Graham, from AllThingsGerman, sent out the following newsletter and because it deals with listening comprehension I found it worth reposting in the language section.
Quoted from the newsletter:
Pfingsten is the weekend known in English as Whitsun or Pentecost. The Sunday and Monday are bank holidays in the whole of Germany. It falls 50 days after Easter.
Pfingsten celebrates the moment when the Holy Ghost descended to Jesus’ disciples, allowing them to be understood by everyone that they talked to. To the listeners they appeared to be speaking in their native language.
If this were the case, then that would make us language teachers redundant today.
The weekend is often used by families to have a longer weekend away. Some parts of Germany have school holidays that start on this weekend.
In my home state of Bavaria, a two-week Pentecost break is just about to begin. On the other hand, Bavaria is one of the 16 states which starts summer break last (usually in early August).
To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast: http://ow.ly/azGZD