Easter game
An Easter game is a spiritual game about the resurrection of Jesus Christ that is performed as part of the Easter celebration .
history
Easter games can be traced back to the High Middle Ages . Its nucleus is the quem quaeritis trope , which has first appeared in the St. Gallen monastery since the 10th century and is often portrayed as the origin of medieval theater . The chant shows the women in front of the empty tomb of Christ ( Visitatio ). The appearance of the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene and the race of the apostles were added. Extensive games were formed especially in the 12th century.
In this early period, the Easter games were still part of the liturgy , were performed in Latin and in the church . They served to explain and illustrate the most important religious festival. All roles were played by men, at first only by clerics .
Folk-language texts have been incorporated since the 13th century. The games were performed outside the church and organized by the cities. The scenes, which could often be very rough, included, for example: Pilate and Juda scenes, resurrection, tomb guard scene, journey into hell, devil scene with sinner revue, lamentation of Mary , shopkeeper scene, visitation, apostle run. Often the didactic aspect was lost and the joy of the spectacle, such as the devil scenes, emerged. The Easter plays were expanded to or competed with passion plays , especially in the 15th century . For example, the so-called Debs Codex for the Tyrolean area contains the writing of four Easter plays in combination with numerous other Passion plays in the last third of the 15th century. Reformation and Counter-Reformation ended the tradition of many Easter games.
Examples
- Easter play by Muri (13th century, Switzerland)
- Innsbruck Easter Game (14th century, Central German)
- Redentine Easter Game (1464)
- Rhenish Easter Game (15th century, Mainz)
- Erlauer Easter Games (15th century, southern German)
- Augsburger Osterspiel , German Easter game with Latin and German interludes
See also
literature
- Rolf Bergmann : Catalog of the German-language spiritual games and Marian laments of the Middle Ages. Beck, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7696-0900-X .
- Hildegard Elisabeth Keller , Ellinor Landmann: Easter Games . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , pp. 1357-1360.
- Hansjürgen Linke: Easter celebration and Easter game. Suggestions for the objective and terminological clarification of some delimitation problems. In: Max Siller (Ed.): Easter Games. Texts and music (= Schlern writings 293). Files from the 2nd Symposium of the Sterzing Easter Games (April 12-16, 1992). Wagner, Innsbruck 1994, ISBN 3-7030-0263-8 , pp. 121-133.
- Bernd Neumann , Hannes Obermair : Tyrolean Games . In: Wilhelm Kühlmann et al. (Ed.): Killy Literaturlexikon , Vol. 11, Berlin-New York: Walter De Gruyter 2011, pp. 546-548.
- Max Siller (Ed.): Easter Games. Texts and music (= Schlern writings 293). Files from the 2nd Symposium of the Sterzing Easter Games (April 12-16, 1992). Wagner, Innsbruck 1994, ISBN 3-7030-0263-8 .
- Barbara Thoran: Studies on the Easter games of the German Middle Ages. (A contribution to clarifying their interdependence) (= Göppingen work on German studies. No. 199). 2nd, revised and supplemented edition. Kümmerle, Göppingen 1976, ISBN 3-87452-337-3 (at the same time: Bochum, University, dissertation, 1969).
Web links
- House of Bavarian History: Easter Games
- Albert K. Wimmer: Anthology of Medieval German Literature (comments in English, text of Muri’s Easter game in the original)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 'Augsburg Easter Game'. In: Author's Lexicon . Volume I, Col. 524 f.