Serious Nonsense

Serious Nonsense Groundhog Lodges, Versammlinge, and Pennsylvania German Heritage

Paperback (15 May 2016)

Not available for sale

Includes delivery to the United States

Out of stock

This service is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Publisher's Synopsis

Versammlinge-community events filled with songs, performances, speeches, and skits that celebrate Pennsylvania German heritage and culture-are held entirely in the Pennsylvania German Deitsch language. Some, the "groundhog lodges," feature a ceremony honoring the groundhog, while others do not. These unique meetings, expressions of a distinctive ethnic identity in the context of a rapidly changing society, have become a traditional mainstay among Pennsylvania Germans who have worked to preserve their language and culture into the twenty-first century.

Serious Nonsense introduces readers to Pennsylvania German cultural practices that tourists rarely see and that outsiders, including most scholars, rarely learn about. The book explores the origins of the versammlinge and details the practice's significance since the 1930s, when the first meetings of the Pennsylvania German groundhog lodges were held. Much as they did then, versammlinge today follow a pattern of prayers, patriotism, and speeches extolling values associated with Pennsylvania German identity, as well as theatrical and oral events that humorously contrast a simpler past with a more complex and confusing present. And the groundhog lodges feature one Pennsylvania German tradition that has become familiar in popular culture: groundhog weather prognostication.

Book information

ISBN: 9780271071183
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Imprint: Penn State University Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 305.89310748
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: xv, 164
Weight: 320g
Height: 213mm
Width: 154mm
Spine width: 15mm