Every year, on the last monday before the summer vacations, the school in konigsberg holds a children’s party where children celebrate and play games. The so-called cat’s head festival has a rich tradition.
In the afternoon, all the children gathered with their parents and relatives on the bleichdamm at the city hall. There, the first-class drivers gave a demonstration in keeping with the motto of the event, "cat’s head – past and present", how a gymnastics lesson used to work. Beforehand, the school’s girls, under the direction of teacher doris roth, had opened the pre-drive part with a polonaise. A band dance was performed by the children of the second grade, followed by a modern dance performance by the third grades to a piece by justin timberlake. Very nice to see was a bicycle polonaise of fourth-graders with colorfully decorated tricycles.
Previously, the pair of catheads had been picked up at the city’s town hall on the market square. This pair of cat’s heads is the attraction of the festival, which has been celebrated in konigsberg in july for more than 130 years. The couple is represented by two fourth-graders. It is kept a secret who is under the cat’s head and his accompanying wife in french farmer’s costume.
When the couple, accompanied by flag bearers and the school administration, enters the marketplace, they are buried by the children of the school, who are there with colorful flags and little sticks to which colored paper strips are attached, with funny rhyming verses: "es leb’ der herr von katzenkopf mit seiner frau, die hat kein’ zopf! Vivat, high! Long live the lord of ummerstadt with his wife who is hungry! Vivat, high! Es leb’ der herr von scheuerfeld mit seiner frau, die hat kein’ geld! Vivat, high!" The marketplace was buzzing on monday.
Afterwards, the couple led the merry band of children through the old town out to the square, where everyone spent a fun afternoon.
Who is under the masks?
The festival ended with a march to the marketplace. There the secret of the cat’s head pair is aired. Under the masks this year were alina rose and julian scheller.
The farewell speech of pupils leaving the konigsberg elementary school is obligatory. This time emil hemetsberger, lia beck and robin thieler looked back on the high points of their school days at regiomontanus elementary school and thanked their teachers and all the people connected with the school.
With the songs "kein schoner land" the children’s festival ended with the german national anthem. The festival goes to gregorius I. (around 540 to 604), who excelled as a promoter of schools and thus became the patron saint of the youth. The festival was held for the first time on gregory’s day, the 12th of december. March 1550, has been celebrated in coburg. At some point it was moved from march to the last week before the rough vacations.
The gregorius festival has not existed in coburg since 1972. Konigsberg, however, has preserved this tradition to the present day and is already looking forward to the cat’s head festival in 2020.