Kultur 10 - Gabrielle Spickard

I thought that the articles for this chapter's Kultur assignment were interesting, but kind of strange. For the article "Dinner for Who? Germany's New Year Procedure," I was very surprised to find out that there is such a universal and widespread German cultural tradition for New Year's Eve. I can't really think of an equivalent in American culture, where there is such a ubiquitous and celebrated cultural tradition that every American does on a certain holiday. It's certainly interesting, though, and it's also kind of strange that an English-speaking skit became so popular in German as well. For the second article, "Sorry, We're Closed: The Challenge of Spending Money in Germany," I was able to partially relate to the struggles of reduced evening and Sunday hours, it kind of reminded me of my hometown (although not totally to the extreme of Germany). I'm not sure if I agree with government-mandated business hours, but I can see how it would be beneficial in some respects to the businesses and the employees. For the "Booze Brothers" article, I was very surprised to read about this cultural tradition, since it seems to fall so far outside of German cultural norms of order and reason, but it was interesting as well. I'm actually kind of glad that Father's Day isn't like this in America: Männertag as it is now seems like one of those things that would be mildly entertaining for a little while, but then quickly become a nuisance.