Just as important as the Kirwa are the large pilgrimage festivals associated with famous pilgrimage churches, whose traditions reach back to the Baroque era and which draw thousands of visitors and pilgrims every year. Here, piety blends with eating, drinking, and making merry in a haze of incense and the smoke of grilled sausage. Faith and joie de vivre are connected in a typically Bavarian way in the Amberg-Sulzbacher region. The Mariahilf Festival in Amberg has been welcoming pilgrims since 1634. And even then, countless pilgrims had to be supplied with beer and bratwurst. The festival week of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary takes place at the beginning of July . The AnnabergFestival in Sulzbach-Rosenberg opens on St. Anne's Feast Day, July 26th, the Frohnberg Festival in Hahnbach takes place every year on the Assumption of Mary on August 15th, and the Mausberg Festival Week in Gebenbach September 8th, the Nativity of Mary. The pilgrimage to Axtheid Berg in Vilseck takes place at the Feast of the Cross on September 14.