Oktoberfest-Germany

Fall Festival:

Last Tuesday was the first day of fall, and fall means fall festivals! One such festival is Oktoberfest. While this festival started out in Munich, Germany it now is a popular festival that is held around the world.

Last weekend I enjoyed an Oktoberfest celebration held in Peoria, IL. We had a really good time drinking dark German style beers. Igor, mentioned in one of my posts on Mexico, got back to his Aztec roots by building a pyramid... out of beer cups.

The question was raised, “why are we in Peoria holding Oktoberfest in September?” Are we so naïve in the America to not realize that Oktober should be in October? The answer is no. Peoria's festival actually coincided with the start of the one in Munich, the main difference in timing being duration. This year in Germany, the festival started September 20^th, but it doesn't end until October 5^th. Peoria's was just over one weekend.

T.V. Shows:

The T.V. Show that I watched for this does not seem obvious, “Futurama” Season 7, “Tragedy on a Bun”. In one episode Fry and his associates at planet express go to Oktoberfest. Fry went thinking it would be just as it was in the late 1990's, an excuse to drink lots of beer and perform the Chicken dance. He finds instead that in his new time, 1000 years later, that Oktoberfest has turned into one of the worlds most formal events celebrating German Culture. There is beer tasting, where people spit out the beer as not to get drunk. Disappointed, Fry proceeds to embarrass Leela by acting like a complete doof, drinking all the spit out beer and sporting a chicken hat.

Sometime later in the show Fry ends up bumping his head, causing him to loose his memory with the result of him believing that he is a Neanderthal. Leela ends up believing that she has eaten Fry in Bratwurst form. From here a war between Neanderthals and “modern humans” breaks out, pitting Leela and Fry against each other.
Tragedy on a Bun: After Leela eats Fry, she tries to erase all her memories of him.

Movies:

Since the festival that I am writing about started in Germany, I thought it would be appropriate to write about a movie that took place here. This weeks movie is “Monument Men”. This movie is based on true events, that became a book and then later a movie.

The movie takes place during World War II. A ragtag team of intellectuals end up in the army with the goal of recovering some of Europe's best art, which had largely been stolen by the Nazis. Nazis are threatening to destroy the art if they lose the war. Not only is this group in a race against the Nazis, they are also in a race with the Russians who are also try to get the art, but for just themselves.

When the movie was over, I asked my husband, how bad would it be if the Russians had beat us to much of this art? Would it have been threatened to be destroyed, too? We concluded that while it would not be in Europe and America's best interest for them to get the art, it would not have been nearly as bad as Germany destroying it. While Russia more then likely would have never chosen to share the art with us or display it in where it is accessible to many of us, it would still have been cherished by the Russians and displayed so the Soviet Public could enjoy it. They may have turned into our enemy after WWII, but they still held culture in high esteem.

Food:

I did not actually eat the food at the food at Oktoberfest. They had the traditional brats and sourcrout, which wouldn't surprise anyone, along with pizza, pretzels, and funnel cakes.

Instead, before going out to Peoria, I made chicken and apple brats which I pan fried.

Work Cited:

"Monument Men". 2014
"Oktoberfest. Wikipedia. Retrieved: September 25, 2014

"Tragedy on a Bun" Futurama Season 7. 2012