1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
India electionsIranIsrael-Hamas war

Biike fires drive out winter

February 20, 2015

Fires will again burn along the entire North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein on February 21. This ancient local custom to drive out winter always attracts numerous visitors.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Ef3B
Deutschland Nordfriesland Biikebrennen auf Sylt
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

The fires will be lit in more than 60 locations. The Biike Fire custom is over 2000 years old. Its roots lie in a Frisian tradition which was designed to appease the heathen god Wotan. Later the fires were lit to bid farewell to seafarers leaving on whale hunting expeditions.

Today the fires are a tourist attraction. People gather to sing, dance and drink punch. After the fires, people head to local restaurants for a traditional meal of curly kale and sausages.

ks/pw (SH-Tourismus, DZT)