For the fifth time now, Irish (and Non-Irish) locals in Berlin celebrated their annual public holiday with a big parade and live bagpipe music (provided by the Berlin Pipe Company), with lots of green and lots of beer. The St.Patrick’s Festival Berlin was launched in 2011 with a 150 people strong parade which has grown over the years to over 2000 participants in 2015.
It’s 2014, welcome to a new year of exciting and interesting events and festivals in Berlin!
But let’s remember what happened last year, while movie premieres clearly dominated the year of 2013 and traditional events like the Green Week, St Patrick’s Day or the Oberbaum Bridge Water Fight were back in town, Berlin also had a good variety of new events, like the celebration of HOLI in Germany, President Barack Obama’s visit to Berlin, the European Kendo Championships or David Hasselhoff’s attempt to save the wall.
The year 2013 in Pictures.
Holi, the festival of colors, a Hindu religious festival to celebrate the end of the winter and the beginning of the new season, spring.
In Berlin, the festival of colors was celebrated today, Saturday 11th May 2013, and over 12.000 people gathered on a 12.000 m² area to throw colored cornmeal at each other, while dancing to Indian electro house and techno beats, religion was swapped with music.
Equality and community are the focus of attention at this day, It doesn’t matter how old you are or where you come from, on this festival, everyone is equal, equal colorful.
For the third time now, St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated in Berlin, with a big Parade, an Open Air Concert, Irish music, Irish dance and typical foods and drinks.
Saint Patrick’s Day , Ireland’s national day, is a cultural and religious holiday, celebrated every year on March 17th around the world. It is named after Saint Patrick, the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland.
Over two thousand Irish and German locals and tourists participated on the parade through the borough of Kreuzberg.
I watched the second Anime during this years Berlinale, the world premiere of Welcome to the Space Show or Uchuu Show e Youkoso / 宇宙ショーへようこ if you are more familiar with the Japanese title.
A tiny mountain village in a remote woodland region. Five primary school kids have come together in this idyllic spot in order to spend their summer holidays at a camp. At first the children enjoy carefree days amidst unspoiled nature far away from adult supervision. But their life changes dramatically when they come across what they believe to be a small dog, badly in need of help.
The creature turns out not to be a dog at all but an alien on an important mission. It seems there is a mysterious substance on earth that is coveted throughout the universe.
The movie was produced by the same guys who brought you R.O.D -Read or Die-, Ishihama Masashi Masunari Kouji, Hideyuki Kurata and Tomonori Ochikoshi, all of them were parts of the audience.
There was only one thing I found a bit disturbing, I watched the movie in three languages, Japanese language, English subtitle and… a German translator for every single sentence and also totally emotionless.
But overall It was a really great movie with an interesting science-fiction story and cute characters.
Halloween is over, but Thanksgiving (Erntedankfest) is near, time to sell the remains of the big Pumpkin Harvest. Never seen so much different Pumpkins together.
Thanksgiving in German Europe has a long tradition, but one that is different in many ways from that in North America. First of all, the Germanic Erntedankfest (“harvest festival of thanks”) is primarily a rural and a religious celebration. When it is celebrated in larger cities, it is usually part of a church service and not anything like the big traditional family holiday in North America.
Although it is celebrated locally and regionally, none of the German-speaking countries observes an official national Thanksgiving holiday on a particular day, as in Canada or the U.S.