Introductions

My name is Katarina, and this blog represents a goal of mine.  

But let's start with back story.  I am, like most white Americans, of mixed European ancestry.  Reach into my DNA, and you might pull out just about anything.  But that's only half the story.  It could be revisionist history, but I feel like I've always had the surest sense of my German roots.  My mom grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country, and remembers as a child using bits of Germanic dialect that have since dropped out of her vocabulary.  And my great-grandmother started speaking German (which no one knew she knew) as her dementia set in.  Most importantly, though, I took German in school, and then took the chance to be an exchange student in Germany.  Since then I've identified as German-American, with a few other (equally wonderful) things thrown in.  

And then I fell into the local German-American Society.  They had folk dancing, something I always thought looked like fun.  So I joined.  And with folk dancing comes "folk costume".  In German, that's Tracht.  

For whatever reason, Bavarian Tracht is the best-known-- the Lederhosen and Dirndl and green Alps hats.  But Germany (and I would assume most of Europe) is comprised of a myriad of local cultures.  For a good chunk of its history, Germany was a loosely associated group of duchies and princedoms. And each region has its own unique history and historic clothing.  

So my goal is learn as much as I can about the various Trachten (that's the plural of Tracht) throughout Germany, and to eventually represent it as authentically and respectfully as possible.  And I'm creating this blog share what I'm doing/learning.  We'll see.