Continental Sunday

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Cincinnati's early inhabitants were primarily American-born, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants. This started to change with initial waves of German and Irish immigration in the 1830s. Throughout the following decades, an increasing percentage of Cincinnati 's population would come from foreign lands, most notably Germanic states. This increased the city's Catholic congregations and lead to a number of German congregations of different denominations. With the notable exception of the Methodists, German churches did not consider alcohol consumption sinful. German Catholic, German Protestant, and German Baptist congregations disagreed about some of the finer points of Christian theology, but they all agreed on the welcome role of beer after church.

This lead to conflict between the city's more established, ethnically Anglo families and the newer immigrants -- particularly the Germans in Over-the-Rhine. Anglo Protestants tended to consider drinking on Sundays inappropriate – even sinful. It was also illegal. The City of Cincinnati 's original ordinances, passed in 1828, and the Ohio Constitution, adopted in 1831, both prohibited alcohol sales on Sundays. From the beginning, Cincinnatians simply chose to ignore these laws. In fact, by the mid-1800s, Sunday was usually the wettest day of the week.

Drinking on Sunday was a little different from the other days of the week. Saloons were male-dominated institutions. At times, it was illegal to bring women into saloons in Cincinnati; and even when the law didn't dictate it, it was customary to limit female access to saloons to “sitting rooms.” Sometimes these back or side entrances were respectably co-ed, areas where women were chivalrously spared the full gamut of crude behavior in the rest of the saloon. But in many cases, they were an area for prostitutes. Saloons were where men conducted business, had lunch during the work day, and spent evenings with friends. These establishments did undeniably brisk business on Sundays, but much of the beer consumed on Sundays was drank in more family-friendly environments. Some churches had rathskellers. Over-the-Rhine had respectable, family-friendly beer gardens. Parades marched through the streets to festivals in Washington and other city parks. To Cincinnati 's German-Americans, beer was simply part of the time spent with family and friends after Sunday services. In contrast to the Sunday abstinence encouraged by Anglo culture, the German-American approach to Sabbath revelry was known as the “Continental Sunday.”

Sunday of Bockfest is a celebration of both the past and present of Continental Sunday. A procession leaves from the still functioning rathskeller at Old Saint Mary's church (the city's oldest church, and the last that still conducts German mass) and proceeds to Bockfest Hall. At the Hall, Sunday is full of traditional German dancing, variety shows, and music, along with tours, authors, steins, and breweriana. Continental Sunday at Bockfest Hall also includes a German buffet and $1 off beer to everyone in tracht (wearing traditional German dress).

11:00AM - German Mass at Old Saint Mary's Catholic Church (123 East 13th Street), followed by a beer or two in the Rathskellar
Hop on the FREE Shuttle to Bockfest Hall
1:30P-2:30P - Polka Dots
2:30P-3:00P - Enzian Tanzgruppe
3:00P-3:30P - Germania Jagdhorn Group
3:30P-4:30P - Polka Dots
4:30P-5:00P - Donauschwaben Schuhplattlers
5:00P-7:00P - Vereins Musikanten

Learn more about the German-American Citizens League of Greater Cincinnati and its member societies on their Website.

A history of historic German Over-the-Rhine can be found in “Over-the-Rhine: When Beer Was King,” by Michael D. Morgan.

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