Oktoberfesting

It's getting to be that time of year again: autumn, or as I like to call it, the Month of Gratuitous Oktoberfesting. It seems like, as soon as October starts, everything here starts to have Oktoberfest themed celebrations, which, if nothing else, does accurately reflect the high German population in the Upper Midwest. This is all well and good, provided said Oktoberfests actually understand what Oktoberfest is outside of it being German.

By this, I mean that I get annoyed when a place (read: the dining hall) puts on an Oktoberfest with the only Oktoberfesty aspect of it being that there are brats. If you don't give me beer, I do not accept your validity as an Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest is a Bavarian beer festival, that happens to include lots of traditional Bavarian foods such as bratwurst and schnitzel because you can't survive on beer alone for two plus weeks. (Actually, given the high caloric content of beer, you might be able to, but even if you could, you probably shouldn't.)

I know that some of you, imaginary readers, are currently shaking your non-real heads are telling me that no, it is a celebration of German culture, so I should stop complaining about it being accurately portrayed in America. But to that I say, you are right, it is a celebration of German culture, but a full fifty percent of German culture, particularly in Bavaria revolves around beer (the other half consists of discipline and not talking about anything that happened between 1933 and 1945).

And yes, I know that I'm not an expert on German culture because I'm not German, but I did survive four years of [Frau Crazy]'s German class, so that has to count for something.

I generally don't think things need to be authentic to their origins, as I don't care that you're Oktoberfest celebration is a weekend in mid to late October rather than 16 to 18 days at the end of September through the first weekend in October. That doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is that you at least try to understand what it is that you are emulating and stay true to  the concept. Oktoberfest is a beer festival. If you're not going to have beer, call it something else. This is all.