Author Archives: apasztor

Musikverein Oberammergau

Nationality: American
Age: 56
Occupation: Professor
Residence: San Antonio, TX
Performance Date: 4/8/16
Primary Language: English

DadMusicians Dad Kofel Scan Reduced

 

GP’s father was in the military, stationed in Oberammergau, Germany, during GP’s childhood.

“My dad played trumpet, and after convincing them to let him audition, he became the first non-villager in the band in their several centuries of existence.  Called the Musikverein, they were the marching band at Octoberfest, played Volgfest, and other celebrations. They would have big parties out in mountain meadows, where a dance platform would be set up and music would play. People would come in dirndls and lederhosen, cook sausages, and dance.

One celebration was particularly memorable. On Bavarian King Ludwig II’s birthday every year, just the horn players would climb the nearby Mount Kofel. They would build a wooden cross, light it on fire when it got dark, and play brass numbers.

You could hear it over whole valley, and kids would stand out in backyard and look up at the lights on the mountain.”

The entire celebration sounds like a very interesting sight. Having been to Oberammergau and seen the mountain towering over the town, it’s not hard to imagine the entire village watching from below. The town is also known for its world-famous passion play that it puts on every 10 years, so the town seems to have a flair for drama.

The Giant’s Causeway

Nationality: American
Age: 56
Occupation: Botanist
Residence: San Antonio, TX
Performance Date: 4/8/16
Primary Language: English

PL was visiting the giant’s causeway in Northern Ireland, and ran into someone there who started telling her about the legends surrounding the place.

“The giant’s causeway, a natural rock formation, was thought to be the giants’ stepping stones out of the water.

The Irish and Scottish giants didn’t get along, but the Scottish giant was way bigger. The Irish giant heard that the Scottish giant was coming to take over Ireland, so the Irish giant built a big baby crib. As soon as he heard the Scottish giant stomping on his way over, he dressed himself up as a baby and got into the crib.

The Scottish giant took one look at him, decided that if that was the baby, he sure as hell didn’t want to meet the parents, and turned around and went home.”

causeway

I love that the natural formations of the area were inspiration for tales such as this. It really does look like giant steps, and is understandable how it plays a large part in the folklore of the area. The tale also very much plays off the idea of the us vs them mentality, with the Irish giant in opposition to the Scottish giant. There’s also cultural pride in that their giant was able to outwit the Scottish one despite the other’s advantage.

Merde for Luck

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Germany/California
Performance Date: 4/19/16
Primary Language: English
Language: German

“Merde” means shit in French, and in German theater is used as a good luck blessing before a show. It originally meant something along the lines of “may there be a lot of horse shit outside your theater from all the people coming to see the show.”

Pelmeni

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Germany/California
Performance Date: 4/19/18
Primary Language: English
Language: German

My informant’s grandmother is Russian, and what was a common food in her country became a family tradition for holidays and other get togethers once they moved to the United States and settled in New Orleans. Her memories associated with that side of the family always involve making pelmeni together, giving it a lot of sentimental value. It’s interesting how the tradition is passed down and each person has their own role that they fill, including the younger children being given something to do so that they also feel included.

“Whenever we’re all together, we always make pelmeni, a Russian dumpling. My great grandma would sit down and make everything by hand (dough, meat, etc) and would pound out hundreds of absolutely perfect and soft pelmeni, the most amazing you will have in your entire life. She had 5 kids, the oldest is my grandma and youngest is my Aunt Tanya (a 24 year difference between them). As a little kid, would go to grandma’s house and get little wrappers and sit around the table and make the dumplings. My grandma would give my little sister one tiny piece of dough and meat, and my sister would fix it and say “okay that’s good but I think you could do a little better” with same piece. She would play with same piece of dough and meat for hours while the older kids and adults made the actual pelmeni. My great grandma’s five kids each have several kids who have several kids, so I have tons of super close cousins all living in new Orleans. The torch was passed down from my grandma and my mom is now the honorary one in charge of making them, and it will probably be passed on to my sister later on, since she has the knack for it.”

The Magic Fish

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Germany/California
Performance Date: 4/19/16
Primary Language: English
Language: German

AD’s grandma is originally from Kursk, Russia, and would always tell her fables and fairytales whenever AD came to visit. She has fond memories with her cousins sitting around her grandma as she would tell these stories in a thick accent. Her grandma would always compare herself to Baba Yaga or make jokes about her, and the stories were a very important part of their relationship. One tale she commonly told warns of greed, through the story of the magic fish. The magic fish is an interesting variation of similar magic creatures, genies or the like, that grant wishes in fables.

“There’s a poor husband and wife living in Russia. The wife is nasty woman, and the man is hard worker, sweet, and very poor. They don’t have much money, and he is a fisherman. (fish hard to find in Russia, informant notes) One day they have a big fight, she yells at him “Why cant you do anything, you piece of garbage!” He feels bad and so he grabs fishing gear and goes down to the body of water, sad. He catches a fish and reels him in. The fish says “throw me back in the water, I’m not ready to die.” Surprised that the fish is talking, the man throws him back.

The fish then says “let me repay you for throwing me back and saving me. I’ll grant some wishes for you. What do you want?”

“Well, my wife wants a new house”

He goes home, and has amazing new house.

The wife is amazed, and says “Go back tomorrow and ask for 15 horses.”

The next day he finds the fish.

“What do you want now?”

“She wants 15 horses.”

“Ok, when you go home, there will be 15 horses.”

Th man goes home, sure enough, finds 15 horses there.

The wife says, “This is fantastic, I want you to go back to that fish tomorrow, and tell the fish that I want to be queen, with you as my king.”

“Don’t you think that’s asking a lot?” says the husband.

She gets angry, so he goes back to the fish once more.

“Well what does your wife want now?”

“She wants to be queen.”

“Ok, when you go home wife will be queen.”

The man goes home, and his wife is now the queen. She is getting greedier and greedier, and asks him to go back again to the fish, asking him to “Go and ask for all the wealth in the country, everything!”

So the man goes back to fish and says, “I want you to take everything away from my wife.”

He goes home and has nothing. The wife , furious, asks what happened.

“I don’t know, I guess the fish died,” he explains.

“Oh you stupid man,” she yells. She decides to go to find the fish herself.

“What do you wish for, lady?”

“I want everything.”
“Okay, go home and you’ll find everything.”

She goes home and immediately dies. The man lives happily ever after.