Oktoberfest is a celebration of traditions. For some it’s a white sausage breakfast beforehand, others always go break dancing after visiting the tent. Such traditions are of course fun, but they also provide stability in an ever-changing world. So the Oktoberfest is its own little world, which from one year to the next changes from the “koidn” to the “Sommerwiesn”. And the great nothingness before that only now healed for some of those involved, for the showmen for example.
Official traditions also abound. Entry, tapping, standing concert in the middle, sparklers at the end. There are numbers at halftime and at the end. But the world keeps turning, and some traditions fall along with it. While the number of oxen and chicken eaten used to be an indicator of visitors’ appetite, this year it was no longer listed in the press report. They said they no longer wanted to count dead animals. Mysterious, because they will definitely be eaten at the festival anyway. Is this a sign that visitors are increasingly turning to vegetarian and vegan dishes, or is it not? Does the city simply not want to stir up any further discussions with the number, as the festival now has enough “wokeness” problems?
Is giving up counting hypocritical or progressive? The world has become more complicated. The Oktoberfest too. Actually, it’s only human. Many numbers accumulate unintentionally. It takes some effort to ignore them, but it makes life easier. The number of chips eaten after a long day, for example. The bags of plastic waste in the household since small children have been living in them. The kilometers that were traveled by car instead of by bike or train, the number of reminders that would have been unnecessary. All numbers that don’t make life any better by letting your guilty conscience wallow in them. Middle-aged students may remember Bridget Jones, who began her diary entries with her weight and the cigarettes she smoked. That doesn’t make her happy, nor did it make her any slimmer or a non-smoker.
The novel’s heroine also kept a record of her alcohol consumption. The Oktoberfest press office only stated beer consumption at halftime as a percentage of the previous year. However, since the previous year was disastrously poorly attended, the six percent increase is not impressive. Maybe she shouldn’t be? Finally, the reader might get the idea that the Oktoberfest is a drinking festival. Where would we be then?