Reformation, Halloween or Chongyang? Why not all at once!

Drizzle, mist and a temperature that feels like zero degrees? Perfect weather for a mountain hike! On Saturday, 31 October, three different worlds came together on a single day: whilst Saxony was celebrating Reformation Day and the Halloween tradition, which has its roots in Celtic culture, our outing was entirely dedicated to the Chinese Chongyang Festival.

The custom of this ‘Double Nine Festival’ dictates that one must climb high mountains to take in the view, ward off evil spirits (which fits in well with Halloween, too!) and ensure good health. So we met at the station in the morning: 15 Chinese students from the dual degree programme in Electrical Engineering, five international students from the Cosmopolitan Club and three colleagues from the IKKS (Maria Rau, Anja Pleul and Babett Nimschowski), together with Prof. Dr René Pleul. 

From Erdmannsdorf station, we set off on a leisurely but steady 1.5-hour walk uphill through the damp autumn woodland. Along the way, the lively mix of German and English sparked some great conversations, giving us the chance to get to know each other really well away from the campus.

Once we’d reached the top, we spent about an hour and a half exploring the motorbike museum in the castle: fascinating old technology and the early days of combustion engines on two wheels – impressive artefacts from an era that is now slowly coming to an end, and particularly exciting for budding engineers.

Afterwards, a colourful rucksack picnic awaited us: The Chinese supervisors, Hongwei Xu and Xueru Wang, let us sample traditional delicacies, whilst Prof. Pleul conjured up sweets and drinks from his luggage – just the right refreshments for our ‘mix-event’.

That was precisely the point: in the ‘German for Engineers’ module, we bring our Chinese students together with local and international buddies. After all, you don’t learn about culture as an afterthought in the lecture theatre, but whilst huffing and puffing up the mountain together and sharing snacks.

In the afternoon, we marvelled at the snow cannons already set up at the summer toboggan run and warmed ourselves up with coffee and punch.

At 4 pm we were back on the train to Chemnitz: slightly chilled to the bone, thoroughly knackered, and with the best proof in our luggage of just how wonderfully Christian holidays, old European customs and Chinese mountain traditions can be combined in a single day!

Photos: Yuheng Ding
Text: Babett Nimschowski