It’s a case of the wedding outliving the wedded:
Oktoberfest, the yearly 16-day beer banquet in Munich, Germany, began as a wedding. It was 1810 and the Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen, and they threw a ridiculously fun wedding that honored Bavaria — now the largest state in Germany and one of the most sprawling, green landscapes in Europe. The biggest hit of the party turned out to be a series of horseraces, and thereafter on that same weekend in October, the people returned to race their steeds. By the early 20th century, the event had morphed into a “liebe”-fest of Bavarian culture, food, amusements and, most importantly, pure German ale.

Today, 204 years later, few can remember the royal couple who started it all, but people travel from all over the world to Munich to experience what is now the world’s biggest beer blast/ode to German culture. But over the years, Germans have also done some moving around and they’ve brought the Oktoberfest with them. Starting in September and ending in November, you can drink beer in a Deutsch kind of way almost every single day all over the world.

Related: Lufthansa Flight Attendants to Wear Sexy Dirndl Outfits for Oktoberfest

You should go to Munich to see the mother of all Oktoberfests at least once in your lifetime — even if you don’t drink — just to get a true taste of German home cooking and, of course, the country’s zeitgeist. But if you can’t go this year or have already been there, these exported Oktoberfest blowouts are just as much a reflection of the German experience as the original.