Hansel thimble game

At the end of the summer game, winter is symbolically burned

Hansel thimble as a fountain figure; he's trying to catch a woman

The Hansel thimble game in the Palatinate wine-growing village of Forst an der Weinstrasse is a spectacle as part of a summer's day train with a centuries-old tradition. A folk festival is celebrated on the fairground where the parade ends. The one-day event takes place annually on Sunday Laetare , which is three weeks before Easter.

The game was included in the nationwide directory of intangible cultural heritage .

geography

In the wine-growing region on both sides of the German Wine Route there are numerous folk festivals with historical references. Nationally known are z. B. the billy goat auction in the country town of Deidesheim , which is neighboring Forst, the Eselshautfest in nearby Mußbach an der Weinstrasse and the Billigheimer Purzelmarkt in the southern Palatinate community of Billigheim-Ingenheim .

Characteristic

Hansel thimble fountain

The summer play is presented for an hour and a half as a chain of public performances as part of a parade. The train starts at the northern entrance to the village, runs through the main street and ends on the fairground in front of the Felix-Christoph-Traberger-Halle; booths and a carousel have been set up there, and at the end of the event, the winter is symbolically burned in the form of a straw cone .

The main characters of the game with traditional rhyming texts are summer and winter , played by young men in cone-shaped "houses", summer clad in ivy, winter with straw. The argument between summer and winter forms the core of the summer day game, to which scenes were added that are probably of different origins. Of the other figures, Hansel Fingerhut is the most important. He embodies a vagabond whose robe is composed of colorful patches. With a soot-blackened face, he pursues girls and women in satirical moods ; he tries to kiss her and to mark her cheeks with the black imprints of his intrusiveness. Nudelgret , played by a young man who wears a wig with two blond pigtails, is part of the entourage of winter . She baked the pretzels she carries around with her to keep her mouth safe for the long winter. The Henrich ensign , dressed in a historical soldier's uniform, has another role ; as judge he decides the battle between summer and winter. The sixth actor is the clipper , a barber who shaves the Hansel thimble and lets it bleed .

Hansel Fingelhut is shown as a bronze sculpture on the Hansel-Thimble-Fountain near the southern entrance to the town. The fountain was created in 2003 by the sculptor Franz Leschinger from Lug (Palatinate) .

history

The summer festival has its origins in two different traditions: the fight between winter and summer, as well as the handing out of pointed wakes to children after the service. Some elements probably originate from the Swiss and southern Baden region and are borrowed from old carnival games or craftsmanship. New citizens from this area were brought here by the sovereigns of the time, because the area was largely depopulated by the Thirty Years' War . They brought their carnival customs , of which, for example, the fool's leap of the Rottweil fool's guild became known throughout Germany, and integrated them into the customs they found. The performance of the game in Forst is documented for the first time in 1721. Around 1900, the game was recorded by the Forster senior teacher Otto Stang; Albert Becker published it a second time in 1907 and 1931.

UNESCO cultural heritage

On December 9, 2016, the Hansel thimble game was included in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage .

Literary processing

The writer Paul Ginthum (1894–1959), who was born in Heidelberg and lives in Lustadt (Palatinate) , wrote the Hansel thimble game. In its version, the game was first performed in 1923 in the southern Palatinate city of Landau .

literature

• Viktor Carl: The Palatinate in the year . A Palatinate folklore. Publishing house Palatinate Art Dr. Hans Blinn, Landau i. d. Pfalz 1986, ISBN 3-922580-22-X .
• Berthold Schnabel : Art historical guide through the Deidesheim association . The Forster summer day game. Deidesheim 1976, p. 12 .
• Heinz Schmitt : The summer day or Stabaus . In: Jürgen Keddigkeit (Hrsg.): Festivals and festivals in the Palatinate . Kaiserslautern 1992, ISBN 3-927754-03-X , p. 124-131 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schnabel (1976). P. 12
2. ^ Roland Happersberger: Hansel thimble and the straw wipe . In: Die Rheinpfalz , leisure magazine LEO . Ludwigshafen March 15, 2012.
3. ^ Local community of Forst: Hansel-Fingerhut-Festival in Forst / Pfalz. Retrieved March 15, 2012 . 
4. ↑ Schmitt (1992). P. 125
5. ↑ Forster Hanselfingerhut game. Nationwide register of intangible cultural heritage, accessed on November 13, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Paul Ginthum: Palatine legends and ballads . With original lithographs by Otto Dill , Albert Haueisen and Adolf Keßler . Publisher Daniel Meininger, Neustadt a. d. Weinstrasse 1984, ISBN 3-87524-038-3 .
7. ^ Lätare - move in Landau on Sunday, March 15, 2015. landau.de, March 5, 2015, accessed on February 29, 2016 .