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Swabian Folkdance and Songs

When I saw that we are going to do German Folk Dance and Song I was filled with trepidation. It sounded like another chance to embarrass myself (after slipping and falling on the ice - twice).
It wasn't.
It was good ways to get the blood flowing and even invigorate some members of our group who did not want to waste a Friday night.
We learned about and did three dances the Polka, Sternpolka and Fröhliche Kreis. We also got a chance to not only see but a few people could don the traditional clothes. I think the clothes made courting easier for the Germans because depending on the colour you can determine a person's social standing (Upper class - Red, lower class - blue) and depending on the accessories you can see a person's wealth. The number of silver coins a woman has on her dress shows how many head of cattle she has, and the number of silver coins/buttons on a man's waist coat shows his wealth, or lack thereof.
After tiring ourselves with the dance we had a quick break.
Then we moved on to the German Folk Songs. We learned two love songs: The first one, Stehn zwei Stern am hohen Himmel, is about a man looking at the stars and longing for his love, the second song, Mädle, ruck, ruck, ruck, is a typical Swabian song about a man's pursuit of a lady.
Although we had some trouble with pronouncing the words, we sang the songs and got a small taste of traditional German music.
I did embarrass myself, but so did everybody else which led to a few laughs and a quite enjoyable afternoon.

by Herman Barnadt

Traditional German Clothes

Traditional(folk) dance,clothes and food are the criterias that semiotically reveal a group of peaple´s culture.German people also have their tradition that reveal who they are and where they come from.
German traditional(folk) clothes is one of the most crucial criterias that tell their values, morals and beliefs. German traditional(folk) clothes were desingned in such a way that challenged people to work and maintain their status because a person´s status of whether is rich or poor is revealed by his clothes. A person´s marital status is also seen through the atire of German tradition.
There is one more thing important about German traditional clothes, which is that, German people preserve their values and morals through their folk clothes. German people are kept well dressed and organised by their beliefs, for instant,the woman´s inner dress is not suppose to be seen otherwise it means that she is looking for a man.I believe many women take this into consideration and ensure that they are well dressed which makes them also to be organised.

by Clementinah Burheni

Tübingen South Africa Program 2011