One of the October’s weird days is not so very weird, but kind of nice: Guardian Angels Day on October 2. When we ate at the Bavarian Bierhaus in Nashville earlier this year, I noticed something I hadn’t other times we’d eaten there: Aloisius. He was floating above the tables and instantly piqued my interest.
I snapped the best picture I could. (Which was hard due to the angle and lighting coming in through the windows.) I also made note to look up what the writing on the angel’s hat, “ALOISIUS,” meant, if anything. Because he sure struck me as a beer angel. Turns out, I wasn’t too far off.
Since October is now here, besides Halloween it’s also Octoberfest time. Combine that with Guardian Angels Day too and what better time to write about Aloisius? After all, he is a guardian angel of sorts.
The Legend
Legend has it that before Aloisius became an angel, he worked in a brewery. He died from working too hard, but must’ve lived a good life because he went to Heaven.
However, guess what he found up there? Or, what he didn’t find rather…beer! A beer lover, he was not to happy to discover Heaven was a “dry county,” so to speak.
Then one day city officials in Munich needed some heavenly advice. Aloisius volunteered, but the lure of access to beer was too strong. He hit the most famous of all Munich’s breweries, the Hofbrauhaus, to raise a tankard.
It appears city officials never got their heavenly advice, but now many beer houses celebrate the beer loving angel by incorporating an effigy of him in their decor.
Note About the Legend
I’m not sure if Aloisius’s story can be adapted to fit whatever German city and brewery wants to tell it or not. “Munich” and the “Hofbrauhaus” might be substituted as other places see fit.
If you’ve heard this tale told a little bit of a different way, be sure to check-in and let me know!
Check-In
Do you believe you have a guardian angel?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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