German and American Cultures

Author's Note: I wrote this piece for my Project on the 5 Themes of Germany. I focused on my intro paragraph, conclusion, and grammar.

Even though Germany is the size of Montana it has had many connections to other cultures in food with immigration, holidays due to their religion, and sports because, well, who doesn’t like to play sports? The German and American cultures can be very different or quite the same. It just depends on what you look at.

In America we don’t have a strong, specific food for our country except for fast and unhealthy foods. In Germany there is definitely a main food, sausage. There are over 1500 types of sausage made in Germany. 1500! But something similar from these two countries is that they have had many influences from their immigrants like Italian and Turkish foods. Also in Germany there aren’t many fast-food places, unlike the United States where there’s a McDonalds around every corner. Instead there are many local bakeries, cafés, and restaurants. Due to the lack of unhealthy places to eat Germany has a 12.9% obesity rate, as opposed to the USA’s 30.6%.

In Germany, just like over here, there are many holidays and celebrations. Since we both have Christianity also our main religion, Christmas and Easter are the mostly alike of all the holidays. Also a part of Christmas, St. Nicholas, is celebrated in similar ways. The children set their shoes on the front doorstep instead of stockings above the fireplace, and it is filled with treats and small gifts. For the actually day of Christmas, the Christmas tree was originated Germany except the way it is put up is unlike how it is in America. Here, setting up the tree is usually a family activity, but in Germany while the kids are distracted in another room Christkind (an angel) supposedly comes and sets up the tree, decorates it, and sets the presents under it. Everybody in the USA has a different way of coordinating whose house to go on what day and who to exchange presents with, but in Germany the 25th of December is usually spent going to church and spending time with family while the 26th is spent with friends.

Easter, or Ostern, in Germany is virtually the same as it is here. It is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus and the kids even have Easter egg hunts in the exact way we do.

New Years, or in Germany: Neuhjar, is very close to America’s New Years. New Year’s Eve is called Silvester and people stay up until midnight and throw an egg over their house. Where it lands they would bury it; this is thought to bring could luck in the next year.

An additional celebration that is important here as it is in Germany is your birthday. Germany is odd, because it is thought to bring bad luck if you wish somebody happy birthday or give them a gift before the actual day. Also it is customary that you throw a party for yourself and cook all of the food.

Another notable holiday in Germany that is not celebrated as much in the USA is Oktoberfest. It started out as a wedding celebration. On October 12th 1810 all of the citizens of Munich were invited to attend the wedding of Prince Ludwig to Princess Theresa of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The celebration was held on the fields in front of the city gates, which later became known as "Theresa's fields" or Theresienweise. There was also a horse race and the people liked it so much they set it up in the following years. It wasn't until 1896 that beer tents were introduce, which is the main attraction now. Today over 6 million people from around the world go to Germany to celebrate Oktoberfest.

One more aspect in Germany’s culture that is closely related to America’s culture is sports. The most popular sports in America are soccer, football, basketball, and baseball. The most popular sports in Germany are tennis, volleyball, hockey, and soccer. Their national soccer team has won three FIFA world cups, so they are obviously better than US in that category. That is probably the only one to really match up to the USA, because they don’t play many of our major sports, and if they do it is not an important sport for us.

The German and American cultures are alike; like in our holidays. But also diverse; like in food. Maybe someday you could experience both of them.