German (mythology)

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German ( Cyrillic Герман ) Gérman even gérmantscho, skalojan and kalojáni , an idol doll in is customs of northern Bulgaria , southern Romania , and in the east of Serbia is, which is a dead and ritually buried in the summer as a kind of rainy spells. The mock burial of the male figure, equipped with a pronounced phallus , is a fertility cult in which only women participate and which is supposed to ensure rain in the dry season.

Course of the ritual

If droughts occur in the dry season at the end of spring and in summer, it was a tradition in Bulgaria to ask for rain with a ritual. On a hot day or in some places especially on May 12th, the anniversary of Saint Germanos , who is venerated in the Orthodox churches , married and single women form a clay figure 20 to 50 centimeters tall with a protruding male member. The figure, called German , is placed flat on a wooden board or in a wooden box and represents a dead person with its arms crossed on its stomach. The figure's hands hold a burning candle. Flowers are draped around the figure. In some areas of Northern Bulgaria, the figure is also made from straw, a broom or cloth.

The following sequence corresponds to the burial of a dead person. A number of strict precautionary measures must be observed in order to smooth the way into the hereafter for the soul of the deceased, as it could otherwise cause harm and to prevent the deceased from becoming a vampire . Accordingly, the German is laid out and a wake at night ensures that no cat or other animal jumps over the “dead person”, which would turn him into a vampire. The figure is carried to the grave in a procession. Women and girls follow the bier, utter lamentations and repeat the sentence: "German is dead, German is dead, poor man, he died of the drought, he died thirsty for rain." Depending on the village, the parish priest takes part in the mock funeral part or, if he condemns the pagan custom entirely, the procession must be kept secret from him and take place in the dark. Then one of the women walks ahead in the role of pastor with a censer in hand until the procession reaches the bank of a river, the village pond or a well where the figure is buried. The grave is marked with a rod cross. In other villages the figure is thrown into the river. If it has not rained in the following days, memorial ceremonies are held in some places. After three, nine or 40 days, the figure is dug up again and thrown into the water. 40 days is the period during which special precautionary measures apply when dealing with a deceased person.

In eastern Serbia, the figure is also either buried on the river bank or left to float on the river in a small wooden box. Two of the girls used to lament around the doll and, when asked about the reason for their complaint, answer: “We cry for German because German died because of the drought to bring rain.” If the rain gets too heavy after that, digs get the doll off again.

Another ritual for Germans from the beginning of the 20th century has come down to us from the Pirot area in south-east Serbia, in which people tried to prevent the destructive hail in summer with a soothing ritual on Christmas Eve. Immediately before Christmas Eve, the head of the family went out to the pile of wood to invite German to dinner. The pile of wood is one of those places that in the Slavic myth embodies the border between the world on this side and the world of the powers on the other side and where contact can be made with the spiritual beings. The host had a loaf of bread called "Good Luck" that had been specially prepared for this ritual, along with slivovitz , wine and a wax candle. While piling wood he shouted three times: “German, German, wherever you are, come to dinner right away and let me see your eyes somewhere in the summer!”. Then he lit the candle, took a sip of slivovitz, tried some bread, drank some wine, and went back inside. When asked what was wrong with German, he replied: "He came and we had dinner, drank plenty of slivovitz and wine and then parted ways."

Fertility rituals and rain magic in the Balkans

The Slavic tradition that women are responsible for praying for the rain has a parallel in the Roman religion and was probably already practiced long before the turn of the century. Petronius was the first to report about it (around 14–66 AD) in his novel Satyricon . Accordingly, in a procession called nudipedalia ("barefoot"), adult women marched barefoot, with loose hair and pure hearts, to ask God Jupiter for rain on the summit .

German belongs to the agricultural fertility cults with pre-Christian roots. Theatrical elements and the handling of dolls have been handed down from the rituals of the Orthodox Slavs as well as from the wedding ceremony of the Turks in Bulgaria and refer to a common origin from the Byzantine period, i.e. before the 14th century, when the Balkans were not yet subordinate the rule of the Ottoman Turks stood.

Another ceremony that is carried out when there is not enough rain is called paparuda (also peperúda, pepeúga ), "rain girl" in eastern Bulgaria . An orphan girl is wrapped in green foliage so that only her face can be seen and taken from house to house in the village. The accompanying adult women dance and sing formulaic invocation songs asking for rain. For this they are given food in the houses. In Serbia this tradition is called dodola and in Romania caloian . In some areas in northeastern Bulgaria this custom is linked to German, otherwise both rituals take place independently of one another. Another rainmaking practice ( gónene na zmej ) is reported only from north-west Bulgaria . A dragon hiding somewhere in the village and preventing rain clouds from gathering is driven away by men in one night. Comb the completely naked men, armed with pitchforks, sticks and iron bars, the village in several groups, stab and hit wherever they suspect the dragon to be hiding. Then they move to the river to bathe.

The three rituals are based on different magical ideas. The phallic form of German is a general symbol of fertility. A resurrection can be seen in the rain and blooming of vegetation after he dies. He is connected to other Slavic sacrificial dolls like Morena (depending on the region also Marzanna, Mara), who embody the idea of ​​death and rebirth at the beginning of spring. German therefore has nothing to do with the dragon and is not a demon responsible for the drought that has to be killed and buried. On the contrary, German, who has to die because of the drought, is supposed to induce the strict God to be gentle towards people and to give them rain. Christo Vakarelski (1969) considers the burial near a body of water to be of secondary importance as a representation of a magical analogy.

In popular Christian belief, the word german is traced back to Saint Germanos (around 638 - around 733) or to pre-Christian Slavic mythology. In terms of folk etymology, German is related to gurmesch , the thunderbolt that often accompanies rainfalls in summer.

Similar ritual burials, at which women weep at dolls, also occur in Greece. There they are called in the region of Epirus zafiris , in the Peloponnese fouskodentri , on the island of Mykonos krantonellos and on the island of Aegina lidinos .

Puppets used in rituals are elementary forms of a puppet theater that occurs in many varieties in the Balkans. There are also performances with masked dancers, for example in Bulgaria kukeri , in which male actors in animal form drive away evil spirits at the beginning of the year. During the Lazarus processions before Palm Sunday , a wrapped wooden doll ( buenec ), which girls rock like a toddler, and “Lazarus bread” in human form are used. The Christian raising of Lazarus and in the Balkans in general the handling of dolls are part of the spring customs. In an educational sense, the wrapped Lazarus doll is supposed to playfully prepare the girls for the role of mother. The structural correspondence of the songs sung in the Lazarus custom and in the spring processions of girls to pray for rain results in a relationship between the two traditions.

Until 1930 in Epirus, southern Albania, young girls practiced the ritual mourning at a funeral with a clothed doll . The doll figure, bedded in flowers, was buried in a sheep pasture in spring and weeping. Lidino's human figure , buried in the grave on the island of Aegina in summer, is recognizably phallic in nature. In a custom in the village of Kastino in the Peloponnese , a living person is theatrically buried. A burial mound called fuskodentri ("swell tree ") made of flowers, twigs and stones is piled above him . After he has been wept extensively, he gets up and leads a round dance. Similar rituals with the sequence burial - weeping - resurrection are known from other regions, up to parodistic transformations in carnival parades.

The deeper meaning of simple puppet shows is the desire for fertility and rain. The only more sophisticated forms of puppetry are shadow plays , which were influenced by the Turkish Karagöz theater in the Ottoman-controlled Balkans . In Karagöz as in the older Arabic shadow play , the eponymous main character could be recognized by its long phallus until the 19th century. A Karagöz figure with a phallus was part of the urban entertainment culture of Sarajevo until the beginning of the Second World War .

literature

  • Jovan Janićijević: U znaku Moloha: antropološki ogled o žrtvovanju. Idea, Belgrad 1995, pp. 184-186, ISBN 86-7547-037-1 (Serbian)
  • Walter Puchner : Primitividoles and Idol Burial on the Balkan Peninsula. (On the early ritual history of the puppet theater) In: Acta Ethnographica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 34, 1986–1988, pp. 229–244
  • Christo Vakarelski: Bulgarian folklore. De Gruyter, Berlin 1969, p. 329 f., ISBN 3-11-000266-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Герман. ( Memento of July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Central Library of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, April 8, 2008
  2. ↑ Christo Vakarelski, 1969, p. 303
  3. ↑ Christo Vakarelski, 1969, p. 329
  4. ↑ a b Jovan Janićijević, 1995
  5. ↑ Cf. Žarko Trebješanin: Sorcery practice as the key to the understanding of the mytho-magical world image. (PDF) Prosveta - Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts - Institute of Balkan Studies, Niš - Belgrade, 1996, pp. 175–178, here p. 176
  6. ↑ David Evans: Dodona, Dodola, and Daedala. In: Gerald James Larson (Ed.): Myth in Indo-European Antiquity. University of California Press, Berkeley 1974, p. 102
  7. ^ Walter Puchner: Studies on Folklore of Southeast Europe and the Mediterranean Area. Böhlau, Vienna 2009, p. 289 f. ( fwf.ac.at )
  8. ↑ Christo Vakarelski, 1969, p. 330
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Puchner, 2009, p. 350
  10. ^ Cf. Walter Puchner: Customs of Lazarus in Southeast Europe. In: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, Neue Serie, Vol. 32 (PDF) Vienna 1978, pp. 17–40
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Puchner, 2009, p. 333
  12. ↑ Walter Puchner, 1978, p. 28f
  13. ^ Walter Puchner: The Theater in South-East Europe in the Wake of Nationalism. In: Research Notebooks, 2008, pp. 75-134, here pp. 79, 82