Walpurgisnacht, May Day and Viehscheid Festivals

Viehscheid, or separation of the beasts, occurs in the fall, when the cattle, which have been grazing all summer in field high in the Alps, are driven, often wearing flowered headdresses, as one herd back to the town and separated to their owners for winter. It's a big deal in dairy farming towns, and many towns will show it on their calendars as an event or Veranstaltung.

It seems a little strange to me. I was in Schöllang, in the Illertal, in late March. The cattle were still in the barns, but the weather was quite warm. The whole town smelled like a cattle barn! I would think that the big celebration would be when they finally took the cattle out of the barns and drove them back to their fields in the mountains.

Thanks Lee, do you have a suggestion of towns i can look up?

Here is an example, in Pfronten, near Füssen.

They all seem to be in September. The Illertal of the Oberallgäu (the Iller valley of the Upper Allgaeu), the area just below the major ski area of Oberstdorf, is very much a dairy region. All of the little towns along the way have Viehscheid celebrations.

This website, www.fischen.de/viehscheid gives the dates of Viehscheid in the area, including Immenstadt. It's all in German, but Google can translate it for you. It gives a lot of little towns in the area and the date of their Viehscheid (in European format); you don't need a translation for that. Most of the towns are in the Iller valley.

I would think that the area around the Harz would be the place for Walpurgisnacht "celebrations". The Walpurgisnacht in Goethe's Faust supposedly took place on the top of the Brocken, in the Harz. I remember one town near the Brocken has a "Hexentanzplatz" in a meadow near the town, but not on the Brocken.

It's not an actual ceremony, but if you just want to see a daily commute of cows through a town to and from their pastures, go to Oberstdorf. Sometimes during busy holidays weekends, the dairy farmer puts fancy bells or bridles on the cows.

Hi. Yes, Viehscheid is in the autumn. There are similar festivals for sheep and maybe goats. I attended a festival in Mutters outside Innsbruck a few years ago. There are numerous words describing this event that takes place throughout the mountainous areas: Almabtrieb, Alpabfahrt, Transumanza. A similar word in french escapes me - oh, wait, it looks like it is désalpe. If you are in the alpine areas in autumn, you have plenty of time to plan and numerous locations to choose from. Check the terms you have in youtube and google to see past events. Often, the dates are not set for the upcoming autumn till summer. Keep checking if you find an area you are interested in. Here are a few links:

http://www.tirol.at/reisefuehrer/kultur-leben/brauchtum/almabtriebe

http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/themen/culture/alpine-ascent-and-descent-of-the-cattle.html

http://www.wildschoenau.com/en/a-pastoral-valley/

There may or may not be ascent events as the myswitzerland link implies. You may have to search harder to locate those.

I enjoyed the cow festival I attended. The cows seem to know they are being admired in their fine head-dresses. They actually seem to pose for photos!

Oberstaufen also has a nice Viehscheid.

https://www.oberstaufen.de/en/discover/events/viehscheid/

DJ

I like Oberstaufen. On our last trip, we stayed for a week in an apartmemt (Ferienwohnung) in Fischen and used our Urlaubskarte one day to take a trip down to Oberstaufen, just to enjoy the little town and have lunch. It was a pleasant day.

Thanks so much for the help guys.
any more about Walpurgisnacht?

i noticed that there is a list of sorts on this RS web site

www.ricksteves.com/europe/germany/festivals

We were in Rothenburg od T, last year for their festival in May ( just lucky timing) it was great to see a local festival.

hope this helps.

any more about Walpurgisnacht?

I don't recall this being popular in the Munich area. Maibaum (May pole) festivals are more common but also usually a very local affair so I can't really recommend any specific one. Try seeing if there is any May Pole raising (Maibaumaufstellen) as these tend to draw the larger crowds vs a standard Maifest as they don't happen every year. Here is an example of a list of Maifest and Maibaumaufstellen in Munich: http://www.muenchen.de/veranstaltungen/events/erster-mai.html

DJ

glennlorrainer, did they just have a May day festival with a pole raising? did they also have any walpurgisnacht stuff the night before?

Thanks so much DJ for the clarification and the actual names it will make it easier to research a bit more about it!