President’s Message
Witaj! (Hello!) from the Wendish Museum! As we start to see the promise of cooler weather (finally!), and with the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays
just around the corner, I give thanks for each and every one of our members and supporters. The Texas Wendish Heritage Society and Museum would not exist without your interest and your support.
The 30th annual Wendish Fest is now behind us, and it was a glorious day indeed! Weather-wise, we were fortunate to have a day that followed light rain on Saturday – giving us cooler temperatures – and that preceded the return of heat and humidity on Monday! Attendance was excellent, serving lines for the noon meal grew long but moved quickly, and we emptied the last keg of beer around 6:00 pm. Figures indicate that we sold over 1,462 meal tickets and 1,730 beer tickets.
We were honored to have join us this year the Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, President of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Dr. Harrison delivered the sermon for the 10:30 worship service and was joined by Rev. Thomas Obersat of Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Manheim, who delivered the Liturgy in German.
Broom weaving demonstrations were a new addition, joining with demonstrations of looming and rug weaving, rope making, spinning, basket weaving, knitting, corn shelling, sauerkraut making, noodle making, sausage stuffing, and wine making along with metal forgers with the Balcones Forge Blacksmith group.
In the Kilian Building, Sandra Matthijetz arranged a large display of blaudruck fabric and items made from blaudruck and shared information about the process of printing and dyeing the beautiful, deep blue fabric that is traditional to Lusatia. Easter and Christmas were also celebrated in the Kilian building, with Vivian Dube and her volunteers selling Wendish Easter eggs; Jack and Marian Wiederhold selling their handmade wood ornaments and Christmas pyramids; and another booth that offered shoppers the chance to purchase wood and blown glass ornaments from Germany.
In the St. Paul Building, visitors saw demonstrations on cording, quilting, lace tatting, and crocheting, and got to see Grace Walther Walker’s examples of her artistic use of antique and vintage photo art.
Other highlights of this year’s Wendish Fest include the excellent musical entertainment provided by the Moravians Polka Band and the Ptac´i kwas reenactment by some of the younger St. Paul Lutheran School students. The Moravians Polka Band members had such a good time, and the audience so enjoyed their performance, that we are considering inviting them to return for another Wendish Fest. In addition, we received a large number of entries in the Coffeecake Bake-off. Winners included at least three youth who have never before entered our contest! Proceeds from the auction of the winning entries brought in $1830 for our scholarship fund.
As is usually the case, by about 5:00 pm, most of the activity at the museum complex has slowed and folks have moved to the picnic grounds to enjoy beer, fried chicken drumsticks and Wendish noodles, and to simply relax and enjoy the cross-cut saw demonstration and horse-shoe pitching. This is also about the time of day that our volunteers take a deep breath and “put their feet up.”
We extend a most sincere thank you to our Wendish Fest sponsors, donors, exhibitors, volunteers, and the congregation of St. Paul Lutheran Church for helping make our 30th a fun, safe and successful event. We certainly could not have Wendish Fest every year without the help of each and every one of you.