Christmas and New Year - Part II

So, onto Christmas Eve...

Since it was a Saturday, most of the shops began closing around 1pm in the afternoon. So we did a few last minute things in the morning and then headed back home for the afternoon. But around 2ish, we started to get ancy and decided to go for a walk. As we got near the Burg (or castle), we heard what sounded like a small parade, there were drums and flags in the distance. So we followed the rest of the crowd and headed into the castle. When we arrived at the main part of the castle,, the parade had stopped. There were a few canons set up in the courtyard and a small tent selling?? Yup, Gluhwein and warm mead. My kind of outing. Apparently, it's a Burghausen tradition to fire off the medieval canons on Christmas Eve. So we all stood around drinking Gluhwein as the medieval folks proceeded to toss flags (James thinks this is the origin of the cheerleader) and set off guns and canons. Ronan quite enjoyed it and everyone there was in a wonderful festive mood. Nothing like firing off a canon fire and drinking hot Gluhwein to get in the Christmas spirit!