Prelude to the Stamp Trail: a German Surprise

Before I begin my series on my stamps, here is a bonus post — look how committed I am, thanks to my good fortune (explained below)! If it’s possible to make a detour even before you begin a trip, this is what it probably looks like.

I was finishing a work call today when G. placed something on my desk. I danced a mental jig when I saw the postcard from K., sent all the way from Germany, featuring a sunflower she has grown. I read and re-read the postcard, then placed it on my desk to refresh my eyes. K. is one of the most thoughtful people I know. She sends me a postcard from every country she visits, and several from her home country. She selects the postcards with great care, writing the most beautiful, personal messages. I have her presents scattered around my room so I can chance upon them at odd moments, these gorgeous reminders of conversations and visits and over 15 years of friendship. This postcard, with a golden, perfect sunflower, has a picture all her own, and that makes it doubly special.

While I re-read the postcard, the stamp naturally caught my eye. It reads “KÄT” with a stylized K, the letters in blue over a colourful backdrop of fireworks, carousels, a giant wheel, and a rollercoaster. It brought back memories of the Oktoberfest (because how often can I throw in such a reference?), with its revelry and unabashed enjoyment of life. If a stamp can conjure gaiety, this one definitely does.

The stamp commemorates 500 years of Annaberger Kät, an annual folk festival held in the Ore Mountains of East Germany. Now I’m quite certain the Kät is as unlike the Oktoberfest as possible, given that it has its roots in religion. Annaberg-Buccholz, once a silver mining settlement, hosts the festival for 14 days every summer, after the Christian holiday of Pentecost. The Kät started as a religious pilgrimage in 1520 after the Annaberg church was dedicated to the Holy Trinity and the cemetery was consecrated with holy earth from Rome the previous year. Following the Protestant Reformation of 1539, the pilgrimage morphed into a celebration of the dead, and over the centuries, into the folk festival it is now. (See Kät website for more.) Who would have imagined that solemn prayers would turn into a riot of rides and food stalls, and then a stamp would find its way across the seas to a woman in India with an idle curiosity, wanting to know more and resolving to return to German lessons on Duolingo?

In all likelihood, the festival didn’t take place this year for obvious reasons. The last update on the festival website is from 2019, and the organisers must have planned to go all out on its 500th anniversary. But hopefully they will come back with renewed vigour next year. I want the earwormy, cloying music of carousel rides to echo through the Ore Mountains again, for who doesn’t enjoy a good festival?

For more on the stamp, see: https://www.philatelicpursuits.com/2020/06/22/new-issues-2020-germany-annaberger-kat/