Christopher Street Day

Christopher Street Day is an annual festival held in many countries in Europe; wjile Germany and Switzerland know it as Christopher Street Day, other countries call it Gay Pride or Pride Parade: Austria calls the celebration Rainbow Parade.

Christopher Street Day started as a reaction against police atrocities against the homosexuals in New York's Christopher Street in Greenwich Village on June 27, 1969. New York initiated the celebration the following year in June; Germany started its celebrations in the two cities of Bremen and Berlin in 1979.

Christopher Street Day can also be compared to carnival processions, which are marked by a stream of music and revelry. The essence of Street Day is fun and celebration on the open street and an overt display of one sexual orientation without fear or embarrassment. The celebrations last for an entire week; in Hamburg alone over 30000 walk in the streets to participate in the celebration. It is not uncommon to see barely dressed men dancing on the road along with many drag queens and women.

The recent years have seen Christopher Street Day taking up political colors with political leaders using the day as an excuse to launch their political campaign, such act of interposition is regretted by many but also acknowledged as unavoidable; apart from political meetings. This increased political interference has prompted the organizers of Christopher Street Day in Berlin to launch an alternative to the celebration known as Kreuzberger CSD or Transgenial CSD. In these events the political parties are not invited and kept away from the celebration.

In Germany the largest of the Christopher Street Day take place in Berlin and Cologne. In 2002 Cologne witnessed over 1.2 million revelers on the streets. Hamburg receives a respectable number of participants in the fair; the strength notwithstanding, the joy in the celebration is no different from anywhere else in the world.