Crowns and Tiaras - How traditions live on

Photo by amypointer (Pixbay)

For starters, I swear this is not fan fiction of any kind. If anything, this is a recollection of my experience of a night. But before I get to that, I probably have some explaining to do otherwise this article may sound stuck up.

In Germany, a folksfest called Schützenfest (which literally translates into marksmen´s festival) is taking place all summer all over Germany. For me, Schützenfest has always been more of a get-together festival for everyone to have a nice drink and play a few carnival games.

However as it turns out, Schützenfest is more a celebration of the best marksman amongst the men taking part. Every year a new King is crowned if he should shoot down the wooden bird (mostly eagle) but sometimes it can also be a target.

The length of each Schützenfest varies from town to town since in a small town the festivities would only last three days while bigger cities have festivities spanning over several days (mostly five).

One should never fear since no matter which Schützenfest one chooses to visit, the days will be filled with music, parades and a lot of beer. Bigger Schützenfest have more rides and carnival games than smaller ones but every Schützenfest would have food, refreshments and fun.

The parade normally includes a marching band and a lot of marksmen. Depending on the location the length of the march could vary vastly between a few kilometres to 12 km (the longest parade in the world, Hanover Schützenfest).

However, today I do not intend to write about the Schützenfest and the Schützenkönig since I probably would save that for another time. Today I intended to write about the Zugkönig (which translates into Parade King).

Since I don’t quite want to break down the Schützenfest hierarchy today, I will simply say the Schützenfest Parades are made up of multiple clubs who march together on Schützenfest. Each club has their own king who is known as the Zugkönig.

The Zugkönig should not be confused with the Schützenkönig because the Schützenkönig is the king of the whole Schützenfest while the Zugkönig is the king of the club which collectively makes up the Schützenfest.

A quick side note is that the Schützenkönig is a member of a club and is the “best” marksman of all the men of each club. However, I do not intend to get into details today so I am just going to leave it at that before, I have to take away things I intended to write in another article.

The knights of the Zugkönig are chosen by their marksmen skills. Since they are shooting a wooden eagle, the eagle is split into five which decides the four knights and one king. There are two wings, the head, the tail and the body. The one who takes down the eagle´s body is the king.

The Zugkönig just like the Schützenkönig is the “best” marksman in the club so I get why there could be confusion between those two. However, since the Zugkönig is not tied to traditions as much as the Schützenkönig, the Zugkönig could technically also be chosen by a go-kart race.

Once you became the Zugkönig, you are also bestowed upon some extra responsibilities on Schützenfest and you are responsible for your own coronation, and the gifts for your knights, etc… If you should become Zugkönig, you can´t become Zugkönig for the following two to three years so the others have a shot at being Parade King as well.

Since I am not all too familiar with the details and the traditions of the club and Schützenfest, I will stop writing about it from here on out since you probably might be wondering why I am writing about a Zugkönig when I could write about Schützenfest as a whole in more detail (the article will probably happen in the future).

Well very much to my surprise and probably dismay at that time, my boyfriend was lucky enough to become the Zugkönig of his club this year which means he is very involved in the whole coronation and being King thing this year.

And as they all say, every King has a Queen, this is the main reason I am writing about this today since the King´s Queen is always the King´s girlfriend or the King´s wife. So this meant that I was this year´s queen.

A few weeks into our relationship my boyfriend confessed that he is King this year which is why he rather quickly and desperately needed to find a queen. But he also wanted a relationship so I guess his intentions when we started dating were not too duty focused.

When I first met his family, they also grinningly asked if I know the luck which was bestowed upon me. I guess for them the whole king and queen thing was very important to them and they are taking the whole thing very seriously which meant I should take it seriously too and I did.

Since I was the queen, I had little to no responsibility besides standing next to the king which was a relief but part of me was offended since it was sort of sexist. I mean I get that the whole thing is tradition but I am not the person who would sit still and look pretty just because a man said so.

Anyhow, I tried to help my boyfriend in any way possible. For instance, he needed a present for his knights and since he didn’t want anything boring and something that has been done before, we took some time to think of a special never seen before gift.

Since I found it funny that the knights in medieval times have daggers, we collectively decided to get the knights decorative daggers. And for the boxes I have designed the cards with my boyfriend´s name and the year so the boxes are not too bland and the knights know who the present is from.

Besides that, we picked out the song we are going to dance to together. We went through many different songs together before we found a song which now is our song since it is just a beautiful song we could dance to and a song with meaning for both of us.

And that is pretty much it. I didn’t have to get a new dress since I already had a prom dress which I never got to use. Fun fact, the king pays for nearly everything which meant that he would have needed to buy me a new dress which he luckily didn’t have to.

A day prior to his coronation, the men of the club needed to set up the whole coronation and the day following the coronation, they also need to take it down. So I had nothing to do besides being there for the somewhat nervous king.

On the day of the coronation, we got up as normal and the day proceeded as normal until we needed to get ready. I had to get dressed and do my hair since at the last minute I decided that letting my hair down was not as good as I first thought.

Before we know it some guests arrived at my boyfriend´s house including his grandmother who was the queen herself some time ago and my father who wanted to see a coronation. Then his friend/DJ of the evening arrived and we had a drink on the porch together.

After a drink or two, we needed to go since the coronation was taking place in their regular restaurant/bar. His grandparents picked us up while his family took the car to the coronation. And as always we were there too early but since there are last-minute details to discuss we were right on time.

While the guest got seated in the small hall, my boyfriend and I waited outside along with the four knights and their court ladies (who again were their girlfriends or wives) and the former majesties (the king and queen of last year).

When the time was right we walked into the hall with the former majesties, current majesties (us), and the four knights in a specific order which I don´t quite know. I mean the knight of the head came first, then the wings and then the tail. But I wasn´t sure if it was the right or left wing first.

Anyways once we all got seated the ceremony began. Since on the day the king was chosen there were two other wooden birds which were brought down, the marksmen and women were awarded first with a small trophy.

Since there weren´t enough women at the time who shot at the wooden bird, I got the last trophy because I was the queen. For some reason, I started blushing and it became so apparent when my boyfriend asked if everything was alright.

That is when I came to realize the queen as a symbol might have nothing to do and didn’t quite do as much to become queen besides being the partner of the king. But the queen is still celebrated along with the king because a king is nothing without a queen.

Then there was a decrowning of the former majesties and the crowning of the current majesties. And then there was the knighting ceremony of the knights and followed up by the gift presentation. The whole official part of the coronation ended with a slow dance with all the majesties new and old and the four knights.

After the whole official part, the guest could congratulate us on a wonderful year as a couple. Each guest went up to us, shook our hands, hugged us and gave us small gifts. We received some cards and I received flowers.

The whole coronation and the whole concept of the Zugkönig seemed really traditional which all its knighting, decrowning and crowning. I don´t want to say medieval but I can see some parallels. Nonetheless, I can say the whole coronation ceremony was interesting, to say the least.

After the whole official part of the celebrations the partying began. But before the party came the food and I was starving. The last time I ate something that day was in the morning and it has been a few hours since my last meal.

To be honest, I was annoyed that the food came after the official part since I was hungry. Nevertheless, I could understand why the food came after the ceremony because of the logistical nightmare food prep would have been and the plates make for very unpleasant table decorations.

When the partying began, I was about ready to leave since partying is not mine since partying in their sense was drinking and chatting. Since I am not the biggest fan of alcoholic drinks and not the most social person, I didn´t want to stay long.

However, the fact remains that I was “hosting” with my boyfriend and the hosts leave last. So that is just my luck. This meant a lot of socializing that evening which I was not looking forward to back then and still didn’t quite enjoy now looking back.

Nevertheless, it was a celebration and alcohol was flowing that night so I guess a few shots did make the evening more enjoyable. And the night went by in a blur not because I drank too much but simply because one conversation melts into the next.

Jokes aside, the evening was quite nice since I didn’t dwell on it as much as I thought I would. Don’t get me wrong, there were a few instances where I was bored out of my mind but it was not as frequently as I thought I would be.

Now a few days have passed and we are still talking about the coronation in a positive light which meant that the coronation couldn’t have been that bad. Besides I got some flowers I could dry and put in a vase so I got nothing to complain about besides that I don´t have a vase.

In conclusion, do I understand the whole concept of Zugkönig after that evening? No, probably not. Will I understand the concept of Zugkönig after the removal of the tiara next year? No, probably not. But did I have fun? To a certain extent, for sure.