I'm a simple emigrant and I'll tell you how a Polterabend goes

Polterabend is, in fact, a traditional evening about a week before the wedding, but our guys decided to celebrate the wedding itself this way. Polterabend – a racket, Abend – evening. For such a party, guests arrive with their old dishes, flower pots, and any other porcelain. The centerpiece of the program is usually a toilet, but we had only a sink of a large size — it became the queen of the pile of broken dishes. And people bring something of their own, something that could have been stored in a basement or in cupboards for years. No one goes to so-called “everything for 1 euro” stores and buys specifically for the evening. And how much beautiful porcelain they have lying unused. I want that too when I grow up! While emigrants are popular waking up at dawn to go to the flea market in a neighboring town and snag two plates from some Villeroy & Boch or Rosenthal, locals haul them in crates just to smash them. It is believed that the shards bring happiness to family life, and the noise drives away spirits, except for Poltergeist, of course – this one will scare whoever he wants. Everyone smashes the dishes: if someone arrived without their own plates, they are sure to share with them. Absolutely everything brought is mercilessly hurled to the floor or the wall, and only rarely can you hear the women’s exclamations “that was such an expensive set!”, but no one cares anymore. The children have the most fun: I, once again, looked with admiration at the German parents who don’t panic and don’t try to shield their children from everything, so they cheerfully and playfully smashed all the dishes. And if something didn’t break, they happily pulled it out from the pile and threw it again. This time with all their might, just to be sure! Afterwards all these shards must be cleaned up by the newlyweds. This symbolizes their joint effort and overcoming difficulties. We have a people with a sense of humor, so from time to time they would also hide proper tools and substitute with a pink dustpan with a brush, which hardly removes anything. And instead of smashing everything in one go, they paused, and as soon as the groom and bride had cleaned everything up, they brought in another box and started a new round of smashing the dishes. All in all I really liked it, but for my own wedding I haven't decided yet, because there I’ll have to clean up myself. 👀 #holidays #emigrant_happiness