What does “Kirmes” mean in German?

This family day out is a Kirmes — the word for a funfair used across western and central Germany, especially the Rhineland. It’s a contraction of Kirche (church) + Messe (mass): centuries ago, a Kirmes was a Kirchweih, the annual celebration of a village church’s founding anniversary, held on its patron saint’s feast day.

Over time the religious anniversary grew stalls, rides, and games attached to it, and eventually the fairground took over the name entirely — the same word now just means “funfair,” church optional. Other German-speaking regions kept the same festival under different regional names: Kirchweih or Kärwa in Bavaria, Kirtag in Austria, Kilbi in Switzerland.