Münster Local Customs

3 times a year (Spring, Summer and Autumn), Muensterraners celebrate "Send": fun fairs at the Palace Square, with attractions, street vendors (imbiss), fireworks (friday)... and great fun.

Calendar for 2.008:
Fruhjahr send: 3 to 7 April 2008
Sommersend: 26 to 30 June 2008
Herbstsend: 23 to 27 October 2008

Check details at:(in German)
www.muenster.de/stadt/send.html

For English speakers, try translating the page with online services like Google, Altavista or alike.

Another alternative: http://www.thisisyork.co.uk/york/fact_file/muenster.html
*Update: unfortunately, it seems this page no longer exists. I only found this, which mentions the twinnig of the 2 cities: http://www.york.gov.uk/visiting/Town_twinning/.
But for english-speaking, I found an external page with history about the city and GREAT photos. I'll place the link on the Muenster overview page.

The "Kiepenkerl", a nice witty fellow clad in a blue skirt typical for the Münster region. In former times, they were smalltown tradesmen, wandering from town to town and selling goods from their backpack (called "Kiepe").

Like many other places in Germany, Muenster has also a "Weihnachtsmarkt".

Little wooden houses with candles, crafts, and of course, food and "Gluhwein" (hot wine with cinammon and other spice) are spread among the different streets in the heart of the town, around Town Hall, Lamberti church, Spiekerhof or Aegidiimarkt.

Specially on saturdays, it is full with visitors, many of them from the nearby Netherlands.

Dates 2.004:
22.11.04 - 23.12.04
10 a.m. - 8 p.m. (sundays from 11 a.m.)

Like in many German towns, from the first "Advent"-weekend the cities are full of Christmas-spirit and on several places "Weihnachtsmärkte" give a great atmosphere. In Münster these markets are often spread along the crescent-street and offer various themes (lights, candles, food/drink, decorations etc.). Nice is that here the markets are not so massive as in some others German cities, but pictoresk and cosy small. From The Netherlands, busloads of Dutch are brought each year, to either joy and annoyance of our East-neighbors.