Gauder Fest

The Gauderfest in Tyrol takes place every year on the first weekend in May in Zell am Ziller in the Tyrolean Zillertal . It is the largest spring festival in Tyrol and traditional costume festival in Austria and was recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage in 2014 .

history

The name Gauder was mentioned for the first time in a Zillertal land register in 1400 . "Gauder" is the name of the property on which the festival was held until after the Second World War. Later, the festival of Gauder lehen , which is located on the eastern outskirts of Zell am Ziller , was moved directly to the village. The name is not derived from the dialect word Gaudi ('joy, fun, cheerfulness'), but refers to the original venue.

The Gauderfest itself is believed to have originated around 1500 during the time of Emperor Maximilian I , as this is also the year that the Zeller Brewery, today's Zillertal Beer Brewery , was founded. The brewery had the imperial privilege of brewing a strong beer , which was drunk on occasions such as the Gauderfest. In its current form, the Gauderfest has only been held since the 16th century.

The Gauderfest has always been held on the first weekend in May for centuries. This date was probably chosen due to the climatic situation in the Zillertal. May was always the month in which the grazing cattle were driven to the alpine pastures . The residents celebrated the church day in Zell am Ziller as a meeting place to swap and sell goods and animals after the long winter months and to deliver the tithe to the feudal lord earlier .

Although the Zillertal is one of the main tourist destinations in Tyrol, the Gauderfest is still primarily a meeting of the actors themselves.

In March 2014, the Austrian UNESCO Commission included the gala event in Zell am Ziller in the list of national intangible cultural heritage in Austria , in the section Social Practices, Rituals and Celebrations. The purpose of this designation is to preserve it as a living cultural tradition.

Events and customs

Costume parade and supporting program

The costume parade on Gaudersunday is the largest of its kind in Austria, with over 2000 participants every year. It represents the climax of the event and is one of the most important meetings of the alpine costume culture with a wide audience. Traditional costume and music groups, historic carriages and floats take part in the parade.

Other events include a field fair and the market with traditional handicrafts and regional specialties from the Zillertal. A breeding animal exhibition has been held since 2005 , at which Haflinger and Noriker horses , Tyrolean gray cattle , Tux-Zillertal cattle and other local breeds are also represented.

Competitions

From traditional competitions especially the today Ranggeln and Gauder Six fight , originally the Gauder triathlon , survived. From the typical competitions on a Tyrolean church day , such as the Kuhstechen , the cockfight and the ram pushing , ritualized hierarchy struggles of livestock, where the holder of the winner got each awarded the best grazing rights, the current Gauderfest adopted.

The Ranggeln on Gauderfest is considered one of the most famous Ranggler Competition in the Alps. Every year young boys from the village, also called Mairraffar and Roblar , fight for the title of Gauderhogmoar (Hagmair) . It loses in Ranggeln who lies first with his back on the ground. Hogmoar was a widespread office of a local arbitrator in basic disputes in Salzburg (to which the Zillertal also belonged in the past). The office was considered a special honor, especially for the winner's village, and was valid for one year until the next event. Ranggeln is still a sport practiced in the Salzburg – Tyrol area.

The ram pushing , once the highlight of the festival, arose from the European and Asian pastoral culture. Sheep breeding plays an important role in the Zillertal with the Tyrolean stone sheep , here called gray sheep . The goats that took part in the ram kick were raised according to very specific rules and had to be between four and six years old on the day of the ram kick. The two rams were led by their breeders to the place where the rams fought. It lost the animal which was the first to turn away from the other. The most recently dominant ram was awarded a badge or a bush (arrangement).

The three disciplines of the Gauder triathlon were finger hooking , horseshoe throwing and the flip of the hand - these strength and skill types of competition have a long tradition, especially in the Alpine region, and were held for Sunday entertainment or at church and market days. Finger hooking, for example, continued until 1950. Later there was the triathlon in the form of finger crooks, the flip of the hand and conical discs .
The Gauder Triathlon has been replaced by the Gauder Six Battle , which is carried out as a fun event in the team. The disciplines for this are currently arm wrestling , tree trunk throwing , rope pulling , barrel pigeon racing, beer crate climbing and barrel rolling .

Gauderbock

Gauderbock and the Gauderfest are firmly connected in the tradition: The "Gauderbock" is Austria's strongest festival beer and has been brewed annually by the Zillertal Beer Brewery on the occasion of the Gauderfest since 1500. The "Zeller Brewery", as the company was called back then, was first mentioned in a document around 1500. This makes Zillertal beer the oldest private brewery in Tyrol. The strong beer with 7.8 percent by volume is only available during the Gauderzeit and is usually sold out within a few days.

literature

• Petra Streng, Gunter Bakay: savages, witches, saints: lively Tyrolean customs throughout the year. Verlag Loewenzahn, 2005, ISBN 9783706623766 , Gauderfest in Zell am Ziller , p. 136 ff.

Web links

• Official website of the Gauderfest
• Zillertal Beer: Organizer
• "Gauderfest in Zell am Ziller" (1967) - a film by Otto König from the collection of the Federal Institute for Scientific Film (ÖWF) in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ development. gauderfest.at, accessed April 22, 2015.
2. ↑ The Gauderfest. gemeinde-zell.at, accessed April 22, 2015.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Gauder Festival in Zell am Ziller. Austrian Commission for UNESCO: Directory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Austria , accessed on June 12, 2020.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} competitions. ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 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. gauderfest.at, accessed April 22, 2015.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Entry on Gauder Fest in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
6. ↑ Gauderfest 2005 - 1st Zillertal Breeding Animal Exhibition. ( Memento of the original from April 1, 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. tiroler-grauvieh.at: News archive , May 4, 2005 (accessed April 1, 2016).
7. ↑ 2nd Zillertal breeding animal exhibition as part of the Gauderfest. tiroler-braunvieh.at, News o. D. (2006, accessed April 1, 2016).
8. ↑ cf. Tiroler Bergschaf: ( Memento of the original from April 1, 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. Tyrolean stone sheep. koestliches-oesterreich.at, accessed April 1, 2016.  
9. ↑ Gauderfest 2010 in Zell am Ziller. ( Memento of the original from April 1, 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. tirol-kaiserjaegermusik.at, accessed April 1, 2016.  
10. ↑ Gauderbock. gauderfest.at, accessed on April 22, 2015.