First School Day (Schultüte)
10 August 2026 · movable holiday — First day of school! My cone holds a whole constellation of surprises!
In Germany, the first day of school is a big family celebration. Children starting first grade receive a Schultüte (pronounced “SHOOL-tew-teh”), a large cardboard cone, often decorated by hand. It is filled with sweets, small toys, pencils and other little surprises. The custom is thought to date back to the early 19th century in eastern German regions, especially Saxony and Thuringia. According to an old tale, children were told that the cones grow on a “cone tree” in the teacher’s house, and once they are ripe, it is time for the child to start school. The day often begins with a school ceremony, followed by a family celebration and plenty of photographs. The date is not uniform: the school year starts at different times depending on the federal state, because each state has its own summer holidays, staggered according to a shared schedule. So the day has no fixed astronomical date, but it falls at the end of summer, when nights grow longer and the sky richer in stars.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of luminous dots and fine lines, like a constellation: a small child with a backpack carrying a huge cone-shaped Schultüte, drifting across the night sky
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