Pretzel singing

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The pretzel singing is a traditional festival in the Grossenhainer care and in the adjacent areas. It is traditionally celebrated on Sunday Laetare , i.e. three weeks before Easter . The pretzel singing is one of the customs of winter burning and carrying death and is partly identical to the summer day train.

origin

Originally, pretzel singing goes back to old pre-Christian customs. The festival is believed to be associated with pagan spring and fertility festivals, some of whose traditions have been incorporated into the custom. The “young woman with a mild hand” appearing in the songs sung was interpreted as the spring goddess Ostara or Freya . The bowl with a golden rim represents the first rays of sunshine over the horizon. At this time the pantries were almost empty, so that this prayer offered the opportunity to alleviate the misery. This custom is supposed to drive out winter and bring summer.

The move

Preparations begin days before the festival. Flags and ribbons are attached to the top of a round rod. The children meet early in the morning and then move from farm to farm. In front of each door they stand in a semicircle and sing their song. As a thank you, they are presented with pretzels , which are pushed onto the bars from below, so that a tower of pretzels is formed. Sponsored children get butter pretzels , the other children water pretzels. The move takes several hours. In some places decorated pine branches or spruce branches were carried instead of the poles and, in addition to the pretzels, there were also eggs. In some places a "summer tree" is placed in front of the house on Lätare, especially in front of the children's room, so that the children can welcome the summer when they get up.

song

About the song sung during the move ? / i several variants have been handed down. Audio file / audio sample

Version 1:

Summer, summer, May,
we are the three children,
the bowl has a golden rim,
the young woman has a gentle hand,
she
'll think about it and give
us the gackey,
if she doesn't give us the gackey, I won't show my flag ,
Summer and winter
are siblings, children.
March and May,
we're sticking to that.

Variant 2:

Summer Summer Maier,
S'Gackei taste a threesome,
The bowl has a good edge,
The young woman has a gentle hand.
She
'll probably think about it and give us the crap.
Don't give us the cuckoo, don't
get our buzzer.

Variation 3:

The summer and the winter, that of
his siblings.
Siblings must have something,
and they should dig something out of the earth.
The autumn and the May, they
stay with us,
we stay in our country, that
brings us no shame.

distribution

Before the First World War , the custom was still widespread in the Großenhainer care and could only last longer in the border areas with Brandenburg . It is said that the children in Lorenzkirch were ashamed to go begging and that the cantor therefore sent his own children to this parade. The custom was extinct in the 1960s. After the fall of the Wall it was possible to revive this custom in the village of Peritz . It is also proven for the places Lorenzkirch, Fichtenberg in Brandenburg, Lichtensee , Streumen , Koselitz , Tiefenau , Bärwalde and Lüttichau near Ortrand.

literature

  • Alfred Klitzsch: The pretzel singing in the Grossenhain area . In: Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz (Hrsg.): Messages from the Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz . tape 19 , issue 3/4, 1930, p. 191-192 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Otto Eduard Schmidt : From the Meißner Elbdörfern . In: Kursächsische Streifzüge Volume 3 From the old Mark Meißen . 1906, p. 160-162 .
  2. ^ A b Alfred Klitzsch: The pretzel singing in the Grossenhain area . In: Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz (Hrsg.): Messages from the Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz . tape 19 , issue 3/4, 1930, p. 191-192 ( online ).
  3. ^ A b The pretzel singing - an old folk custom in the village in Sächsische Zeitung , Riesa edition of 23 August 1991.
  4. Customs , on Fichtenbergelbe.de, accessed on November 21, 2013.
  5. Folklore. In: Großenhainer Pflege (= values ​​of the German homeland . Volume 70). 1st edition. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-09706-6 , p. 73.
  6. Heidrun Wozel: Contemporary folk festivals and customary care in Saxony as regional identification and economic factors , in: Thoughts. Journal of the Saxon Academy of Sciences , Issue 7 (2011), accessed on November 21, 2013.