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Oktoberfest 2009: What is Oktoberfest?

by Jordan Yerman | September 18, 2009 at 09:10 am

1958 views | 28 Recommendations | 10 comments

Oktoberfest 2009 begins on September 19. So, what is Oktoberfest? Oktoberfest is a 16-day festival leading up to the first Sunday in October, so, yeah, it actually starts in September. At noon on September 19, there will be a twelve-gun salute and the first keg will be tapped, heralded by the cry of "O'zapft is!"( "It's tapped!") Incidentally, Oktoberfest is the reason that we all picture Germans running around in leiderhosen: the traditional Bavarian garb, not worn daily, obviously, came to characterize an entire country. 2009 is the 176th Oktoberfest, which has grown into the largest fair in the world.

Oktoberfest began in München (Münich) as a marriage celebration for Crown Prince Ludwig and his blushing bride, Therese of Saxe-Hildburghause in 1810. The Bavarian holiday soon became an institution, and has spread all over the world. For example, Oktoberfest Cincinnati is celebrated as "Oktoberfest Zinzinnatti USA". Mt. Angel Oktoberfest, in Oregon, opens today.

In the 21st Century, Oktoberfest has an official website, as well as an inevitable iPhone app, which updates your Facebook status with how many beers you drank. This is not necessarily good if your parents/co-workers are Facebook friends.

Don't drink too much, though, or you'll end up in the gutter, and people will call you a "bierleiche" ("beer corpse"). That's not cool.

Some quick stats:

Oktoberfest numbers (2007)

Area: 103.79 acres (0.42 km²)

Seats in the festival halls: ca. 100,000

Visitors: 6.2 million

Beer: appr. 6,940,600 litres (126,900 litres non-alcoholic)

Wine: 79,624 litres

Sparkling wine: 32,047 litres

Coffee, tea: 222,725 litres

Water, lemonade: 909,765 ½ litres

Chicken: 521,872 units

Pork sausages: 142,253 pairs

Fish: 38,650 kg

Pork knuckles: 58,446 units

Oxen: 104 units

What's a "unit" of oxen? An ox, or a part thereof?

If you're participating in Oktoberfest, in Münich or elsewhere, we want to see your photos and video, and we want to hear your story.

Previous Oktoberfest coverage

Also: Bavarians outraged by outsourced leiderhosen

5 See all footage | View Slideshow

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a211423

at 09:21 on September 18th, 2009

I did not know Oktoberfest was an actual event with traditions and rituals. I have a friend who just moved to Austria. I will have to let him know this information. Apparently, schnitzel is the ever present fast food there, and it can be made out of anything. It must be included in the Oktoberfest menu as well.

Vic De Zen

at 11:34 on September 18th, 2009

I've been to the Oktoberfest in Kitchener Ontario a couple times and had a blast. Of course I always here it's nothing like the authentic thing in Munich. Maybe one day I will be able to go to that.

agdobson

at 12:26 on September 18th, 2009

I've been to Oktoberfest in Munich nine times, it is a boozers paradise.

agdobson

at 12:30 on September 18th, 2009

Watch all the drunkeness live:

http://www.theoktoberfest.com/HTML/webcams/index.html

http://heinemann.elheiweb.de/de/wiesn_special/webcams.html

albertacowpoke

at 16:27 on September 18th, 2009

spend nine years in Germany during my time in the military. My second last posting was in Ulm, which is 121 km from Munich. Munich is a great city year round.

Oktoberfest is really more for visitors than for the locals. It.s a great tourist attraction.

Anton Schedlbauer

at 09:42 on September 19th, 2009

Sorry for correcting you Jordan, but this year is the 176th Oktoberfest. They had to cancel it 24 times, because of wars or epidemics.

So we had the anniversary for the 175th Oktoberfest last year and the even bigger 200 year anniversary in 2010. As the Bavarians like to party we feel very comfortable with a anniversary every other year.:-)

And it's definitely for locals and families as well. Not only for tourists or boozers!

Jordan Yerman

at 11:12 on September 22nd, 2009

Thanks, Anton! I hate getting that sort of thing wrong.

Patricia Turo

at 07:07 on September 24th, 2009

We had lived in Germany for 8 years. Munich is best known for Octoberfest but infact it is celebrated all over in small towns as well. We always had to make rules about people taking time off during Octoberfest because the company would have been empty. We stayed away from Munich because people really overdue it and get very drunk.