Travels with Tricia

Category: Holidays and Commemorative Days

  • Germany’s Sommertagszug Tradition: Greeting Spring & Bidding Farewell to Winter

    In parts of Germany three weeks before Easter, it’s customary to celebrate spring’s return with a summer procession, or Sommertagszug. Believed to have pagan origins, the fest celebrates spring’s return and winter’s banishing. Children take to the streets with sticks adorned with colorful, ruffled ribbons, topped with pretzels and eggs. In Heidelberg, they walk along…

  • A blue bucket filled with yellow mimosa flowers sits at a fresh market in Croatia. The flower is associated with International Women's Day celebrations.

    Celebrating International Women’s Day

    Today is International Women’s Day, a commemorative day that’s celebrated in different ways throughout the world. In some countries, the focus is on women’s accomplishments, whereas in others, it is a day to merely show gratitude towards women.

  • A Love Lesson from a Moroccan Wall

    “The love we give away is the only love we keep.” Elbert Hubbard On a salmon-pink back alleyway in Marrakech, Morocco, I discovered a tribute to love’s enduring nature. Its medium was white chalk. The hand that drew it undoubtedly belonged to a child. Its canvas was a rugged wall. That spring, as I explored…

  • Fasching Festivities, German Style

    For the ten years I called Heidelberg, Germany home, I was lucky to have a bird’s-eye view when Fasching festivities took the university town by storm, as I’m sure they did today.

  • A Vietnamese New Year’s Reminiscence

    When I unpacked the paper ox ornament last week, it reminded me why I love travel: serendipitous happenings, cultural immersion, and the opportunity to mingle with “citizen diplomats.” With today being the Lunar New Year (called Tết in Vietnamese), it seems fitting to reminisce on a special memory that I made while visiting Hanoi, Vietnam back in 2009.

  • A pair of donkeys, standing in a stable in Oberammergau, Germany, look directly at the camera.

    A Nibbling Donkey in Oberammergau, Germany

    The sign declared, Bitte Esel nicht füttern. And since I was in Germany, a land famously known for its rules, I was even more sure to obey. Even though visitors to the Christmas Market in Oberammergau, Germany were asked not to feed the photogenic donkeys (to keep the live Christmas props from developing upset stomachs), rubbing of…