they are mostly ceremonial. Back in the late middle ages, the folks in the small mountain valleys, in times of trouble, would place sentries at the Mountain passes to sound the alarm in the event an enemy army was approaching. There came a time when a device much like a cross between a cannon and a thunder mug was used to sound the alarm by sending the boom echoing down the valley. The practice evolved into using such guns for salutes. Such as to announce to the valley people that their prince is coming and they should turn out to greet him. That is sort of the idea of having the salute on Christmas eve at sunset. It announces the coming of the Christ child. Such salutes are also fired to open festivals, special seasonal markets, like the Christkindlmarkt. They also have meets and a sort of competition firing their salute guns. The club in Bergtesgaden has 1200 shooting members. Some clubs trace their origins back to the early 1800's and one can trace the salute gun use in their town to the 1600's. In northern Italy, there are groups that use massive muzzle loader salute guns, weighing 60 pounds and up. The big ones are called Trombini and there are clubs that fire salutes for holidays. There are also groups march and drill like a marching band that shoot salute guns called pistonieri. they sometimes demonstrate at big soccer stadiums like a half time show.
In germany and Austria, there are 4 types of Boller. The hand held, called a handboller., a short barreled rifle type called a Schaftboller and huge thunder mug types called Standboller., lastly come salute cannons (Kannone) Salutes became so popular and common, that in one area of Germany, called Frankonia, salute pistols were referred to as "wedding pistols." Such alarm was caused to the populace due to the shooting, the gov't passed rules restricting when and where and during what hours salutes could be fired. In Bavaria, the guns must be proof tested at a government lab every 5 years. Shooters, by law, must also attend and pass a full days' safety class to particpate. Groups generally have a uniform sometimes modern sometimes traditional, and a captain who calls out the orders to fire.
http://www.boeller-pfnuer.de/ is a maker similar to our long rifle makers
(trombini)
(pistonieri)
(they even have Bubba in Holland on New Years day)
http://www.boellerkaiser.de/shop/index.php?page=produkte&cat=5 (their style of thunder mug, uses musket caps and a pull cord for ignition.)
