Tease
The teasing was originally a rite of passage and is derived from "in the Hanse - Community accommodate" off. After the dissolution of the Hanseatic League, it has been used colloquially to this day to tease or ridicule someone .
The rite is part of a ceremony that has survived despite all the time adjustments, admittedly not in the early form with boatman stings and bloody human sacrifices, not in those of the Hanseatic era, but - according to more civilized customs - as crude-friendly fun, redesigned for fun, today baptism of the line or called equator baptism .
The word goes back to hansa , hanse , which initially meant crowd , quantity and is common as Hanse in the meaning of trading company , trading alliance.
Details
Teasing meant to be accepted into such a society, later generally into a closed community . The admission and thus the granting of federal rights require two things: on the one hand, the payment of a certain amount of money, the Hänse or Hense , on the other hand, the passing of tough tests of courage . Both, paying and being checked, used to be called hansen or hensen in Low German , later hansen , hanseln and hinseln . Finally, Low German teasing spread also in High German.
The tests of courage have their origins in the customs of the ancient peoples , when the grown up young men were consecrated or baptized in cultic festivals and accepted into the men's society if they had shown strength, fearlessness and hardness and thus guaranteed the interests of their tribe or to be able to preserve the people.
In the German-speaking area, the teasing in the foreign offices of the German Hanseatic League flourished. About one of the four trade centers of the Hanseatic League abroad, the main office in Bergen , notorious because of its drastic Hansel practices - the Tyske Brygge , occupied around 1350 with around three thousand young merchants , boatmen and craftsmen - one writes:
- Competing with the Bergisch people in a difficult dispute was considered a godly act, and the most palpable joke was a pleasant change in the monotonous life ... Nobody was allowed to bring a strange woman onto the bridge so that federal matters would not be revealed through Frauenmund, and no merchant was allowed inside get married ten years.
The Nykamer , the newcomers, suffered from raw male customs : They were shaved with large knives, made to swallow huge pills, empty the Hanseatic cup with bad liquid, hung them in a sack over the fire in the smoke, thrown them into a swamp and bathed them in icy water. They had to endure tests in which their necks and backs often cracked, and their noses and mouths bleed, all of which they had to endure without complaint.
The custom and name have spread and have been preserved up to modern times, even if the proof of steadfastness in favor of the satisfaction of the material ambitions of the community has faded into the background. In the 19th century , newcomers of the most diverse origins, servants, farmers and craftsmen and many others had to tease by paying for drinking bouts or at least spending a few rounds of beer for the old hands / Hansen . Who is not in this way in the company was shopping had to reckon with disrespect and bawdy jokes: He teases hett still nich . During this time the word also got the meaning to tease , to fool . Today the original meaning of the word " tease" has almost been forgotten, but the custom of making a debut is still widespread.
The custom of demanding testimony of their courage and steadfastness from young people and newcomers naturally also existed on board, and there are many reports about this. It was operated in a different way, but when the name of the Hansen custom became known, the word tease entered the language of the German seaman. Here, too, the teasing had the aim of accepting someone into the community, but even more - analogous to the original meaning - it was a test of courage that the newcomer had to take in front of the entire crew. It should confirm that the examinee could defy the dangers of a sea area that was still unknown to him and show them that the newcomers were mentally and physically up to it. The main thing was, even if all sorts of harmless and crude jokes framed the whole thing, the more or less voluntary jumps from often more than 15 meters in height - from the nock of the main yard - into the sea. This was also called diving , later baptisms . And also the sea and sea baptism, the line or equator baptism has its spiritual origin here. In this respect, teasing is actually related to baptism, albeit in a modified form.
In the second half of the 19th century, baptism increasingly focused on crossing the line, the special event of the first arrival in the southern hemisphere, and the term line baptism - commonly referred to as equator baptism - arose . The plot took on a solemn and comical character: The sea god Neptune presided, dressed up in bright colors, and made-up followers - actuaries , astronomers , court barbers and court preachers - in his wake.
