Viehscheid is the local tradition of loaning out your cows for the summer to cow herders in the alpine fields. Once summer is over, these cow herders bring home the cows to their owners in the valley. They run the cows down the mountains dressed in flowers and such. Then, they parade the cows through town where they can be picked up.
The Germans in the parade dress up in their traditional outfits called Lederhosen for the men and Dirndls for the women. Many people coming to the parade also dressed in these outfits. This is what you think of when you think of the stereotype for the dress of an old-fashioned German man and woman. The prize cow is also especially dressed up with a giant headdress of flowers, twigs and a mirror. (Not sure about the mirror or why they wear it.) All the cows also wear these huge bells!! It is quite a cacophony of sound when they charge through.
Once the cow parades are over (or really once you get tired of standing in the cold), they have these great big tents with tables where everyone can buy many varieties of sausages on bread and a refreshing drink for the occasion. Most people were in the tents by 9:30 AM. Also in the tent is the marching band that ushered in the start of the parade. They play a variety of traditional German songs and then also tell jokes from time to time. It is quite a celebration. 
Did you see the bells?? They are huge!
You may know who this is! He had a lot of fun eating pretzels in the tent. Notice the coat. It was really chilly!!
Now on to the question of the day for yesterday: What is hard water? Hard water is when minerals are naturally dissolved in the water that comes out of your faucets. Here in Germany, we have hard water. It makes it hard for the soap to lather and leaves calcium deposits wherever the water is left standing. It can be very difficult to clean without having something to dissolved those leftover minerals. For the 5th graders, ask your science teacher how the minerals are present in the water and how to remove them, or better yet, do the research yourself on the Internet with your parents' permission. Fortunately, hard water is not harmful to drink or use.
Today's question of the day is: What is a condenser dryer?
Today's word of the day is cow: die Kuh (pronounced coo - like the word for what sound a baby makes.) Notice that it is feminine as cows are also the females of their species. Get seven of them together and you have "die sieben Kühe". Notice the change in spelling for the plural form. Many words change their spelling a little to make their word plural, just like we add s or es to words to make our words plural.
Until tomorrow,
Your seven cow Frau :-)
