Bonfire
The Funkenfeuer (short: spark ) is an old fire custom that is still used today in the Swabian-Alemannic region ( Vorarlberg , Liechtenstein , Switzerland , Black Forest , Allgäu , Upper Swabia and in the Tyrolean Oberland and Vinschgau ), but also in Eastern France and into the region from Aachen as well as among the Sathmar Swabians in Romania. Every year on the radio Sunday (today partly also on Saturday before) the so-called sparks are burned. Spark Sunday is the first Sunday after Ash Wednesday , i.e. the first Sunday of Lent.
The spark is usually a pile of straw or a piled up wooden tower, which is lit under the eyes of the villagers after dusk. The largest sparks can reach heights of up to 30 meters. In 2010, the use of sparks in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg was included in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage in Austria .
procedure
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Before the Second World War , the preparations were mostly carried out by the village youth. In the course of time these tasks were also taken over by spark guilds or the local jester association . In Vorarlberg, the funk fir is traditionally cut on Shrove Tuesday. In the same week fuel is collected from the population. Old Christmas trees , pallets or other waste wood are often used to build sparks.
construction
The build-up of the spark begins on the Saturday before Spark Sunday. In Vorarlberg and in the Allgäu this usually consists of an artfully stacked wooden tower, in western Upper Swabia it is more of a large pile of straw, and in the Rhine Valley v. a. Lumber (branches) used. The other collected fuel is stored inside. The core of the construction is the spark fir, a tree trunk that has been delimbed to the top and on the top of which hangs a witch doll ( "spark witch" ). In some places, especially in the Allgäu and Vorarlberg, the spark witch is filled with gunpowder. In Erdeed (Romania) the funka consists of a wooden cross wrapped in straw on a pole that is stuck in a pyre.
Spark guard
On the night of Sunday, a spark watch takes care so that the boys from the neighboring villages do not light the spark early. The economic interests associated with this custom in many places have made this traditional prank now a criminal offense. Nevertheless, such attacks are still taking place.
Spark economy
In the past, in some areas (about northwest of Lake Constance ), a room for the spark economy was built into the spark , in which guests were served until shortly before the ignition. For safety reasons, however, it is more likely to be celebrated in a tent next to the spark. In some places, the villagers pull in a torchlight procession to the spark spot at dusk. In some communities, a children's spark is also burned down in the afternoon. The procession is often accompanied by village music, a choir or torch-lit ringers. Otherwise you will meet in the evening in the spark economy or in the spark tent and gather around the spark at the appropriate time.
burn down
When it gets dark, the sparks are lit under the eyes of the villagers who are waiting for the spark witch to explode, possibly after a solemn speech by the spark guild. When the flames of the spark reach the witch doll, it explodes with a loud resounding, which promises special luck. It is generally considered a bad omen if the spark falls before the witch has exploded. In this case, the witch is "buried" in a ceremony on the following Sunday. Fireworks are often set off after the witch's explosion .
Regional accompanying customs
Spark ring cubes
This tradition traditionally takes place in Upper Swabia and the Allgäu on Funkensonntag (or in many places also on Saturday evening). In many taverns and club houses, so-called spark rings, a circular yeast biscuit (wreath bread), are diced from the morning pint. The spark ring is also considered a sun and fertility symbol.
Spark car
In the Upper Swabian region, especially in the area around Ravensburg, building sparks also includes cozy get-togethers in the spark car. A spark wagon is often an old construction wagon, partly converted by the spark builders.
The Böögg
In northern Switzerland, especially in the cantons of Zurich and St. Gallen , the “Böögg”, a rag doll filled with gunpowder that explodes with a loud bang, is burned instead of the spark witch.
Slamming the windows
When it comes to sparks, in some regions the custom of striking a disc is also maintained, in which glowing wooden discs are catapulted into the air over a ramp with the help of a rod or a stick .
puma
In the municipality of Bürs in Vorarlberg, so-called “Pumas” have been carried through the village to spark since around 1870. Puma are differently shaped wooden or metal constructions that are covered with colored paper and attached to poles. The traditional motifs are lit from the inside with candles. The largest Puma have sides of over one square meter, a weight of over 10 kg and are carried with shoulder straps.
history
origin
The origin of this custom is unclear, although it is documented extremely early. Early considerations were mostly based on the assumption that it was a remnant of a pagan-Germanic custom to drive out winter . This interpretation can be found, for example, with the regional historian and priest Josef Thaler, who in a poem with the title "Lertha" from 1798 interpreted the bonfire in the Christian sense. He saw the custom as a remnant of paganism, which is carried out by the present "grandchildren" to praise God and for moral improvement. Thaler added a historical interpretation to the poem:
“The Holepfann fires [note: another name for spark fire] are lit in the vicinity of Meran, such as in Ulten, Passeier and Vinschgau, at dusk on the first Sunday after Carnival, all around on hills, with one here and there Letting burning bundles of sticks and straw roll down over the seeds, what is called 'waking up grain' in Ulten. In the Vinschgau these fires are associated with the so-called slamming of the panes - the throwing out of burning wooden panes (originally probably representing the sun) while loudly greeting some expensive head. This custom is probably a holdover from the natural festivals that our pagan forefathers of the goddess Herda (mother earth) and, in a broader sense, the world mother Frigga (mother nature) as well as the sun god Balder celebrated, both after the winter solstice and also those of the summer , from where our St. John's bonfires in the Innthale are written. "
Franz Josef Fischer also mentioned the possibility of a pagan origin in his book Der Funken and Küachlesonntag in Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein in 1921 :
“The pagan natives of the country, the Celtic Rhaetians, like all Indo-European peoples, paid homage to the worship of light and fire that emanated from the sun, they worshiped the sun god Mithra and Baldur as givers of light and warmth. The victorious God overcomes the son of the north, the winter , with his nocturnal, dreadful ghost and, through his mild spring breath , in the Alpine countries, the foehn , spellbinding and having an effect on life, makes the earth green and sprout anew. Sacrifices are made to this god, fires are lit, festive dances are held. "
The pagan interpretation was widespread in the 19th and 20th centuries also by folklore science and is now the common explanation of the custom. Modern European ethnology paints a somewhat more differentiated picture. Tradition and date of the custom show a close connection with the end of the Swabian-Alemannic Carnival and thus the Christian course of the year. More precisely, the date is a holdover from the earlier beginning of Lent (hence also called Old Carnival in some areas ). At the Synod of Benevento in 1091, the date was moved to Ash Wednesday . Already at that time, the use of sparks was so strongly integrated into the Christian calendar that in some regions the date at the former beginning of Lent was retained despite its postponement. In a Europe-wide study of fire customs, folklorist Matthias Zender traces the burning down of the fire on Spark Sunday to fires still in use in Northern Italy at the beginning of the Roman year on March 1st. On this day the sacred fire was lit in ancient Rome in the Temple of Vesta . The celebration is said to have been integrated into the Christian calendar later, in the early Middle Ages. The origin would have been a pagan, but Roman custom.
In addition, the spark was used to burn rubbish and thus had an extremely profane function, which was in connection with the spring cleaning of the house and the meadows.
Middle Ages and early modern times
The first evidence of the fire custom taking place on Spark Sunday comes from a Latin fire report of the Benedictine monastery Lorsch from the year 1090. According to the report, the fire in the monastery was kindled by a burning wooden disc thrown by the boys on the evening of March 21, 1090. Further documents from the 15th century ( Basel ), as well as the 16th and 17th centuries ( Lucerne , Bregenz , Innsbruck ) prove that the custom was once spread.
It was only pushed back with the Enlightenment . The burning of a witch doll on the spark is not a remnant of the witch burnings of the early modern times , but probably only originated in the 19th century based on the carnival.
20th century
After the First World War , the custom of burning sparks fell sharply. Due to the general lack of wood, it was even banned for a few years. In the Austrian corporate state between 1933 and 1938, the spark can also be seen in the tension between the end of the First Republic and the Austro-Fascist putsch . In doing so, the local Austro-Fascist cultural policy had tried to combine the spark with ideas from the corporate state and to continue the formation of local traditions. The spark was consciously used for propaganda purposes to promote an “Austrian ideology” or to represent the corporate state - but only with moderate success. The spark custom was rarely adopted in the Austro-Fascist festival repertoire.
After the connection of Austria to the German Reich in 1938, especially the tourist aspect of the spark was discovered in Vorarlberg. As a result of the connection, the thousand-mark block was lifted, and numerous German vacationers flocked to Vorarlberg in winter . The political benefit that the spark had for the National Socialists was rather small. The spark demonstrated the diversity of the empire, but at the same time also a less desirable regionalism that did not fit into the image of national strength and unity.
Development after the Second World War
With the end of the Second World War , spark usage in Vorarlberg experienced a strong boom. Despite the lack of fuel, innumerable fires burned everywhere. During this time, the spark served as an instrument for identifying the people of Vorarlberg. More than ever before, the spark became a national custom in Vorarlberg, while in Germany it remained an appendage to the carnival that was largely unknown outside of its region. Therefore, in Germany, the sparks continued to be set up partly by non-officially organized groups or members of individual associations, but partly also by local fools' associations. In Vorarlberg, on the other hand, numerous communities have now established spark guilds specifically for the implementation of the spark. With the accompanying professionalization of the implementation, the sparks were built ever higher and more artistic. The individual spark guilds developed different spark construction methods and accompanying programs over the years, so that today there is an almost unmanageable variety.
Stricter laws on safety, liability in the event of accidents and the burning of waste wood are a problem today. For example, the new Austrian Federal Clean Air Act of 2010 also makes it difficult to burn traditional fires .
The Vorarlberg spark usage was included in the register of intangible cultural heritage in Austria in 2010 .
The radio guild Gaißau , Vorarlberg had on March 12, 2000, according to Guinness World Records achieved elevational world record in building and burning a spark with 41 m height. According to the certificate, “24 fir trees, each 20 m long, 100 kg nails, 80 m 3 sawn timber, a mobile crane and a lot of muscle work were used”. In 2017, the Gaißau spark guild organized the “Vorarlberger Funken Am Himmel” on Vienna's Höhenstraße .
On March 16, 2019, the Hofstalder Sparkenzunft in Lustenau planned to break the world record and burn off a 58.6 meter high spark. This plan was preceded by weeks of veritable dispute among the population about the meaning of this world record spark. The permit from the municipality of Lustenau was only granted about a week before the planned burning date. With the burning of a 60.64 meter high spark, the Lustenau spark guild ousted the Norwegian Ålesund from the Guinness Book of Records in March 2019 . Ålesund had held the record for the “tallest bonfire” since 2016 with 47 meters.
On March 13 ( Höchst ) and March 15, 2019 ( Schoppernau ), sparks were ignited by arsonists without permission in Vorarlberg, which were supposed to be lit later due to strong winds. The first was burned down by the volunteer fire brigade , the second was later extinguished because of flying sparks for safety's sake .
Farmer rules
"If you see a lot of stars
on Spark Sunday, there will be a lot of cherries this year." "If there are long icicles on Spark Sunday, there will be long flax."
See also
- Biikebrennen (similar custom in North Friesland)
- Castle burning (similar custom in Luxembourg and the adjacent German border area)
- Bonfires
- Hut burning (similar custom in the Eifel)
- Midsummer bonfire
- Burning Judas
- Easter fire (similar custom in Germany and Austria during Easter)
- Sechseläuten (similar Swiss custom in Zurich)
literature
- Franz Josef Fischer: The Funken and Küachles Sunday in Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein. Verlag der Heimat, 1921.
- Hans Gapp: Alpine Customs. Innsbruck 1994.
- Monika Hehle: 's Ländlejohr. Hecht, 2000, ISBN 3-85298-076-3 .
- Reinhard Johler : The formation of a custom: The Funken and Holepfann Sunday. Studies from Vorarlberg, Liechtenstein, Tyrol, South Tyrol and Trentino. Self-published by the Institute for European Ethnology at the University of Vienna, Vienna 2000.
- Manfred Tschaikner: The desire to burn witches. Notes on the maintenance of customs. In: The Bludenzer. 1996 ( PDF )
- Matthias Zender: The dates of the annual fire in Europe. Explanations for the distribution map. Research on the Ethnological Atlas of Europe and its Neighboring Countries 1, Göttingen 1980.
Web links
Individual evidence
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^ A b Hans Gehl: Dictionary of the Danube Swabian ways of life. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2004, p. 313.
Mirela Filimon: Svabii din Ardud au alungat iarna prin sarbatoarea “Funka” ( Memento from March 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: Informaţia Zilei of March 6, 2011. - ↑ In Appenzell , Switzerland , the fourth Sunday of Lent is Funkensonntag: Funkensonntag appenzell.ch, accessed on March 22, 2020
- ↑ a b Funkensonntag ( memento of February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , National Agency for Intangible Cultural Heritage, Austrian Commission for UNESCO
- ↑ Herti Henss, The fifth season from Arlberg to Lake Constance, Hard 2004, p. 25
- ↑ Christiane Sturmer: PUMATRÄGER - old customs in Bürs. Vorarlberg Online , February 21, 2010, accessed April 17, 2020 .
- ^ Franz-Josef Sehr : The fire extinguishing system in Obertiefenbach from earlier times . In: Yearbook for the Limburg-Weilburg district 1994 . The district committee of the Limburg-Weilburg district, Limburg-Weilburg 1993, p. 151-153 .
- ^ Funkenzunft Gaißau: World record March 12, 2000, accessed March 3, 2017.
- ↑ Funken 2017 Am Himmel ( Memento from March 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Himmel.at, announcement for March 18, 2017, accessed March 3, 2017.
- ↑ world record sparks in Lustenau approved orf.at of March 8, 2019.
- ↑ orf.at: Lustenau successful with “world record spark” . Article dated March 17, 2019, accessed March 17, 2019.
- ↑ Spark arsonists on the move again orf.at, March 15, 2019, accessed March 15, 2019.