New school year, old family custom

First-graders were lined up with their backpacks and bags full of school supplies Monday, the first day of school at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Elementary School in midtown.

Two girls, 6-year-old twins Rachel and Anna Huber, carried something to school that none of their schoolmates had seen before -- large cones decorated with sequins and paper ribbons.

They are called schultüte, a German word meaning "school bag." Their mother spent hours decorating the paper cones and stuffing with candy and toys.

Then came the hard part -- carrying the cones a whole day without a peek inside. Tradition calls for children to wait all day before opening them.

"They kept asking, 'But why, Mom? Why can't we open them? We'll share it with everyone at school,' " Elizabeth Huber said.

The Huber family has carried on the school cone custom for generations. Elizabeth Huber still recalls her first day at Central Park Elementary School in Roseville, Minn., a suburb of St. Paul, and walking to school with her parents. She carried her schultüte to school, but her mother, Ingrid Huber, took it home afterward.

"The thing that I remember the most was how it impressed on me the importance of my education," Elizabeth Huber said. "I ended up being the first person in my family to go to college. My parents never had any problems with us kids going to school."

The custom of the German school cones date back to the early 1800s and first became popular in the cities of Dresden and Leipzig.

Ingrid Huber, the girls' grandmother, has pictures of her own first day of school in the town of Breslau (now located in Poland). It was 1944 and Germany was at war, but her family still marked the day as a celebration.

"It was very, very exciting," said Ingrid Huber of her first day at school. Candy was almost impossible to find in those days, yet her grandparents managed to find some for her school cone.

Seeing her granddaughters at Mass on their first day of classes brought tears to Ingrid Huber's eyes. "It touches me," she said. "I like traditions. Everybody's traditions are important."

The girls' school cones were brought from Germany last year by visiting relatives. Mother and daughters decorated them.

"It was a great opportunity to sit and talk with them about their heritage and the importance of an education," Elizabeth Huber said. "I want them to look forward to the journey ahead and realize what an opportunity an education is."

Rachel and Anna honor both their German and their African American heritage in other ways, their mother said. They attend German classes at Sacramento Turn Verein, 3349 J St. They also celebrate Kwanzaa.

About the writer:

• The Bee's Ralph Montaño can be reached at (916) 321-1159 or rmontano@sacbee.com.