Oktoberfest!

The end of summer brings a gradual respite from arduous work. October, with its golden days and hazy blue atmosphere, is signalized in some German communities with a harvest festival on the first Sunday of the month. For forty-five years such an event has been observed annually in Sheboygan and Milwaukee by Bavarian societies. Less regularly but over a longer period smaller German settlements have kept up the custom. It is a Thanksgiving event, religious in background, colorful with Old World civic ceremonials. Among the older Germans it is still known as the 'Münchner October Fest.'

~Fred L. Holmes, "Freiheit Ist Meine" Old World Wisconsin (1944)