"Heimatwoche" - a bavarian folklore week

Photos and text idea by Ralf Gerard.

In spring 2019, the traditional costume society "D'Waxenstoana" from Antdorf in Upper Bavaria celebrated its 100th anniversary. Our photographer Ralf Gerard accompanied the festive week with his camera.

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Festival Week in Upper Bavaria

The festival week was one of the last before the start of the Corona pandemic. It shows a special section of village life: the cooperation of several generations and people with different ways of life, also learning from a common task. Experiences are created that make a positive impression on the collective memory of a village and make people forget the everyday hardships for a certain time.

"Art is the attempt to understand something", says the essayist Geert Mak. Encouraged by this thought, Ralf Gerard strolled around the village fairground with carefree curiosity for a week. The result is an impressive and artistic reportage - from the setting up of the marquee and the visit of local political celebrities to finger-wagging, Burschenplattler and the flag-raising ceremony.

From several trips to Persia, Ralf Gerard especially remembered the people's pride in their culture. Not least from these experiences came the motivation to look more attentively at one's own homeland and to appreciate it.

The festival week in Antdorf is one example among many other similar festival weeks of traditional, rural life - in Upper Bavaria as well as in other regions. A life, sometimes still marked by old rituals, while a new era with uncertain demands has already dawned. A village becomes worth living through this community commitment. Everyone has a personal share in the success of the whole. And so, after a week of intensive observations with the villagers of Antdorf, the realisation remains: the cultivation of culture, sustainable economic activity and social cohesion is the common humus of life for all of us.

"Heimatwoche means replacing work with play in order to balance everyday life and the frenzy of festivities." (Ralf Gerard).

11.03.2021