Gregorius Festival
The Gregorius Festival is a school and children's festival that has a tradition of more than 1000 years. Pope Gregory IV is considered to be the founder , who in 830 ordered a children's procession on the occasion of the reburial of Pope Gregory I. In any case, Gregory I was also referred to as the "child bishop", since he tried to educate children. It applies u. a. as patron of the students and pupils. At the end of the winter school - the children were needed to work in the fields in the summer - before Easter or on March 12th , the anniversary of Gregor I's death, after the exams there were pastries and confectionery and finally also games and dancing.
In the 18th century, due to the elements of this festival and some other references, the Roman Minerva celebrations ( Quinquatrus ) were considered to be the forerunners of the Gregorius parades.
In central and southern Germany and in Austria, the Gregorius festivals have been alive since the Middle Ages with traditional customs , parades and the so-called Gregori singing, especially in Upper Franconia (for example in Kasendorf , Pegnitz , Schnabelwaid , Creussen , Thurnau ) and Thuringia (for example in Stadtilm ) the Gregorius Festival is still celebrated today. The move to the children's festival in Neustadt bei Coburg , where the children dress up for school classes and roam the town, is particularly well known .
literature
- Günther Bretschneider: From Gregorius to a children's festival . In: Local supplement to the official school gazette of the government district of Upper Franconia. Bayreuth 106 (1987).
- Anja Richter: A festival for schools and the city. The Freiberg Gregorius Festival until its abolition in 1835 . In: Volkskunde in Sachsen 17 (2005), pp. 31–55.
- Anja Richter: School celebrations of the Freiberg Latin School and the Albertinum Grammar School . In: From Freiberg Latin School to High School. Edited by Friends of the Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium Freiberg e. V. Zwickau 2015, pp. 92-105.
