History of Oktoberfest
October 16, 2020
History of Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest is an annual festival held in Munich Germany.
It last two weeks and ends the first Sunday in October.
The first festival began on October 12, 1810, in celebration of the marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria, who later became King Ludwig I, and his wife princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The festival concluded five days later with a horse race.
By the late 20th century, breweries began to construct temporarily beer halls for Oktoberfest.
These beer halls would each fit 6,000 people.
Traditionally, the mayor of Munich taps the first beer keg to open the festival beginning
the first of about two million gallons of beer to be consumed.
Oktoberfest draws about 6 million people per year, many of them tourists.
Oktoberfest in the United States follows the same calendar as the one in Germany, and includes lots of beer drinking, bands
playing oompah (deep brass instrument), and German food like bratwurst and knockwurst.
The largest Oktoberfest in the US is Oktoberfest Zinzinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. The evet has also become known for featuring the "World's Largest Chicken Dance"
References
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Oktoberfest
https://www.muenchen.de/int/en/events/oktoberfest/history.html
