Munich Celebrates Its 850th Anniversary

This past weekend as part of a series of weekend excursions outside of Berlin, my roommates and I decided to visit Munich for a day. Bavaria often cultivates images of lederhosen, assorted hats with feathers and pins as well as women in tradition Bavarian clothing. Considering that Munich is a modern city, we assumed that if we did encounter anyone wearing traditional clothing it would be few and far between.

When we arrived, we made our way directly to the town square, where the famous glockenspiel resides. On the way to that area, we were surprised that our assumptions about how the locals were wrong. An abnormally large amount of people were wearing Bavarian clothing. As the day progressed, we saw locals setting up for an event and didn’t know what it was.

After speaking with the locals, they told us that Munich was celebrating its 850th anniversary and that the day would be filled with a wide range of festivities. Along the way we met people from various countries who expressed their opinions about Bavarian culture. Although not always positive, their opinions were an interesting representation of how the views one has on other cultures are often shaped by the environment one was raised in.

This trip was serendipity at its best. We were able to watch Bavarian folk dancing, live music and eat food native to the area while celebrating with locals a once in a lifetime event.