If you spent some time in Germany over the last few weeks, you probably saw children walking the streets with giant cardboard cones.
They might have been wearing backpacks large enough to fit another child inside.
Their parents might've been dressed to the nines.
You might've even been invited to an Einschulungsfeier, which is a party celebrating the first day of Grade 1.
It's back-to-school time in Germany, and like most things that Germans love, it's taken very seriously here.
And like most things that are taken very seriously here, I was very unprepared for it.
My own Canadian experience with starting school was modest. I got some new clothes, a backpack, and a brown bag lunch. Maybe a photo was snapped before the school bus took me to school. No party. No body bag backpack.
In Germany, it has been taken to the next level. There's a big ceremony at the school the weekend before the first day. Parents throw parties. All the kids' parents buy the same type of (expensive) backpack. The kids receive a cardboard cone filled with school supplies, sweets, and whatever else can be crammed into it.
It probably wasn't always this way. The kids are anxious and excited for this next step, so a ceremony at the school is a smart move. Gifting school supplies? Also, a smart move. But the rest can take on a feeling of an overly commercialized affair that's developed its own Enschulungs-Industrial Complex, making the whole thing futile to resist.
In the midst of all this, it's easy to lose sight of the most important thing: a six-year-old growing a little older and entering a new phase in their life.
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| Riding to the first day of school |