Father's German Birthday Tradition

by Joey
(Virginia)

Every year on my father's birthday since as far back as I can remember, my mom would wake us up early in the morning, sometimes before the sun and have us light the candles on my father's birthday cake.

One candle for each extraordinary year my father had lived, and one extra for good luck. We would then leave the cake on the table and wait with anticipation for my father to awake to see our masterpiece.

The candles were left to burn as long as they could, which was usually all afternoon. Then we did something that I wasn't really made to understand until much later in life. Each one of us would get a broom and we would go out onto the porch where my mother would have left some extra rubbish in order to ensure a good job, and then we would sweep the porch clean and wish my father a happy birthday, and an amazing next year.

Since this was something that we had always just done, I had never really thought to ask why it was that we swept the porch. It wasn't until the year that my father passed away, that my mother told me the story.

When my father was a young man in Germany, it was the eve of his best friend's 30th birthday. He, my father and several of their friends had gathered in the center of town at the government hall to carry out a long-lived tradition: it says that all single men on the eve of their 30th birthday must sweep the steps of the city hall to show that they are available, and can keep a clean house.

My father and his friends were there to cheer him on, and to have a little fun throwing trash onto the steps, in order to ensure that his cleaning abilities were in fact up to par.

As these festivities were going on, my father also jumped onto the steps and began to sweep, even though he was only 26 at the time, he said it was for extra luck to help him find his love before it was too late.

That very night, my mother and a group of her friends were strolling through the same area. They witnessed the whole show that my father and his friends put on. My mother told me that when my father looked up and saw her for the very first time, he knew that he was the luckiest man alive. He attributed it to sweeping the steps that night in the center of town!

So, every year from that one on, as a reminder of how they met and fell in love, my mother and father would play a little game of 'sweep the porch' that brought smiles to their faces and joy to their hearts.

All those years, and I had had no idea why we swept the porch clean on my father’s birthday. Now it all made sense, and it is a tradition that I will pass on to my children from year to year so they can honor and celebrate the life and love of a great man, their grandfather.