Anyone have a guess at what today is? That’s right: Fronleichnam*! It just sounds fun, doesn’t it? You know you’ve plumbed the depths of obscurity when even the Italians haven’t heard of your Catholic excuse for a day off of work. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I think all countries could benefit from the addition of more obscure holidays, especially when those holidays mean days off of work.
These holidays keep sneaking up on us when we least expect them. Time to enter all the German holidays into my Outlook calendar so we can start making the most of our time off.
*That’s Corpus Christi in English. I didn’t bother to read the whole Wikipedia article, but it sounds like yet another day dedicated to the Catholic obsession with dead bodies. Now get celebrating!
Yeah, the very Catholic country of Spain does not observe Fronleichnam either. I can’t complain though as yesterday was my last day of classes so I’m off today, anyway.
Aah, there’s a holiday in Fribourg today as well, but when I went to my french class in Lausanne (the next canton over!) and told them that my husband was sleeping in today because it was a holiday there, no one knew what I was talking about.
Alas today is not a holiday in Thuringen — it’s not a Catholic state!
Enjoy your day off!
Ah, but in Thuringen you will get Reformationstag, and we will not…
I sometimes wish Hamburg would have a Carnival or invent a few New Age celebrations just so we could keep up with your holiday days down there…
I love telling people back home I have a day off because of Fronleichnam, Pfingstmontag, Christi Himmelfahrt, etc… They just kind of go “Okaaaaay….”
When we were young, we used to call it “happy cadaver”
🙂
Happy cadaver… I love it!
@jul
Happy Cadaver, because we never understood that “Fron” has nothing to do with “frohen” like in “Frohe Weihnachten” = merry or happy ,
and “Leichnam” = dead body = cadaver.
Typically nonsense German-English
CU, Jens
most spectacular are special holidays or these days who keep people away from work .. may be I remember certain countries just don’t need a religious reason they just call it bank holiday or is it a bank holy day ..
Yeah, no fair, up here in Lower Saxony we get cheated out of many of those cool Catholic holidays as well.