It’s January 13th, and Germans are recovering from their traditional day of revelry and humour, “National Let Your Hair Down Day”. All over the country, hangovers are being treated and faces are reddened with embarassment as people realise the extent to which they have gone to have fun.

Created thirty years ago by a young Helmut Kohl, the festivities are now a permanent fixture in the German calendar, with pranks and frivolity very much the order of the day.

“I woke up five minutes late today!” exclaimed a startled Berliner, Bernd Tost. “Not only that, but when I got dressed, I chose a red tie instead of my usual blue one. I know, I know, it’s a little radical, but this is the one day of the year we can have some fun without fear of reprisal. Then, when I was at work, I suddenly felt this great urge to have a double espresso. Everyone knows I only ever drink a single one and they were telling me not to – ‘Bernd, Bernd’ they were saying ‘you crazy fool’, but I was just so wild that day.”

Brigitte von Winkelmaus from Munich said that she had spent the day “replacing certain words with other words”: “It was just like in that Randoms advert,” she beamed. “Oh I had so much fun this year, I can’t wait until next year. I think I’m going to do something really mad like wear sunglasses if it’s cloudy! But I’ll really have to plan it.”

All over Germany, there are stories of people combing their hair in a different direction or wearing odd socks. Anthropologist Gunther Gettscha explained “it is very important for the German to cool off every now and again, ja? There is a great story – you’re really going to laugh when you hear this – of when the town of Bonn, three years ago, put its town clock forward by 2 minutes! This is just something so radically silly that you can only get away with on National Let Your Hair Down Day!”

However, some Germans refuse to play along. Alexandr Marktplatz from Dortmund told the Daily Shame: “I wear a bow tie every day of the year, and everyone thinks I am stupid. Then for 24 hours, everyone joins in and it’s some great hullaballoo. What’s the fun for the crazy German who lets his hair down every day of the year, huh?”