Local Culture Report #1
This past weekend was a significant one in the region, because of one particular event. One that both confuses and astounds outsiders, but at same time is a wonderful introduction into local Mennonite culture.

On Saturday, I was up at 3am to get to my 3:30am donut rolling shift. So I pulled into the New Hamburg fairgrounds at 3:40am driving by over 30 RV's camped there for the night. I rolled dough and cut donuts for 2 hours, then sat in my car for an hour reading a book. Around 6:00, I went in to see how the next shift of donut rollers were doing, and then I went to investigate the quilts that were about to auctioned off. I read a little more, and at 7, I went to visit some friends (including a slew of teenagers who had all gotten up before 6am on a Saturday) who were preparing strawberry pies.

The last Saturday in May is the Ontario Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) relief sale. Where from 7-1 you are sure to find people standing in line to buy apple fritters, donuts, and an assortment of meats on a bun. All the workers are volunteers, and all funds raised go to MCC's international development and relief work. Quilts are sold at auction, including the one I helped make, with many of the 200 quilts, also all made by volunteers, selling for over $1,000. Crafts and plants are also sold, as well as various information sources of MCC's work in various countries of the world.

It's a collection of local Mennonites who come for the food and opportunity to meet friends, and hippies who like the idea of what's going on. New Hamburg residents probably don't like it, because traffic is terrible and people park all over the place, legally and otherwise. For that morning/afternoon, the town's population triples. With my various Mennonite connections, (ie. Conrad Grebel College, Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, Breslau Mennonite Church, Tavistock Mennonite Church, and my whole Aylmer community), I can't walk five minutes without greeting somebody. I brought my sister there (I went to pick her up around 9:30), and she commented that she was suspicious that I only brought her there to show her how popular I was.

It's not all glory though. After partaking in various food tents, (I ate 3 donuts, 1 apple fritter, 1 pork on a bun, 2 pupusas, 1 slice of strawberry pie, 2 fleish peroshki (meat buns), and 1 piece of watermelon with 1 piece of roll-kuchen (like a bigger, softer, unsalted cracker) and I washed it all down with 2.5 litres of apple cider), I got home and did not feel well at all. I won't go into the gory details of how it hit me, but it wasn't nice.

It's a fun day, and to understand it, you kind have to live it. If you can understand it, you can probably understand the extended Mennonite culture, and vice versa.

   [ posted by William @ 11:12 AM ]