Here in Germany, May 17th is both Father’s Day and the Christian celebration of the Feast of the Ascension. It’s a federal holiday because of the religious part of the holiday; apparently, at some later date people tacked on the Father’s Day celebration to the same date so that Father’s would also have the day off.

BTW, Mother’s Day is celebrated in Germany on the second Sunday of May, just as it is in the U.S.

Anyway, it seemed odd that the same day should have two such different holidays officially associated with it.

On a completely different subject, let’s turn now to the following photo:

Neckar Boatman (taken with pinhole camera)

That’s a photo I took here in Tübingen back on April 29th, which was the date of this year’s Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. Our photographer friend in Rovereto has been hosting a celebration for that day for the past several years. This year we couldn’t make it down there for the official celebration. But, since we have fun once a year trying our hand at this type of photography, Chris and I used the pinhole adaptor we have for one of our cameras and spent an hour on the Neckar trying it out. Interesting to try once a year – the effects you can get without a focusing device (there’s no lens to focus on this type of camera) are sometimes intriguing.  Here’s what I wrote about it a couple of years ago, if you want more information: http://22bz.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/worldwide-pinhole-photography-day/

OK, so pinhole photography doesn’t really have anything to do with the topic of the holidays for today.  But, Father’s Day doesn’t have anything to do with the Feast of the Ascension holiday, either; none of the Germans I talked with today could explain why it was decided to put Father’s Day on May 17th in Germany.

And hey, the boatman in that photo could have been a father, right? You never know.

BTW, here’s a sneak peek of a place I’m hoping to write about tomorrow:

Monastery window, Bebenhausen

Bebenhausen is a former monastery,  that became a boarding school after the Reformation. Later it became a hunting lodge for the last king of this region of Germany, and it’s where he died after WWI. More on the story of Bebenhausen coming tomorrow…

Hmm, come to think of it, that king was a father, and Bebenhausen was a religious building for centuries. So, maybe that  is the perfect photo to represent May 17th’s set of holidays here in Germany.