Mountain Thanksgiving Festival
The Bergdankfest is a Christian festival in which the devout miners thank God for a rich yield in mining, commemorate the fatally injured miners and ask for another successful mining year.
General
The mountain festival is held annually on the Saturday before Carnival Monday instead. It begins with a parade, often starting from one of the mines . The miners usually wear their mountain smocks as festive clothing and are accompanied by brass music to the church. A service, mostly ecumenical, takes place there. During the service, the names of the miners who had an accident in the previous year are read out and intercessions are held, often accompanied by the carolers .
After the service, the miners and parishioners go to a joint cherperess . The festival is still very important in the many former mining towns , especially in the Harz Mountains .
Women were not allowed to take part in the Bergdankfest. Herbert Lommatzsch attributes this custom to a superstition, according to which as many miners would have accidents in the coming mountain year as women would attend the Bergdank service. This tradition was maintained until the 1970s.
Two sermons by superintendent Wilhelm Schneider from 1960 and 1966 for the Bergdankfest in the Marktkirche in Clausthal-Zellerfeld were published in the general Harz-Berg calendars for 1961 and 1967.
origin
Already in 1542, the mountain festival in was Bohemian Jachymov on Shrove Tuesday celebration. In 1562 the local pastor Johannes Mathesius published a collection of sermons on the subject under the title “Bergpostille” or “Sarepta”. This Sarepta found its way to Zellerfeld to the Upper Harz mining industry in 1564 .
The miners from Joachimsthal may have brought the custom with them to the Upper Harz as early as 1550. From 1617, later with a reference to the “Sermon on the Mount on Shrovetide”, an annual allowance for the pastor for Shrove Sunday can be proven. From this, the period of the first mountain thanksgiving festivals between 1550 and 1617 can be narrowed down.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Herbert Lommatzsch: From the Oberharzer Bergdankfest . In: General Harz Mountain Calendar for 1960 . 1959, p. 72-75 .
- ^ Wilhelm Schneider: Whoever wants to build a mine must trust God . In: General Harz Mountain Calendar for 1961 . 1960, p. 17-20 .
- ^ Wilhelm Schneider: Thank the Lord! In: General Harz Mountain Calendar for 1967 . February 19, 1966, p. 33-35 .
- ^ Sarepta, in it of all mines and metals report
- ↑ Goslarsche Zeitung : Thanks for a happy mountain year , March 1st, 2019