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‘Wiesn’ in Zambia
The famed Oktoberfest began with a royal Bavarian wedding in 1810.
The groom, King Ludwig I, wanted to celebrate his marriage to Maria
Teresa of Saxony by proclaiming a state fair, in Munich.
The festival was dedicated to the fall harvest and to the Regions
most famous product, beer. Tradesman and merchants came throughout
Germany to join in the merry-making. They examined the crops, sang
songs, danced and sampled the first beer of the season. The
celebration was such a success that Ludwig issued a royal Decree
making Oktober festival time in Munich.
The Munich Oktoberfest –known by the locals as the “Wiesn” has been
held annually ever since and is the biggest public festival in the
world. It reaches its peak with about six million visitors each
year, who drink around five million litres of beer and consume over
200,000 pairs of pork sausages mostly in the “beer tents” put up by
traditional Munich breweries.
But this year, the Oktoberfest has finally found its way to
Zambia...
The Munda Wanga Trust and the German Embassy in Lusaka proudly
present this year’s Oktoberfest which will be celebrated on
Saturday, 29 October at the sports complex of the International
School of Lusaka (opposite Polo Grill on Nangwenya Rd). It involves
not only several sport and fun activities for the whole family, but
also an exciting Zambian Women League football tournament in which
the four leading U16 teams will fight to win the much-desired trophy
and title.
Come on down and enjoy the fun by joining one of the
Gemuetlichkeit Games:
Event #1- Hammering Nails
Simply hammer as many nails as possible into a tree stump. The
contestant with the most amount of hammered nails in the allotted
time wins.
Event #2- Beer Stein Race
Contestants race a short distance across a steeplechase with two
fists full of filled beer steins. The winner is determined not only
by the best time, but by the amount of beer left in the steins at
the finish line (a second is added onto the contestant’s time for
each ounce of beer spilled).
Event #3- Penalty-shoot out
Form a group of five team-mates and enter the competition. The team
ending up with the best goal record and beating its contestants
wins.
All the games will be accompanied by live DJ’s playing German Music
and taking requests throughout the day.
In
the evening, will be
the German Beer “Zelt” and you will be spoilt with traditional
German food, music, raffles and of course, plenty of beer. Tickets
are available through the Munda Wanga Trust.
The whole event will be raising money for a Rapid Action Response
Unit for Munda Wanga. The RARU will be a mobile unit that can
support Munda Wanga’s mission to assist wild animal welfare issues
throughout Zambia. The unit will be able to assist Zambia’s
wildlife by firstly rescuing injured, orphaned or illegally kept
animals anywhere in the country and secondly by releasing, those
able, back to the wild. Without this new acquisition these animals
will either be left to die in the field or remain caged or chained
for the rest of the lives, at the pleasure of their human captors.
For further details on Oktoberfest 2005 or how to register for one
of the mentioned Gemuetlichkeit Games, please contact James on
biopark@zamnet.zm or 097 400-917. |
October
2005