Bernemer Kerb (Bornheimer Kirchweih) 11-16.Aug.06

It's a regular Kirchweih or church consecration festival, been going on for a few hundred years, and as I understand it the highlight is Burning Elisabeth -- she's a puppet tied to a treetop, looks kindof like a maypole in Franconia. The legend says that she was a legendary shrew, and one year her husband came up with the idea of tying her to a chair and hoisting it up into a tree in the forest for the Kirchweih festival so she wouldn't annoy everyone and he could get his jollies with the pretty young maidens. So the whole village agreed that was a good idea and they did. They stripped the tree of bark and branches so that no wild animals could get up to Lisbeth and harm her, how thoughtful. Everyone had a better time than they had for years, as Lisbeth had always been yelling at everyone to shut up and be moral and stuff like that. So when the festival was over (three days later!) they went out to the forest to get her down from the tree and as they neared, they could hear her yelling and ranting and raving -- she must've been screaming the whole three days. What a set of lungs. So they got closer and closer and were actually dreading taking her down, but hark -- thunder in the distance -- closer, closer -- BLAMMMMO! and the smell of burning wood. The screaming had stopped, but up in the sky! Flames! Crackling and popping! The husband fell to his knees and thanked God for his mercy, for relieving him and the village of the burden of Lisbeth.



The Gickelschmiß or Hahnenschlag: the Schläger's eyes are bound and he / she is turned about a few times and given a flail, with which he attempts to hit a ceramic pot. Kindof like a pinata bwz. Pin the Tail on the Donkey. If he hits the pot (he doesn't have to smash it), he wins a live rooster (Gockel). And he is then required to provide a barrel of beer or apple wine for the group. I'd like to see that! The origins of this tradition? Less tragic than Elisabeth's tale: a young swain went a-drinking one fine evening, leaving for home only in the early early morn. Sneaking into his family's farmhouse, he tripped over a rooster in the yard, who let go a yell and woke the entire flock. In a sorry attempt to quiet the rooster, the fellow grabbed a flail and swung, shattering a ceramic pot but missing the poultry.



http://www.bernemer-kerb.de/ -- all the info there in German.

So anyhow the point is, I'll probably go to all these things: Saturday the parade at 17:00, Sunday the Bornheimer Museum is open all day as are the shops(!), and then Wednesday Aug. 16 at 19:00 the Gickelschmiss, at 21:45 the Lisbethverbrennung. If you'd like to meet up, post here and we'll exchange handy numbers via PM. I haven't come up with any kind of unique marker that I could easily carry except for my green umbrella, which might not be so bad as I think it might rain anyhow...

Ha Bernemer Mittwoch or dirty Wednesday as we know it.

I'll be there no chance of us missing out on the pubs being open all night

This year though I have got out of helping my mate out on his beer stall though so will be free the whole evening. We should definitely arrange a time and place to meet

All right folks, I'll be at the red fountain at Bornheim Mitte at 18:30 and we can walk up to Berger Str. 207 (map link) where the whole bit is going on. I will have the green umbrella that nobody's seen yet. You've still got time to tell your bosses that you'll be late getting into work on Thursday...

A second meeting point for latecomers has been suggested... um... where? I have a few handy numbers, maybe that'll be enough... ah the PMs are flying!

Well I shall certainly be there, and I've already told the guys at the office that I'll be late

Sounds a bit like the situation I had with my last girlfriend.

I'll be there at about 21:30 ish and will probably just ring/text everyone to check where you all are

At 21:30-ish I'd like to be right at Berger Str. 207, as at 21:45 the burning starts. I want to know how they burn the puppet Lisbeth and still use it again next year.

It will be quite packed there I imagine.

I changing my plan now from step class to a run instead hence I'll probably be earlier watch this space

I hope it's packed. Although actually I don't like crowds, I always get stepped on. Speaking of which, that's Steptanz you do, not step aerobics, right? You ever give shows?

It is step aerobics and I would like to do shows or rather teach classes but any sort of Ausbildung is way too expensive so I'll be sticking to my day job

I'm off from work now, so can't check in anymore! See you all there!

Last night was good. The free applejuice was also tasty. Funny thing though, I woke up this morning with what felt like a hangover? Maybe the juice was off or something.

that was apple wine, probably explains the head problems.



Not only did we find friends with free Ebbelwoi, the beer we paid for was cheap too. The picture shows: a half liter Weissbier for 2 Euros! Incredible! Had a great time, and made it to work pretty much on time this morning after getting to bed at 2:30. We'll see how I hold up this afternoon though. Pictures will be posted in the gallery soon -- maybe tonight.

oh dear god do I feel ill...

-good night though!

Morning everyone...
Good night had by all i think !! took the liberty of giving myself the morning off today after what was inevitably a pretty late finish last night... looking forward to seeing the results of gen's stealth photography !!!

Nobody told me there was a camera.

Exactly !!!

pictures won't be up until this evening at the earliest. I think I'll have a night in tonight...

Well, I crawled out of bed at half four this afternoon. awoke ealier with the head from hell, and had to take pain killers to stop it. good fun though.

http://www.bornheim.net/blog/index.php?op=...d=1508&blogId=1 -- pics but not mine.

http://flickr.com/search/?q=%22bernemer%20...%22&w=all&s=int some at flickr but not of last night -- yet.

pictures are in the gallery

as always, if there are pictures up you don't like, I'll remove them. Just a pm with a link to the pic you're talking about.  The stealth photos didn't come out so well so I left most of those out... mostly heads cut off, though I think some of them turned out pretty arty at that.

Did anyone besides me and the Inselaffe see the cigar roller? He's available for parties but the cigars apparently aren't very good...

Well I was shattered and I left early.

Those two applewines did have the desired effect though

Didn't see the cigar roller...but it's the same guy that was at the Berger Strasse fest earlier in the summer... we bought a load off him then, and then realised only one of us smoked...so said smoker then worked his way through them and proclaimed them all to be pretty poor yeah!!

Good work on the pics Gen...

Great pics Gen. Didn't think I looked that much of a knob though...

I'll work harder on it next time. Glad you all have such good chins, as that seemed to be what was easy to aim for -- and Number 10's profile is razorsharp!