ABSTRACT

In the Wiener Becken, an area of eastern Austria, drinking is done from morning till evening at all levels of society, and is the primary focus of all social gatherings. Although the everyday pattern of drinking is guided by the serving of meals, which may be accompanied by mineral water, fruit juices, soft drinks, coffee, tea, wine, or beer (see Appendix), as the social importance of occasions increases, the serving of drinks becomes less associated with eating and more expressive of celebration. The two kinds of drinks which carry the greatest social meaning, sekt and schnapps, polarize social occasions in two directions: the one, increasingly calendrically fixed and formulaic, and the other increasingly spontaneous and intimate. In the direction of formality, sekt marks the celebration of traditional holidays; in the direction of spontaneity, schnapps seals bonds of intimacy. This contrast between sekt celebrations and schnapps celebrations corresponds to an opposition of formality to intimacy which can be traced through many aspects of life in the Wiener Becken.