring your garbage bags (preferably unused); and head for the woods. When it's totally dark, you head out to a predetermined section of the woods and form teams of two. All but one team heads out into the woods and finds a good hiding spot. This is the point where the garbage bags come in--they are good to lay down on. These teams are the wild boars. The last team of two is the hunter team. They wait about ten minutes and then head out into the woods, sans flashlight, and try to find the wild boars. Every five minutes, the hunters can yell "light!" and the wild boars have to shine their flashlight in the air for five seconds. When you've been caught, you head back up to the grill hut where you continue drinking warm, mulled wine and eating cookies. When everyone has been found, you start all over again.

Great fun in Germany! Great fun indeed!

Another item of great fun is one of my favorite holidays of the year, St. Nicholas! Do you guys celebrate St. Nick's? I sometimes have the feeling that this may have been some kind of German anomoly in Milwaukee, as I have met many an American and Canadian who have responded with a confused and quisicle tilt of the head when I mentioned St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas is celebrated on December 6 and it is traditional to put your shoes out at night. If you've been good, you'll awake to find treats and small presents in your shoes. If you've been, the obligatory coal is to be expected.

3 comments:

Maria said...

That sounds kind of like the tradition of playing capture the flag in Orleans. The best part of that was that the two teams were divided by a huge gorge that you would have to scale to even start looking for the other team's flag. The only thing that could have made the fun more complete was a name way cooler than "capture the flag". The Germans have that cased.

Joyce Chapman, Consultant for Communications & Data Analysis said...

aanes, is your address still Steinlachallee? i need to mail you your xmas card pronto! also, someone you know named Katie commented on my blog and asked a question, but she has a blocked profile so i cant find her blog to answer her. who is this and how can i contact them? i guess ill just answer her on my blog and see if she finds it. peace out.

skhl said...

Do you think this is a game we could play in door county sometime? I hear they use pigs or boars to sniff out truffles in the forests of europe. Well remember how Julia had those morels in her yard? So I am thinking it is totally plausible for wild boar-like ladies to be there frolicking around in the dark, right? We could throw in a twist and play on a night with a full moon.. haha! er, maybe not.

To address a different topic in your post: St. Nick brought Nick and I some wonderful new wool socks! What an appropriate present to find in one's shoes, don't you think?