Oktoberfest holds a special place in my heart. I’ve never put together an Oktoberfest bracelet before, but when I saw the Ohm Assaulted Pretzel bead, I figured that this year was as good a time as any! I absolutely love the warm, soft pretzels that are a staple at all the Oktoberfest events.
Oktoberfest here occurs a bit later than in Munich. It starts the Thursday before Thansgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving ;)) and runs until about the Saturday after Thanksgiving, give or take a day or two on either end. Which means we’re in the middle of it now! I had foolishly hoped that my bead order would arrive last week so I could wear this combo out for the Oktoberfest events this past weekend, but it wasn’t to be. Totally my fault. Assaulted Pretzel was on my planned list for October, and so I was sticking to my October 1st ordering date. That didn’t really leave much time for it to pass through customs and make it to me. Not to be deterred, there are still a few days of Oktoberfest left so I’m making the most of it now that I have it!
Being vegetarian, I don’t partake in the traditional schnitzel or sausage, but the other savory aspect of Oktoberfest that needed to be captured in my bracelet is the beer. I would have loved the Bar Brawl bead, but since a certain other bead jumped onto my wish list (see below), I had to skip Bar Brawl for the moment and use existing ambers. The fest halls here tend to serve a paler ale, but since that isn’t really to my taste I cheated a bit and went with darker hues. ;)
I know that green isn’t the official colour of Bavaria, but for some reason my mind links it to Oktoberfest. I suspect it has something to do with Onkel Hans, our mascot for Oktoberfest, and his lederhosen! And likely also because of the alpine hats that are typically seen at the fest halls, of which green is one of the more popular colours. Either way, green and white just felt appropriate. And the screaming Baby is a nod to the various tunes belted out by (inebriated) participants at the fest halls!
While the fest halls are certainly a draw, the Oktoberfest/Thanksgiving Day parade is also a highlight for us. The floats are fun, but it’s the dancers from the German clubs that set it apart from any other parade. I admit, my favourite dance club are the ones that use the whips :D I don’t have a bead to celebrate the dancers (or whips), but Sugar Sleigh Ride is filling in for the floats. Yup, Sugar Sleigh Ride is the bead that threw my whole planned list into disarray. When I first saw it I thought it was an amazing concept. But I didn’t think it would rearrange my want list. I actually didn’t think it would even make it onto my list (GASP!) since I wasn’t sure how I would use it.
Wow, was I wrong!
Over the course of a few hours, I went from admiring their creative talents from afar to trying to figure out how to get Sugar Sleigh Ride into my bead box as soon as it launched. I thought about making it one of my “spontaneous” beads for October, but with the release still a week away at that point, it was a little hard to convince myself that qualified as spontaneous! I was a little worried that it would live up to its limited edition moniker, so I finally settled on rearranging my planned list to bump it to the top. I’m glad that I did, though, since it sold out quickly! Although it wasn’t spontaneous, it was easy to convince myself to put it at the top of my planned list. It covers Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Christmas all in one, so it can grace my bracelets for three months. And that fits my “use in more than one combination” rule.
The great thing about Oktoberfest is that it also holds a special place in the hearts of our kids. They talk about “the Oktoberfestival” for months ahead of the actual event. I guess pretzels and parades have no age limit. Beer … well, we wouldn’t want to share anyway.