Alexander's

We have some great traditions in Kärnten. For example Schappen, where young children are supposed to whip grownups with special twigs to wish them a long an healthy life.^[1] Easter, as the central christian feast,^[2] also comes with many nice traditions of it’s own. One of the cooler one’s is on Palm Sunday, where the last person to awake gets to be called Palmeserl^[3] and has to live with the shame for the next year.

So today — on my birthday — I stood up extra early, to make absolutely sure I was not going to end up as Palmeserl. I even took a photograph of my sleeping brother as evidence, but something didn’t feel right. Not only was it all too easy, but the customary call from my mother, to check if we were already up and who was the last one, was also missing. Then it dawned upon me — today is Easter Sunday, Palm Sunday was a week ago!

Oh well seems like I should not be the one to denounce other people for not obeying traditions, when I myself start to forget them. Sad but true how these little fun customs get lost in favour for more wide spread and profitable events, like Valentines Day or Hallo Ween, that were never a big thing when I was young.