Trolleys and beer are often no longer in demand

From the point of view of the police in Thuringia, the major escalations around the so-called Father’s Day are increasingly absent. “It is decreasing more and more,” said the spokesman for the Thuringian State Police Directorate, Patrick Martin. The police continued to keep an eye on the feast of the Ascension of Christ or “Father’s Day” and were also on duty with more personnel than on other days. For years, however, fewer and fewer men have been on a Father’s Day tour without a child and a cone and instead with beer and a trolley.

Father’s Day, also called Men’s Day, traditionally takes place on the holiday of the Ascension of Christ, that is, 40 days after Easter. Unlike Mother’s Day, it is not officially on the calendar. For many men, it is nevertheless a fixed date – as on this Thursday (May 25). Most recently, the day fell victim to the corona pandemic with its traditionally humid and cheerful “men’s parties” and hiking tours. According to a study by the University of Jena (2016), more patients than usual are treated in the emergency department on public holidays such as Men’s or Father’s Day due to their alcohol consumption.

When German men with beer kegs and trolleys move loudly through the area, only very few people are likely to be aware of the roots of this custom. Since the 4th century, on Ascension day, Christians have been celebrating the “lifting up” of Jesus to heaven, the return of the Son of God to the Father. Later, on this day, believers went to the fields and asked for a good harvest. Evidence from the early 16th century shows that even then there was a lot of hunting.
Century. After all, the Christian origin was increasingly receding into the background: in the 19th century, the first “men’s tours” to the countryside came into fashion, women were not there even then.