The first Oktoberfest took place in 1810 to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Sachsen-Hildenburghausen. The first Oktoberfest in Penang was organised by the Malaysian-German Society in 1973!The festival is to celebrate cosiness, the notion of belonging, social acceptance, cheerfulness, the absence of anything hectic and the spending of quality time in a place not too large, well heated and nicely furnished, ..eh... cosiness.. Everybody sit together without any social barriers, talk to each other in a relaxing manner, have some good food and nice drinks to enjoy the day off with beautiful music and dance.
I attended the first Oktoberfest in my lifetime, yesterday at the Malaysian-German Society. The signature to this event is the ever popular Oktoberfest Song, Ein Prosit, ein Prosit der Gemuetlichkeit. Immediately after the song, everybody will shout aloud, oans, zwoa, gsuffa (in Penang, follow by a long 'yum seeeeeeeng'!) and takes a big gulp of beer.
Lots of good German food i.e sausages, meatloaf, pork knuckle, sauerkraut and not forgetting the beers and wines. Entertainment was provided by a 6 piece German band, Inntaler Musikanten with their 'oomph-pah-pah' songs, dances and games! In fact this is their 15th visit to the Society.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment