Lightning a candle in the church and other Mannheim, Germany Local Custom Tips

Not just a local custom for Mannheim, but for all catholic churches.There are nooks in the churches, dedicated to saints or to Mary. In front of their paintings there is a table with candles, at least one of which is usually burning. You pay a small amount, 50 cents or so and you light your own candle and say a prayer. Catholic people say the prayer to the specific saint. Since I'm not catholic, I don't know which saint is responsible for what, so I just pray. It's a very nice custom, something that children especially like to do.
The picture was taken inside the market church. Here the table looks like a dining table in someone's home. The same thing in the Jesuit church, for example, is much more elaborate.

Leave a Comment

In early 19th century Mannheim was a pretty dirty place. So the city authorities decided to change this and introduced a new law: From then on it was forbidden to simply throw the dirt
out into the streets. Anybody who did it had to pay a fine. Not everybody was happy with this new law and a baker wanted to voice his protest. He created a new cake, out of nuts, sugar and spices, covered it with dark chocolade and put it out on the street for display. The name of this cake was "Mannemer Dreck" - the Dirt of Mannheim.
This way he could put out "dirt" into the streets of Mannheim, and no one could say anything against it.
Mannemer Dreck is still a local specialty, a sort of mixture between gingerbread and small cake. Every bakery has their own special recipe.

Leave a Comment

In Luisenpark there is a tree which looks a bit like an early Christmas tree or a late Easter tree. Very colourful, but when you have a closer look you can see that there are lots of pacifiers hanging on it. When small children ( or their parents) are ready to give up on their pacifiers, they can go to the tree and hang it up there.
I don't know how many want to come back later and take it off again, though.

The tree is next to the entrance of the boat rides in Luisenpark.

Leave a Comment