Sometimes I'm very confused by 'traditions' of my country.
While flipping through TV channels I saw that on one channel they're currently sending a "Schützenfest".
I guess I'll need to do a little explaining here. Maybe the only way to get a gun permit here if you don't need it for hunting, or very rarely for your job, is being a member of a "Schützenverein", literally "marksman club". Most, but not all of them, are very traditional clubs, part of the activities in these clubs is taking part in these "Schützenfesten". A "Schützenfest", "marksman festival", is an annual event in these clubs, where the members are marching through town in uniform, accompanied by marching bands. Another part of these events is deciding who the next "Schützenkönig" will be.
All this seems so incredibly anachronistic to me. These images could easily be from 1910. These organisations are mostly patriarchal, many of the more traditional clubs don't allow women to take part in this. Pride of national traditions, especially if they are military, is generally something many Germans dislike. And these people take that so seriously…