From The Dubois County Daily Herald
Thursday, January 20, 1955
HARK THE HERALD
Hammel -fest And Christmas in Reute
by A. T. Rumbach
I cannot leave Reute without telling the reader about a unique local custom, the annual “ Hammel-fest”. This event took place “ zum Hirschen” (at the Deer tavern) next door to our Reute home. The young set of the village and surrounding places gather for a benefit dance (for some local charity fund); each paid admission entitles the one who pays the “ Eintritt” (literally, “in step”, an expression still used in some part of Dubois County in lieu of “admission”) to vote for the queen. The young lady thus honored is awarded the “ hammel” or ram which is kept tied near the orchestra and watches the evening’s proceedings with an occasional “Baa” and a nonchalant look. The “queen” is also considered the most popular girl in the “ dorf” and most likely to be a bride during the coming year.
The voting power of the attendants is further augmented by participating in a raffle of various commodities, which is calculated also to swell the charity fund. As the contest for queen waxed hot, the promoter, knowing we were having a get together at the “ backerei”, sent delegation after delegation over to solicit our support, and to bring over whatever trinkets we were “lucky” enough to win. It is probably from their ancestors in Baden that the people Dubois County inherited their love of “celebrations” and their willingness to “take a chance” when it is for a good cause – “ alles fuer die Kirche”.
We all would have enjoyed staying in Baden for Christmas to see how they celebrate the greatest of all annual events. Since that was impossible, I shall describe it by proxy – Buzz, who was with us over our first weekend in Reute, again made the trip from Paris, where he is stationed in the U.S. army, for the Christmas weekend; he described the occasion in a lengthy letter to me in detail.
He left Paris via train on Thursday evening, arriving in Basel ( Switzerland) early in the morning. He completed the trip to Freiburg and Emmendingen, where he took a taxi to Reute, arriving there about 10 A.M. on Christmas Eve. The trains were crowded with people going “home” to spend Christmas with their families, or going to winter resorts with skiis and skates. In the afternoon, he helped trim the Christmas tree (Tannenbaum), putting on tinsel, candy, etc. and old-fashioned candies and sparklers. After a brat- wurst supper (the best he ever tasted), Klara lined up the members of the household, the door was opened to the room with the Christmas tree and the table loaded with the gifts stacked around a large candle, and the place for each member of the family marked with a star cookie.
After the opening of the gifts, (Buzz’s gifts consisted of delicious Suchard chocolates, a pair of long sox, home knit, a leather belt, two books, etc.), the candles and the sparklers on the tree were lit to the tune of Christmas carols ( Stille Nacht, O Tannenbaum, Ihr Kinderlein Kommet, etc.) Buzz was worried about the fire hazard from the candles and sparklers but they reassured him that there was no danger – nothing had ever happened and the candles were closely watched while they were burning. Paul described the Christmas observance as follows:
“After the distribution of gifts, we had a round-table discussion using sign language and my dictionary; they used whatever English words they knew, and I the meager stock of German words I have accumulated. Ate a dozen varieties of Christmas cookies – springerle’s lebkuchen, etc. – and sang more Christmas carols. We listened to Konrad Adenauer’s Christmas message over the radio. Of course, I did not understand very much of it except an occasional familiar word or expression but he sounded very impressive; he has an excellent radio voice and seemed very sincere.
“We retired early as we were to get up for 6 A.M. mass, a solemn high mass with ten altar boys robed in red and white garb. The congregation joined the choir in singing Christmas songs, accompanied by the organ and band. My mind drifted back home to the midnight mass which was just about ready to begin as the second morning mass started here (about 7 A.M.). The crib erected on the left side altar was really beautiful. We had an elaborate dinner at noon with an excellent rabbit roast as the main dish. On Sunday evening Klara and Herr Seger, who speaks English, accompanied me to the station at Freiburg to catch the train for Basel and Paris. So my wonderful visit to Reute was over; next to being at home it was the most congenial place I could have spent Christmas.”
I also have received a very interesting letter from Bob Kress (a classmate of Buzz and now a theology student at the Canisianum, in Innsbruck, Austria.) It was also Bob’s first Christmas overseas. He says:
“My first Christmas away from home was not so bad. I am sure Buzz also found it so. We Americans here at the Canisianum sang a midnight mass at an army camp just a few miles from Innsbruck. After the mass the soldiers gave us a big breakfast of ham and eggs, which in Europe is a rare treat; then we sang Christmas carols for them for about an hour and a half before coming back to the ‘Can’. These festivities helped us not to think too much about ‘home at Christmas’. It really was a wonderful ‘White Christmas’, about which we sing and dream back home in Indiana, but which we really have here at Innsbruck.”
We had hoped to see Bob at Innsbruck, but when we phoned from Liechtenstein we learned that he was out in the Alps on an all-day hike with the American students. Unfortunately, we had to be back in Reute the next day. Bob informs us that Edwin Seng of Jasper was also in Innsbruck for two days, on a conducted tour, but also was unable to see him because of scheduled side trips. He did connect with Don Habig, who is stationed nearby with a U.S. army in Bavaria. He is now looking forward to a proposed visit from Buzz.