Father's Day

Today is yet another of the numerous May bank holidays here in Germany (so of course the weather is shite - but that's by-the-by) - in the month of May we have May 1 (which was a Saturday this year and so no holiday from school - ha) then comes May 13 (Ascension Day or 'christi himmelfahrt' - literally christ heaven travel) which is today and because it falls on a Thursday we get to have Friday school free also as a 'bridging' day, then May 24 (Whitsun or 'pfingsmontag') which gets the Tuesday tagged on as a bridging day so no school again. Five days with no school - no wonder they don't have a half term holiday!

Anyway, today is christi himmelfahrt and also Vatertag which 'celebrates fatherhood' and is supposed to be the male equivalent of Mother's day - so you'd think then that it was a day that families would spend together, the children showing their love and attention to their father, not much to expect for just 1 day in a whole year eh? But in Germany Vaterdag is also known as Männertag (men's day) and traditionally the guys get together and go 'hiking' towing along crates of beer and/or wine from quite early on in the day - I've seen them before along the river bank here (the dog gives them a wide birth) and I always expect to hear stories of them falling in the water, not quite the family bonding session I'd envisaged.

Si isn't here to indulge in either the walking and drinking version of Vatertag or the 'we love you Daddy' version - he's slumming it in Japan until Saturday, so maybe we'll celebrate the English Father's day instead - afterall I have to make a note of the date in order to send something to my own dad (June 20 in case you were curious).