The Knights re-live medieval Germany….

When it comes to festivals, to me it seems like a cliché to brand Germany with the October fest besides extolling the incalculable types of native beer the country's various regions produce. However, held in the first week of September, one particular festival relived a superb forgotten era. On the sunny morning of 3 September we set out from a village in Rheinstetten to experience the enactment of that era. Driving up north towards Hessen, in about 20 minutes one of the most geologically varied upland regions of the south was fast opening up with alternating fertile highlands, green meadows, lakes, and marshes. Kissing the river Neckar, the steep hills of the Odenwald forest range began to appear. The lush hilly forests are often dotted with ruins of medieval castles or Schlosses - If this was a country of well preserved forested mountains, it was also a country of countless castle, fortress and palaces. Some private and some public; some closed while some opened to the public. Some liveable while some derelict; and the ones which proudly fly their coat of arms flag, means the family forerunners or current owners are currently residing at the castle.
Being in them is like stepping back in time amid a surrounding of living myths - experiencing a divided continent ruled by kings, dukes and princes. Though parking the car near some of these historic ruins may appear challenging at times, we however, managed to stop by one of these medieval relics.
Strange isn't it, to begin a festival experience by visiting a castle first? Well, to this writer, castles and Knights go together and inseparable from to another. Our today's castle stands high above the romantic Neckar valley, perched on a mountain ridge. Today it's known as Schlosshotel Hirschhorn - partially converted into a hotel, its name means Deer (Hirsch) antler (Horn).  The deer being abundant in its woods in the medieval times, the historic town is known as Hirschhorn. The deer and antler is also displayed in the vanished nobility's coat of arms.
 Like many other castles, it's nestled at the borders of the Old Town on the slope, protected by the mighty castle walls and the hills of the Odenwald. Follow me and as you begin to ramble uphill you'll come across a gothic entrance to a 13th century church. It was first used by the rulers of Hirschhorn. Look straight above the gateway's fantastic bas-reliefs of the coat of arms. The irony here is, the church was of catholic faith for well over 200 years before it became protestant and finally became off-limits to public in the early 19th century. Only back in the late 90's it was renovated before being opened to the public.  Around the church there is a cemetery with tomb stones of different eras, from centuries old to recent ones.
Well, it sounded like worshipping the god can also become arduous if it's manipulated by divided groups or schools of thought. We, however, walked further up to go to the castle through the steep path. It now has been completely renovated to a beautiful hotel offering 360 degree spectacular views on the river and the valley lay below.
When it comes to aerial views from on top, this writer must admit the entire southern Germany - stretching from Baden-Wurttemberg to far eastern corners of Bavaria has one feature in common: look any direction along the horizons, the landscapes are carefully used and preserved; complimented by a massive skyline extending patches of hills, forests, rivers, plains and farmlands, small towns and roads scattering over a mesmeric landscape.
 A ubiquitous point from all aerial views in here is: systematic balanced use of land area. Economically, Southern Germany is the strongest part of Germany, with Baden-W�rttemberg and Bavaria being the powerhouses of manufacturing, especially in the automobile and machinery industry. That having said, you won't get to view huge tall chimneys and high-tech factories mushrooming just in anywhere except specified industrial areas. Corresponding to environment, land and nature conservation the industry has developed following strict rules. Perhaps that's why the historical towns and their immediate adjoining areas in here remain so unexploited and pristine; conforming to their historical significance.
However, having parked our car in a jam-packed meadow along the river Neckar we got out. A five minute walk along the main road led us to a left turn ending at the face of a barred gate. A festival inside was going in full swing, marking 40 years since it was first observed called, the Ritterfest otherwise, the Knight's festival. To this writer, half the charm of traditional German festivals is missed without the spine-tingling heroic tales of the medieval Knights.   
Clad in typical traditional attire, the ticket inspector collected the fee while stamping our palms with the festival seal. Sensing me a foreigner, he welcomed by waving a customary hand gesture, saying - Willkommen zum Fest der Ritter (Welcome to the festival of Knights). We entered, within a blink of an eye medieval Germany sprang out straight from the history books.
Pin pointedly it was at the centre of Hirschhorn, an old town located at a horseshoe bends overlooking the Neckar River, I wasn't sure what to expect. It wasn't only a sheer display of a shining long-gone epoch, but more, a glimpse in one of Europe's most celebrated festivals receiving huge number of crowds from all across the continent.    
At details, the Knights' festival in Germany is observed throughout the entire southern region and Hirschorn had organized its regional fest in relation to its own customs. At a much bigger scale - The Kaltenberg Knights' Tournament, also the world's largest Knights' festival is held in July every year. Located about an hour drive west of Munich, the action-packed spectacle comes with its individual and distinctive Knightly traditions. Breathtaking stunts, acrobats, horses and riders create their typical show stoppers of dueling knights.Turning its back on the High-tech world, the Germans defiantly steps back in time displaying their superb heritage.
Nevertheless, the festival ground was turned into a bustling old artisan village.  A binge of folk artists were demonstrating middle-age folk arts over the shoulders  - from printing, bow making, knife grinding, paper making, historical dying, broom and brush making to evolution of reading glasses to live shows of enactments of legendary battle scenes . Merchants of all walks of the old world gathered in one place, hawking their wares while donning respective outfits fitting to local medieval trades. On the right corner from the centre roundabout the renowned knight group Fictum enacted some of the medieval battle scenes; their metal armours clashed and glittered under the summer sun. They repeatedly cheered up the crowds. The brave warriors from the Czech Republic admirably took the centre stage.   Followed them were the jugglers, Hubertus zu Putlitz, Hirschhorner group kampfh�s , they explained rules and tales of fencing. Commencing with a verbal note on every celebrated battle, they began and stopped with Prussian precision. After every performance the Knights' acknowledged the crowds. To sum up the performance in a single sentence, The Knight's era was being relived to the hilt.
The unique co-ordination of so many people to bring about one festival so 'comprehensively medieval' was never experienced before. This all-inclusiveness of a period is greatly missed in our local festivals as today they are mostly observed behind the veneers of book fairs, art exhibitions, local cuisine festivals, live musical shows or mina bazaars while the key attraction of the Ritterfest is: it thoroughly covers medieval Germany's life, culture, society, professions, to politics, food, literature and sports, and not merely restricted within the limits of Knightly battle bravado.
Visitors seemed to get indulged in wreaths of grain and flowers, medieval costumes, bags, towels, precious stones, soaps, body oils and fragrances, to tin figures, flags, swords, axes, armours and helmets to customised products. Curiously, it wasn't actually their consumer trend, but their unending passion to participate, thus turning a festival into successful re-living of the past besides conserving it in its original form. Having said that, we too have sparkling Baishakhi festivals but this traveller is yet to find them 'all-encompassing'. Take, for instance, when the spinning connoisseur Kerstin Gafiuk was demonstrating the different steps of wool, flax, silk and cotton processing by using exact medieval techniques and actual raw materials still available inside his colourfully decorated tent, this writer only wished if some authority could do the exact with the weaving techniques of our forgotten glory Muslin.
Introduced barely a decade ago, The Craft Guild Alt Brettheim fast became as an essential part of the knight fest. It plays a key role on reviving lost folk arts. Their craftsmen this time narrated the art of traditional chair weaving. It was not the conventional hand techniques that had caught my attention, but a group discussion being held at its backdrop, where an organiser was explaining the landmark 18th century artisan and artisans' movement in Germany.  
To get the festival's commercial aspects straight, revenue from participation and attendance, selling of traditional craftworks is surely a key element of any heritage festival, but should that be the main focus of organisers?
The point, however, many of our festivals have fast become too commercialised these days. The unending zeal for 'being the Bengali for a day' is surely evident; sales volume of festival handicrafts have rocketed ; number of participants have increased by the thousands , but somehow it feels like - the tradition has not been 'entirely lived through '.
Not only the Ritter, fascinatingly, there are more holidays and festivals in Germany every year than any other European country (The French may be ahead) even more is , there are so many of them ,  in order to fit to your journey here, you can now get a month by month list of them on-line . So, when you plan to visit, you know why the regions are closed on this or that date or when and where the next festival will take place.
Being on a time-machine travel to medieval times, this writer reflected back. To him, it seemed like - it's all about a curious bunch of zealots, too committed in relieving the past, too perfectly. I declared it unhesitatingly, my German friends burst out laughing as we speeded towards another heritage city barely 25 kilometres west of Hirschorn - Heidelberg : the intellectual capital of Germany , but that story is for another time....till then ... Auf Wiedersehen.