The night before setting off from home, a future journeyman traditionally hosts a party to say farewell to family and friends. In the course of the night, a hole is made in his or her earlobe for an earring to wear throughout the journey. Tradition holds that anyone who breaks the rules will have the earring torn out, marking that person with a cleft lobe, or a “split-ear,” a term long since adopted in the German language for a crook.

The morning after the party, the neophyte buries a memento near the boundary of his or her hometown, then climbs over the city limits sign to fall into the arms of fellow journeymen who have gathered to see the new traveler off before they resume their own journeys.