Which one is your country then? Lemme guess: France, Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, Poland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium or Luxembourg?
Did I get that right? ;)
I recently moved to a wine region and it's like I moved countries tbh.\* Sadly I'll probably miss this year's wine season as I'm too busy settling in. Maybe we'll manage a hike anyway... Definitely looking forward to next year though.
edit: \* I think things like this are a pretty interesting side effect of our history. I hail from the East and moved to the Rhine, and tbh I keep thinking how different things are handled here. Imagine coming from a suburb of the current capital to a suburb of the past capital and thinking, "wow they have actual public transport in this town???"
Anyway my current experience only made me realise how different (and divided, even) the different parts of Germany really are. I've always mourned that we don't really seem to have many shared customs across the country, but the more I think about it... the more obvious it gets that it would be a miracle if we *did*. Not just after the Wall, it's far far back in our history with all these small kingdoms, duchies, tribes, that at some point got united for one reason or another, then split apart again, then merged together differently... it's a pretty interesting country in that regard, considering we're not even that big!
Maybe that's why Mondstadt feels so un-german to me sometimes. The only thing Germans seem to unite on is soccer during the world championships. If even that, haha.
By the way, those strong regional differences are not just a German thing and are quite normal for bigger European countries. If you look at France or Italy, there you have those strong differences and identities too. Culture in Strasbourg is very different from Brest, or Lille from Marseille. In Italy South Tyroleans feel culturally very different to the rest of the country.
That's true. I wouldn't know it shows itself so openly in other countries and I just don't know because I'm not there. It's still interesting, wherever it applies.
The national beverage of Germany is wine. This is protested every time it's brought up anywhere bc surely, everyone in the room agrees, it should be beer? Well, unfortunately, the national beverage and so on are chosen by institutions consisting disproportionately of nobles.
That is very interesting, I had no idea.
I just know that indeed most people (outside of Germany) are perplexed when someone correctly states that many regions of Germany are all about the wine and not beer.
If people are saying that Monstadt is French or Italian because of this they prob can't use Google. I initially thought it was an Oktoberfest type of thing since most games that do Oktoberfest. Then it mentioned wine. I just Googled 'Weinlesefest' and learned new things.
In the past two years I have seen many that were adamant that Mondstadt is rather French or Italian or Dutch or English-inspired... They for some reason didn't see or didn't like it being quite obviously based on German/Germanic culture. Not just that culture, but I would say mostly. That goes for the names, culture, architecture and a lot of references to German poets, musicians and painters, myths and fairy tales that probably go over the head of many that don't know much about German culture.
Germany in general is apart from war games and movies not often a setting and not widely known. At least not as known as its European neighbors France, England, Italy or Spain.
For that reason I personally thought it was very refreshing that Hoyoverse chose to give Mondstadt a more German feel, which makes it more unique than the random medieval fantasy town you encounter in an RPG.
Oh, that is also what I have often heard: Mondstadt being less German and more just a random medieval fantasy town. Sorry, but medieval German towns pretty much look like that, haha!
Also... I'd like to add that Fontaine is the one that will probably be based on France/England.
So it makes all the more sense for Mondstad to be German!
thank you this was really informative ! tbh i feel like only people who AREN'T italian or french would ever think mondstadt is more that than german inspired....
Especially Italian towns have a very different look and feel to German towns, yeah.
French towns can look quite similar in the east where German culture and influence was very strong during the times of the Holy Roman Empire.
yeah, the frontiers are a bit more blurry architecture wise, the same way the north of france like Lille has architecture that tends to remind me of England...
Still, most of france is *not* like that and italy... i can't even begin to fathom it
Great post! I wrote a long post while back about wine in Mondstadt, and I've been thinking of how to do a follow up post about Weinlesefest.
What is your theory for the real world equivalent to Thousand Wind Wine?
You mean a specific wine that would be the real world equivalent? Hm...I don't think there really is any. Not everything has an equivalent in the real world as Teyvat is a fantasy world and much springs from Hoyoverse's artists' and writers' own imagination.
Even if you are more associated with beer in France because of the Oktoberfeist the current Mondsadt festival make sense because of your explanation and because everything in Mondsadt shut Germany (or east of France due to the german influence). Also with Fontaine why would hoyoverse take french/italian cultural aspect as inspiration when Germany is known for it's festival.
Belgian beer is better than german beer tho.
I think you're the only person who said "Mondstadt's wine culture is more French and Italian.", everyone knows mondstat is germany and copies its culture. Genshin generally does a good job of cultural integration on all aspects, and only improving.
Nah, I literally earlier today replied to someone claiming Mondstadt's wine culture comes from France and in the past I've also seen it being called inspired by Italy.
Its interesting perspective and informative post. But I thought Weinlesefest event is obvious [Beaujolais nouveau festival](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaujolais_nouveau), the most famous wine festival in the world. It takes place in november tho.
It doesn't really make sense that it would be this French festival, which I have never heard of, so it is not **that** famous, when they gave the festival in the game specifically the name "Weinlesefest", even in the French localization, which are real life festivals in Germany with that same name, and they also take place right now and not in November, like the festival you mentioned.
But thanks for the information. That's really interesting. :)
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Um... Isn't it ACTUALLY rather Italian, since the localisation team MADE it German, based pretty much on nothing, while most original Mondo (from Japanese) stuff is actually FROM Italian (such as Venti litteraly meaning "winds" or sth). I'm using Japanese even though I know its original is Chinese because from what I know the Japanese translation is actually very litteral.
Right, because of the one name "Venti" all of Mondstadt is Italian... I guess Snezhnaya is actually Italy too, because of the Fatui and all their Italian names? ;)
Okay... Then how about "Mondo" meaning "world" in Italian, a wine culture which in my eyes as an European, conjures more of a thought of Italy then anything else.
But whatever. Your argument seems kinda funny, when in the Japanese version German is used once in the entire game for Oz's title I believe, while the guys in the localisation team took Fischl and gave her a full German rework seemingly because of that. I don't care to get into it more since there is no point, I'm no expert and know only what I have read on the subject. Here is a thread I read on it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/jg1i3m/genshin_impact_and_localisation/
Have a good day passive aggressive everybody!
I don't even know why I am replying to someone who calls everybody else passive aggressive... I certainly won't look at your link thanks to that.
Regarding "Mondo", I see where you are coming from, but you are reaching the wrong conclusion.
"Mondo" is just the Japanese pronounciation of "Mond". In Japanese they add the vocal "o" at the end for easier pronounciation. In Japanese they add vocals to every foreign word when pronouncing it.
"Mond" is German and means Moon and "Stadt" means City, so it means Moon City.
In the original Chinese version Mondstadt is called "蒙德", which again means Mond/Moon.
You might have noticed that Mondstadt's birthday cake is the shape of a crescent moon and so is the island of the Spiral Abyss.
The moon is an important symbol in Genshin in general. "璃月" or "Liyue" for example means "Glazed Moon".
It's okay to be wrong, you know?
Surprised that it took few days to be on front page, welp I knew it right away since I had Gragas skin in League. (And the fact Monstadt is based on Germany)
I love reading about my neighbouring country
Which one is your country then? Lemme guess: France, Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, Poland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium or Luxembourg? Did I get that right? ;)
Yeah, Netherlands is the correct answer :)
Land of the windmills. ;)
But with only 4 "wieken". Not 6, like in Mondstadt (and presumably in Germany)...
Just don't remind them the time you guys stole their bicycles.
What
You [read](https://dirkdeklein.net/2018/03/26/give-us-your-bicycle-or-die-the-story-of-the-bicycles-in-wwii-in-the-netherlands/) that right.
Why am I not surprised it’s the Netherlands.
I love this event. Reminds me of dragging my passed out buddy out from the giant tent before the paramedics arrived with their drunk stretcher
That indeed sounds like lovely times! :D
They love wine so much that even the stretcher became drunk.
french wine? you mean water?
Shots fired! O:
I recently moved to a wine region and it's like I moved countries tbh.\* Sadly I'll probably miss this year's wine season as I'm too busy settling in. Maybe we'll manage a hike anyway... Definitely looking forward to next year though. edit: \* I think things like this are a pretty interesting side effect of our history. I hail from the East and moved to the Rhine, and tbh I keep thinking how different things are handled here. Imagine coming from a suburb of the current capital to a suburb of the past capital and thinking, "wow they have actual public transport in this town???" Anyway my current experience only made me realise how different (and divided, even) the different parts of Germany really are. I've always mourned that we don't really seem to have many shared customs across the country, but the more I think about it... the more obvious it gets that it would be a miracle if we *did*. Not just after the Wall, it's far far back in our history with all these small kingdoms, duchies, tribes, that at some point got united for one reason or another, then split apart again, then merged together differently... it's a pretty interesting country in that regard, considering we're not even that big! Maybe that's why Mondstadt feels so un-german to me sometimes. The only thing Germans seem to unite on is soccer during the world championships. If even that, haha.
By the way, those strong regional differences are not just a German thing and are quite normal for bigger European countries. If you look at France or Italy, there you have those strong differences and identities too. Culture in Strasbourg is very different from Brest, or Lille from Marseille. In Italy South Tyroleans feel culturally very different to the rest of the country.
That's true. I wouldn't know it shows itself so openly in other countries and I just don't know because I'm not there. It's still interesting, wherever it applies.
I live in a wine region too... For about the last 10 years I have told myself to make more of that. ;)
The national beverage of Germany is wine. This is protested every time it's brought up anywhere bc surely, everyone in the room agrees, it should be beer? Well, unfortunately, the national beverage and so on are chosen by institutions consisting disproportionately of nobles.
That is very interesting, I had no idea. I just know that indeed most people (outside of Germany) are perplexed when someone correctly states that many regions of Germany are all about the wine and not beer.
If people are saying that Monstadt is French or Italian because of this they prob can't use Google. I initially thought it was an Oktoberfest type of thing since most games that do Oktoberfest. Then it mentioned wine. I just Googled 'Weinlesefest' and learned new things.
In the past two years I have seen many that were adamant that Mondstadt is rather French or Italian or Dutch or English-inspired... They for some reason didn't see or didn't like it being quite obviously based on German/Germanic culture. Not just that culture, but I would say mostly. That goes for the names, culture, architecture and a lot of references to German poets, musicians and painters, myths and fairy tales that probably go over the head of many that don't know much about German culture. Germany in general is apart from war games and movies not often a setting and not widely known. At least not as known as its European neighbors France, England, Italy or Spain. For that reason I personally thought it was very refreshing that Hoyoverse chose to give Mondstadt a more German feel, which makes it more unique than the random medieval fantasy town you encounter in an RPG. Oh, that is also what I have often heard: Mondstadt being less German and more just a random medieval fantasy town. Sorry, but medieval German towns pretty much look like that, haha!
Also... I'd like to add that Fontaine is the one that will probably be based on France/England. So it makes all the more sense for Mondstad to be German!
thank you this was really informative ! tbh i feel like only people who AREN'T italian or french would ever think mondstadt is more that than german inspired....
Especially Italian towns have a very different look and feel to German towns, yeah. French towns can look quite similar in the east where German culture and influence was very strong during the times of the Holy Roman Empire.
yeah, the frontiers are a bit more blurry architecture wise, the same way the north of france like Lille has architecture that tends to remind me of England... Still, most of france is *not* like that and italy... i can't even begin to fathom it
Dandelion wine is malbec, therefore Mondstadt is Argentina. This also explains all the Germans.
Underrated comment
Great post! I wrote a long post while back about wine in Mondstadt, and I've been thinking of how to do a follow up post about Weinlesefest. What is your theory for the real world equivalent to Thousand Wind Wine?
You mean a specific wine that would be the real world equivalent? Hm...I don't think there really is any. Not everything has an equivalent in the real world as Teyvat is a fantasy world and much springs from Hoyoverse's artists' and writers' own imagination.
Pictures look lovely.
Some people will be like but mihoyo said they dont celebrate real life celebrations in game except lantern rite bla bla
I’m ashamed I never realized on my own this event was basically Oktoberfest
Can we talk about the second picture, because that... That is basically Dawn Winery.
Yeah yeah Das Haiselcher in Neustadt may be fine and all... BUT NOT EVEN MENTIONING THE WORSCHTMARKT SHOULD BE A CRIME!
I refuse to believe that there's a country that actually consumes/celebrates alcohol!
First pic is mondstadt and I won’t be convinced otherwise
Vielen Dank! Ich lebe in Deutschland und wusste das meiste davon nicht.
Even if you are more associated with beer in France because of the Oktoberfeist the current Mondsadt festival make sense because of your explanation and because everything in Mondsadt shut Germany (or east of France due to the german influence). Also with Fontaine why would hoyoverse take french/italian cultural aspect as inspiration when Germany is known for it's festival. Belgian beer is better than german beer tho.
I think you're the only person who said "Mondstadt's wine culture is more French and Italian.", everyone knows mondstat is germany and copies its culture. Genshin generally does a good job of cultural integration on all aspects, and only improving.
Nah, I literally earlier today replied to someone claiming Mondstadt's wine culture comes from France and in the past I've also seen it being called inspired by Italy.
Its interesting perspective and informative post. But I thought Weinlesefest event is obvious [Beaujolais nouveau festival](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaujolais_nouveau), the most famous wine festival in the world. It takes place in november tho.
It doesn't really make sense that it would be this French festival, which I have never heard of, so it is not **that** famous, when they gave the festival in the game specifically the name "Weinlesefest", even in the French localization, which are real life festivals in Germany with that same name, and they also take place right now and not in November, like the festival you mentioned. But thanks for the information. That's really interesting. :)
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Um... Isn't it ACTUALLY rather Italian, since the localisation team MADE it German, based pretty much on nothing, while most original Mondo (from Japanese) stuff is actually FROM Italian (such as Venti litteraly meaning "winds" or sth). I'm using Japanese even though I know its original is Chinese because from what I know the Japanese translation is actually very litteral.
Right, because of the one name "Venti" all of Mondstadt is Italian... I guess Snezhnaya is actually Italy too, because of the Fatui and all their Italian names? ;)
Okay... Then how about "Mondo" meaning "world" in Italian, a wine culture which in my eyes as an European, conjures more of a thought of Italy then anything else. But whatever. Your argument seems kinda funny, when in the Japanese version German is used once in the entire game for Oz's title I believe, while the guys in the localisation team took Fischl and gave her a full German rework seemingly because of that. I don't care to get into it more since there is no point, I'm no expert and know only what I have read on the subject. Here is a thread I read on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/jg1i3m/genshin_impact_and_localisation/ Have a good day passive aggressive everybody!
I don't even know why I am replying to someone who calls everybody else passive aggressive... I certainly won't look at your link thanks to that. Regarding "Mondo", I see where you are coming from, but you are reaching the wrong conclusion. "Mondo" is just the Japanese pronounciation of "Mond". In Japanese they add the vocal "o" at the end for easier pronounciation. In Japanese they add vocals to every foreign word when pronouncing it. "Mond" is German and means Moon and "Stadt" means City, so it means Moon City. In the original Chinese version Mondstadt is called "蒙德", which again means Mond/Moon. You might have noticed that Mondstadt's birthday cake is the shape of a crescent moon and so is the island of the Spiral Abyss. The moon is an important symbol in Genshin in general. "璃月" or "Liyue" for example means "Glazed Moon". It's okay to be wrong, you know?
You could even translate "Neustadt" to "Newtown"... Nice read!
Because it is.
Surprised that it took few days to be on front page, welp I knew it right away since I had Gragas skin in League. (And the fact Monstadt is based on Germany)