All Saints and the Joys of Federalism

Written by eklastic

The Hessian lion helping me to double dip for

FOWC with Fandango: Shop and

Ragtag Daily Prompt: Proximity . How come?

Coming Saturday is a public holiday in parts of Germany, the catholic parts (many of the public holidays in Gemany are traditionally based on the church calender), i.e. all shops will be closed. We live in the state of Baden-Württemberg, and so I won’t be able to go shopping here. However, having the advantage of living in close proximity to another state, i.e. the state of Hesse where All Saints is not an official holiday, I can get on my bicycle and drive less than 5km to the west or 10km to the north and and I can shop at my hearts content if I feel the need to do so.

6 thoughts on “All Saints and the Joys of Federalism”

  1. Similar in Switzerland. I live in a catholic Kanton of Solothurn, so when I was still mobile, I would escape on such holidays, usually to the Kanton of Bern which was an hour away by train and all the shops were open as they were not catholic.

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    1. It could work the other way round as well – in many northern and eastern states 31 October is a public holiday (called Reformationstag, in honour of Martin Luther) . Only the poor suckers in Berlin and Hesse have neither of the days free.

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    1. No, I’m not. But … I’m not always good planning my grocery shopping and a hop across the border and I can still get my cartons of milk and eggs.

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