Welcome to the 
--an Introduction to Mainz Culture
From late November till Christmas Eve, the city is filled with lights and the mouth-watering smells of sausage, pancakes, roasted (sugar coated) almonds, sweets, Lebkuchen and, last but not least, Glühwein. The Marktplatz gets covered with a whole web of light-strings to make the season shine.
The Weihnachtsmarkt invites you to stroll down the narrow avenues created by small booths
. . .
. . . offering hand-made candles, pottery, jewelery, traditional Christmas ornaments, toys, Räuchermännchen, Nutcrackers, glassware . . . you really have to come and see this for yourself--and probably more than once!
Should you enter the Weihnachtsmarkt from 'Hoefchen,' you can get a good look at the 'Weihnachtspyramide.'
The wooden figures on that pyramid represent Mainz culture in its variety--I have not yet come to understand the meaning of each, but a couple of them are easily identified as tied to the city's traditions and history and can be taken as a kind of short-hand in which this pyramid defines the city's cultural identity.
Let's start with the figure dressed in the red-and-white of the local soccer-team, Mainz 05. This is a fairly new addition to the pyramid but not at all surprising if one remembers what happened in May 2004, a month no Mainzer will ever forget: the "Mainz 05" team made it to the 'Erste Bundesliga.' This meant three days of Fassenacht-like celebrations--the city went crazy. And since soccer in Mainz is a truly integrative force, you could see fans of all ages and nationalities, men and women alike, when they paid their tribute to the players. With songs and--even in May--the traditional Mainz-jester greeting: "Helau."
That 'Fassenacht' is the basic theme underlying all other festivities and indeed defines the Mainz Lifestyle becomes obvious if we look up:
Would you have expected a Fassenachter wearing the traditionally colored costume and a cap showing the acronym of the Mainzer Carneval Verein on a Christmas pyramid?
Right next to him, there is Gutenberg, the world-famous son of Mainz, Man of the Millenium, holding a bible in his hand. Aside from the Gutenberg-Museum, you can find busts and statues honoring Gutenberg all over city. But in typical "Mainzer Art," he is not seen as an ancient hero but is integrated into the city's present day life. He participated in the excitement about Mainz 05 in his way, . . .
. . . always appears on the Fassenacht-stage to criticize local and international politics, and is the patron of Mainz' largest summer-festival,
the 'Johannisfest:'
Next to Gutenberg, you see Bishop Williges holding a cathedral in his hands 
because he initiated the building of today's cathedral in the year 975.
Pointing further into the past, the Roman reminds us that Romans founded Moguntia--and brought the tradition of growing wine to the Rhine River, a tradition that has turned this area into one of the most famous wine-growing regions in Europe . . .
. . . as the 'Winzer' shows with his bunch of grapes and the wine-keg.
The significance of local agriculture and farming as well as the tradition of holding an open-air farmers' market in the shadow of the cathedral are represented by the 'Marktfrau' offering green apples for sale.
The next figure in his sport's-outfit represents a tradition not quite that old but very popular, the Gutenberg-Marathon:
For May 2005, 11.000 participants have registered already. In 2004, the event drew crowds so that the participants commented on how they were cheered on and on how nice the atmosphere was. And yes, they did use the term 'Fassenachtsstimmung.'
And in order to close our watch of the pyramid with one of the most popular Mainz icons, let's take a look at this little guy:
This is 'Det,' one of 6 so-called 'Mainzelmännchen' . . .
. . . who perform little sketches in between commercials on the ZDF-TV channel. Extremely popular in Germany, they've come to represent Mainz as much as the cathedral.
All images by courtesy of H.F. and J.B.