"Thanksgiving is not just a culinary experience, it is also a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time with friends and family", says Marriott Hotel General Manager Dieter Fenz. The celebration of this annual U.S. tradition is becoming more and more popular in Austria: Also this year, you are welcome to join in on this festivity!

National Day, 26 October (1955) commemorates the State Treaty restoring national sovereignty and the end of occupation when the  last WWII troops left Austria and the passage of the law on permanent neutrality. It has become a patriotic "fitness day", as many people all over Austria take long walks. The Parliament building and all national museums are open and visits are free to the public. This is a Bank Holiday and stores are closed.

As January is characterized by New Year and Epiphany, the most important customs of February are connected with Carnival, called "Fasnacht" in western Austria, "Fasching" in the rest of the country. The first traditional date, however, is Candlemas on February 2nd, with, for example, the Candlemas Fiddling in Ligist (Styria).

The New Year Concert ( Das Neujahrskonzert der Wiener Philharmoniker) of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is a concert that takes place each year in the morning of January 1 in Vienna, Austria. It is broadcast around the world to an estimated audience of one billion in 44 countries.

May 1st, the international working class holiday Mayday, originated in pagan Europe. It was a festive holy day celebrating the first spring planting. The ancient Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane or the day of fire. Bel was the Celtic god of the sun.

In the year 1900, my grandfather, Erwin Perzy I, created the very first Austrian snowglobe. He lived in a house not too far from Schönbrunn where the beauty of Vienna brought forth his first design, the Basilica of Maria Zell, which contained snow made from ground rice.

You may have come across a reference in a diary or elsewhere to the fact that 9 May is "Europe Day" and perhaps asked about its significance. Probably very few people in Europe know that on 9 May 1950 the first move was made towards the creation of what is now known as the European Union.

May 11 - Three Chilly Saints. May 11, 12, and 13 are the feast days of Saints Mamertus, Pancras, and Gervais (or Gervatius). These three are known as the Three Chilly Saints not because they were cold during their lifetimes, but because these days are traditionally the coldest of the month. English and French folklore (and later American) held that these days would bring a late frost.

Easter is a joyful time of year. After the dark of winter it is a celebration of rebirth, of Easter bunnies and Easter egg hunts, of fresh flowers, new clothes and rich food after the Lenten fast. In the mountain villages of the Tirol, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are celebrated with age-old customs.

The duration of the Fasching period varies according to national and local traditions. Fasching in Austria begins on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the moment the new (Heuriger) wine becomes old (alt), 'Heurige' wine, is the most recent vintage normally offered for consumption by the grower in his/her wine bar and is officially released on this day.

Allerheiligen und Allerseelen. All Saints' Day is a Christian holy day observed by many Western churches on November 1 and by Eastern churches on the first Sunday after Pentecost. The day now honors all saints of the church, even those not known by name. All Souls' Day is a Roman Catholic day commemorating the faithful departed or those baptized Christians believed to be in purgatory.

My good Viennese friends, Peter Hirsch and Frederic Tampier, like to tell jokes. My particular favorites are those they tell about the Viennese Graf (Count in English) Bobby and his best buddy Baron Rudi. Bobby and Rudi are supposed to reflect members of the Austrian nobility, though officially the use of noble titles ended with the founding of the Austrian First Republic in 1919.

The arrival of November marks a special addition to Austrian menus. Roast Goose. Roast goose with red cabbage and dumplings, enhanced with a portion of Preiselbeeren. Restaurants in Vienna, the Burgenland, and Lower Austria offer this prized dish throughout the month, but most particularly on November 11, St. Martin’s Day. However, if you aren’t Catholic, you might wonder who St. Martin was and why the goose?

(ARA) - "Shock-Headed Peter" (also known as "Slovenly Peter" in English-speaking countries), is a Victorian-era collection of sometimes ghastly, always gleefully macabre cautionary tales which has been the secret delight of children and adults for over a century and a half.  Perhaps the best-known German children's book, "Shock Headed Peter" includes the stories of Cruel Frederick (dog abuser "bites" the dust), Harriet and the Matches (cat duo predicts pyromaniac girl's demise, and Little Suck-A-thumb (tailor with scissors -- enough said)

It is an old Austrian and European tradition. Every day of the year is someone's Name Day. In some places, including parts of Germany and in Eastern Orthodox countries, your name day may be more important than your actual birthday! By definition Nameday is the the feast day of a saint whose name one bears. But in our more modern world each first name is assigned to one day of the calendar, based not only on religious traditions, but also historical events, birthday of a famous person who had the same first name, or on other facts.