Blood kick
The Blood Admission is a horseman procession that takes place in honor of a blood relic . There are blood rides in several places in Germany, the dates are not uniform.
Blood kick in the vineyard
The blood walk in the Upper Swabian vineyard is considered the largest equestrian procession in Europe and takes place on the Friday after Ascension Day , the so-called Blood Friday. It was mentioned in writing for the first time in 1529 and was already called a custom “from ancient times”. Traditionally, the blood kick is a male pilgrimage.
The Weingarten Abbey hosts a Holy Blood relic for over 950 years: a few drops of blood in a clod of earth, said to be the blood of Jesus Christ . The reliquary is located in the Weingarten monastery church . On Blood Friday, the Holy Blood rider carries the reliquary through vineyards and the surrounding area. Every year around two to three thousand riders in tails and top hats (2016: 2,366 riders, 2018: 2,203 riders), organized in over 100 blood rider groups from all over the region, ride with the blood rider. Around 80 music bands (with over 4,000 members in 2018) accompany the riders. In recent years the number of riders has decreased somewhat after a previous long-term increase. In contrast, the number of participating musicians rose over the same period. The blood walk in Weingarten is followed annually on the streets of the city by over 30,000 pilgrims and spectators.
The blood kick did not become an intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO because women are not allowed to take part in the men's pilgrimage . In 2020, the blood kick was transmitted virtually for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Only a few riders and selected guests were allowed to participate in the service and the procession.
origin
According to legend, the Holy Blood relic in Weingarten contains the blood of Jesus of Nazareth . He was crucified on Golgotha around the year 30 or 31 . A Roman legionnaire, later known as Longinus , thrust his lance deep into the side of the crucified one to determine the death of the Son of God. The blood of Jesus Christ dripped onto the legionnaire's face and illuminated him: According to legend, this is the origin of the healing miracle effect of the blood of Jesus. Longinus picked up some of the drops of blood, mixed them with the earth of Golgotha and kept them in a leaden box. After being baptized by the apostles, he left Jerusalem and took a boat to Mantua , Italy , where he preached Christianity and was persecuted. When he got into need and distress, he hid the box and was martyred a little later . One day the place of the hiding place was revealed to the blind Adilbero . This news reached the emperor. Emperor, Pope and Duke of Mantua asked Adilbero to show them where the relic was hidden. This got his eyesight back. However, a bloody argument broke out over the relic. The subject of the dispute was divided as a result: a piece for Pope Leo IX. , one for the Duke of Mantua and a third for Emperor Henry III.
The legend does not stand up to historical investigation, rather the early Christian persecution of Longinus ended in Cappadocia . The relic and its bones came in 553 as a gift from Constantinople to the city of Mantua. When Mantua was besieged by the Lombards for a year in 580 , the relic was hidden in a secret place and found again in 804. Pope Leo III (795–816) and Charlemagne (768–814) had the relic checked. The blood relic was shared. During the siege of Mantua by the Hungarians in 923, the parts were again hidden: the larger part together with the Longinus relics in the garden of the Andrea Hospital, the smaller part in the old church of St. Paul near the cathedral (found 1479). On March 12, 1048, the greater part of the blood relic and the bones of Longinus were found in Mantua. Pope Leo IX (1049-1054) convened a church synod in Mantua in 1053 and wanted to take the Relic of the Precious Blood to Rome. Because of the resistance of the Mantuans, there was a second division of the Holy Blood relic, so that one part remained in Mantua, the other ended up in Rome. In 1055 Emperor Heinrich III came. (1039-1056) to Mantua and received another part of the blood relic.
When the emperor died in 1056, the relic was bequeathed to Count Baldwin V of Flanders (1035-1067) as a symbol of reconciliation. He gave it to his relative Judith (1032-1094). She was married to Welf IV. Von Altdorf , Duke of Bavaria, for the second time . When he went on the crusade, she gave the blood relic to Walicho (1088–1108), abbot of Weingarten Monastery, the favorite foundation and burial place of the Guelphs .
The handover of the relic dates to May 31, 1090 or March 12, 1094. Apparently, the day was the Friday after Ascension Day and is thus the origin of the Blood Friday and the Blood Admission. The handover is depicted as a relief on the Hosanna bell (1490) of St. Martin's Basilica .
History of the blood kick
Up until the 17th century, the blood access was associated with bypassing the border of the Weingarten area. The fathers pulled their sons, who had come of age, and gave them slaps in the face at prominent points .
procedure
On the evening of Ascension Day, thousands of pilgrims take part in a light procession from the Basilica of St. Martin to Kreuzberg (since 1890) at the start of the blood kick .
On Blood Friday itself, the equestrian mass begins at around 6 a.m. in the basilica and around 7 a.m. the blood kick over ten kilometers through the streets and the adjacent fields of Weingarten. The relic, incorporated into a cross studded with precious stones, is carried by the Holy Blood rider, who donates the blessing of the Holy Blood for the house, yard and fields. The relic is secured by a chain with three rings in case the horse rears up and throws the rider off. Until the monastery was closed in 2010, a priest from the Weingarten monastery was a Holy Blood rider, and the pastor of the basilica has held this position since 2011. After around five hours, the reliquary returns to the basilica.
Altars
The equestrian procession moves to four exterior altars. One of them is outside of Weingarten in the municipality of Baienfurt:
- 1. Altar - Thumbstraße 48 in the parish of St. Maria, Weingarten
- 2. Altar - gallows cross on the road to Ettishofen in the parish of Heilig Geist, Weingarten
- 3. Altar - courtyard on the road to Mochenwangen in the parish of Baienfurt
- 4. Altar - Baienfurter Strasse at the mission cross in the parish of St. Martin Weingarten
Film The Blood Knights
In 2003, director Douglas Wolfsperger shot Die Blutritter, a documentary film about several participants in the blood kick in Weingarten. The film premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival in summer 2004 .
Blood kick in Bad Wurzach
In Bad Wurzach , Upper Swabia , the blood kick is traditionally part of the Holy Blood Festival on the second Friday in July. With around 1,500 riders and around 5,000 pilgrims , it is the second largest equestrian procession in Central Europe. The focus is on the veneration of a holy blood relic from the private property of Pope Innocent XII.
origin
According to tradition, a pilgrim received from Pope Innocent XII. in 1693 in Rome given a piece of blood soaked cloth. This relic ended up in Bad Wurzach.
procedure
The blood-soaked piece of cloth is carried along in a gilded reliquary during the procession through the city and the surrounding area. The horses are festively decorated and the riders wear their festive robes. The procession begins at 7 a.m. with the collection of the relic at the town church and ends with a sermon on the Gottesberg.
Processional way
- Collection of the Holy Blood relic in the town church of St. Verena
- 1. Station altar at the castle portal
- 2. Station altar at the Josenhof
- 3. Station altar in Truschwende
- 4. Station altar in Reinstein
- Destination: Gottesberg
Blood rides in other places
- Neuler- Schwenningen
- Westhausen-Lippach
- Weißenau (irregular, for anniversaries)
In some Lucerne communities there are similar customs on Ascension Day , called “Auffahrt” or “Uffert” in Swiss
literature
- Description of the solemnity of the Heil. Blutritts after a booklet from 1781 , in: Franz Sauter: Weingarten Monastery, its history and memorabilia. Compiled from mostly unknown handwritten sources . Carl Maier, Ravensburg 1857, p. 33 ff. ( Digital version (PDF))
- Hermann Dettmer (Ed.): On foot, on horseback ... pilgrimages in the Ravensburg district . Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach / Riß 1990, ISBN 3-924489-55-6
- Paul Kopf: Blood Friday in Weingarten. Witness in distress and need. 1933-1949 . Süddeutsche Verlags-Gesellschaft, Ulm 1990, ISBN 3-88294-145-6
- Norbert Kruse , Hans Ulrich Rudolf (ed.): 900 years of adoration of the Holy Blood in Weingarten 1094–1994 . 3 volumes. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1994, ISBN 3-7995-0398-6
- Gebhard Spahr: Heilig-Blut-Ritte zu Weingarten in the Baroque and Enlightenment period , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 89th year 1971, pp. 71-82 ( digital copy )
- H. v. C .: The blood kick . In: The Gazebo . Issue 23, 1867, pp. 363–366 ( full text [ Wikisource ] - with illustration).
Web links
- The Blood Entry in Weingarten (private side)
- The blood kick on the website of the city of Weingarten
- Blood Friday Community Weingarten e. V.
- Blood kick in Westhausen-Lippach
Individual evidence
- ↑ 3000 riders at the blood kick on Friday . In: Südkurier , May 11, 2010
- ↑ SWR , April 30, 2020: Weingartener Blutritt is not a cultural heritage , accessed: May 22, 2020
- ↑ SWR , May 22, 2020: Unusually empty: Celebrations on Blood Friday in Weingarten ended , accessed: May 22, 2020
- ↑ a b Dirk Grupe: How the Holy Blood came from Golgotha to Upper Swabia . In: Schwäbische Zeitung , May 12, 2010
- ↑ a b c History of the Holy Blood , accessed May 13, 2010
- ^ Sigrid Thurm: Ernst, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 628 ( digitized version ).
- ↑ The equestrian procession brings another holiday to Weingarten. In: Südkurier of May 7, 2016.
- ↑ Around 1500 riders expected for the blood kick . In: Südkurier of July 8, 2010
- ↑ luzern.com ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ pfarreihitzkirch.ch
