Putting Up The Maibaum



      "Owacht gem! Hoooch! Auffff!" ("Careful! Up! Up!") the leader yells. He has got an accurate eye, along with half a century of experience in putting up the Maibaum. This is not just a need for strength, but excellent organisation like in a bee or termite colony: rarely all pull and push at the same time, it goes up slowly, step by step, up a bit at the rear, and if that does not work then it has to go up in the front, once left, once right.
      "Jetza, r ... chdd ... Seiddn - auf gehts!" ("Now, right side - come on!") -"Ja, frale" the men on the right shout.

      Putting up a Maibaum, that is still men's work; man's strength is needed, everywhere. Everybody's butt is pushed out, a real butt, because nothing works without a real butt. The real butt decides between the ground and the Maibaum, between gravity and the difficult balance.

      The children are sent away from the spot where the Maibaum could fall if anything goes wrong. A piece of a cut-out-world like at the tower of Pisa, where no-one is allowed to go anymore, where the tower could fall if it falls one time. The Maibaum stands like the tower of Pisa, too, half-way erected, and not much lower, if not higher, at least at the border of the alps: there the Maibaum is that high, that it is forming another cross, together with the Karwendel's cross, with the Zugspitze's cross.



      What would Freud say about that ? That men are putting up trees ? "An extension of the LEBENSRUTE", Albert Bichler writes to these ones who do not know "it is a habit in Bavaria" For God's sake: That's the thing, we were worrying about ! Perhaps the green-decorated tree just goes back to the Celt's admiration for trees and because of that it has become a symbol of Bavaria.

      Now it is time for the specialists. For example they must move the sticks and finally clip them out. An artistical show, the circus is nothing in comparison to the excitment, when it rises and when the Maibaum rise, up to the first stick is put on the other side:
      " Schiabts O! Owacht gem! Hobts ihr net ogschobm ? Owacht gem! Oschiam! Aus! Schluss! Aufhean! " (" Pull! Careful! Didn't you pull? Careful! Pull! Off! End! Stop it! "). Now one comes with a plumb-line and tests it on the Maibaum, some corrections are made. " Nomoi: Owacht gem! Hoooch! Auff! A bloss a bissl! Guad is! " (" Again: careful! Up! Up! Just a bit more ! Ok! ").



      Now it is standing, finally, the Maibaum, it just has to be fixed in place, time for the joiners; begin their work with the metre-rule. Then it is watered, there are very old sciences working, the Obeliscs aren't placed otherwise, two thousand years ago or even more. Thanksgiving on the Holy Mountain


      Kurt-Huber-Gymnasium, Gräfelfing (Deutschland)
      Gerd Holzheimer






      1. Mai, die Freinacht


      Wenn es dunkel wird, ziehen am Abend des 30. April Kinder und Jugendliche aus, um ihre Spässe zu machen. Dabei haben sie Klopapier, Zahnpasta, Rasierschaum, Kaugummi oder Klebstreifen. Sie kleben Klingeln fest, besprühen Autos mit Rasierschaum, wickeln sie mit Klopapier ein, beschmieren Autofenster, Türschlösser und Klinken mit Rasiercreme und Zahnpasta. Das sind die beliebtesten Streiche.

      Doch nicht alle Scherze sind so harmlos. Einige Rowdies kippen auch Mülltonnen um oder brechen Mercedessterne ab. Deshalb fahren in dieser Nacht viele Zivilpolizisten durch die Straßen und kontrollieren. Nicht erlaubt sind: Feuerzeuge, Feuerwerkskörper und leicht brennbare Dinge. Kinder unter 10 Jahren werden nach Hause geschickt.

      Doch alles in allem ist die Freinacht eine Nacht, in der alle Kinder ihren Spaß haben.



      Kurt-Huber-Gymnasium, Gräfelfing (Deutschland)
      Kirstin, Luci, Maike