Submitter's name:	Volkhart Baumgärtner
Title:	Kemmerner Gaaßbockreiten.
Gear used:	IS-1000
Diaphragm:	Program
Shutter speed:	Program
Film used:	Kodak Farbwelt 400.
Technical information:	Nothing special.
Subject information:	Well, this is kind of a long story although I'll try to just summarize the main background information. In a village a few km from here, Kemmern, part of their annual fair is the so-called "Kemmerner Gaaßbockreiten" (literally: Kemmern billygoat riding). The name is misleading, though, as there is no goat being ridden; it is rather a play that is enacted while a small (but nice!) parade moves through the streets towards its ending point near the sports club just outside the village. The play involves a number of characters, among them a farmer, a Jewess, a butcher, a goat, and several others, all played by males, and its subject are the negotiations between the farmer and the Jewess who wants to buy the goat from him, and the butcher who is to slaughter it when the deal is done. All the others are somehow involved (e.g. one, I think, is a banker who carries the Jewess's money, and one a lawyer). During the negotiations, the goat, played by a guy who has a beam with a goat's head tied between his legs and wears a cylinder hat and a white sheet, escapes and does all kinds of mischief in the village (chasing people - preferably girls and young women - and smearing their faces with soot), while the farmer tries to catch it (whenever he does, the goat, of course, escapes again). On the patch of grass where the parade ends a water hole is prepared the day before, and that is where the deal between the Jewess and the farmer is finally concluded. The goat is "slaughtered" by the butcher using a rubber knife and red paint, and everybody else falls into the water hole. The picture shows them just getting back out. It might be added that after this official part the village youths have lots of fun catching people (again, mainly girls and young women) and throwing or dunking them into the water hole. Everybody else usually is content to just watch while having a beer and some bratwurst, while the kids enjoy the candies they caught during the parade.
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Comment left by: Olaf Greve (no e-mail specified)

Now that's an interesting event... Thanks for the description, I would have never guessed this without it. :)

Comment left by: Peter Leyssens (no e-mail specified)

The traditions that some people have ! Amazing. In the village where I come from, near Antwerpen, there's the habbit of hanging a straw puppet from a tree in May, with one arm pointing to the center of the village. In medieval times, our part of the village was a separate parish, and the landlord didn't maintain the church, so the inhabitants all had to go to the center of the village. After all these centuries, we still hang the man every year. Unfortunately, it doesn't involve throwing girls in water pools and drinking beer.

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