Hielich
The Hielich is an old custom in the Bergisches Land , in which the young people appear at the bride's house and want to be entertained after they have first held a gun shooting . In the Eifel area the custom was called Hillich . There, the representatives of a bachelor club turned to the wedding party of a bride from their locality and demanded payment from them. The name Hieling is also known.
history
The word Hielich comes from Middle High German (hiuleich or hîleich) and initially stands with the syllable leich for a song that the bachelors sang when they appeared. The syllable here stands for the marriage itself.
Before or after the first array a was in place engagement party of Hielich committed. This is a tradition attested to as early as 1300 in Cologne , which was still to be found in isolated cases in the 1950s in the Bergisches Land and in the Eifel. A young lad invited us to the Hielich. He carried a long black stick adorned with colored ribbons. He stopped in front of every house and invited the young people with the words: “ cheerfully kummen on lang doblieven ” (come early and stay long). The Hielich evening was then celebrated with gunshots and firecrackers from all kinds of devices. Milk cans loaded with carbide and water were particularly popular . The lid was attached to a chain that was anchored in the ground or attached to a tree so that it would not get lost in the dark when fired. There was a hole in the bottom of the jug. When the gas ( acetylene ) forming in the jug escaped, a burning fuse was held up to the hole and the shot went off. Then the young people were invited to the house or the courtyard, where they ate, drank and danced until the early hours of the morning in honor of the bride and groom and of course at their expense.
This tradition has been lost since the middle of the 20th century. The hen party later took its place .
Special features in the Eifel
On the Hillich evening, the bachelors moved in front of the bride's house to draw attention to themselves with noise and singing. The songs were mostly about disappointed love, lamenting the fact that the girl had not chosen one of her own.
In some areas of the Eifel, noise was mainly generated by grinding scythe blades on rotating, iron-studded wagon wheels, which is why one spoke of Hillich grinding or just grinding for the Hillich themselves. A wagon was jacked up for this purpose. Ropes or chains were attached to the wagon wheels to get the wheel going. Striking saw blades lying on the floor with hammers was also popular and effective. In some places, the Hillich boys pretend to be weeping by expressing high tones of sadness that they did not have the desirable bride.
literature
- Franz Peter Kürten : Hilich . In: Volksleben und Lande am Rhein, Rosenmond . Rheinvolk-Verlag, Cologne-Dünnwald undated , p. 80
- Submission before the wedding with three announcements. In: Damen Conversations Lexikon , Volume 1. Leipzig 1834, p. 359.
Web links
- The engagement - the "Hielich" or "Hillich" accessed on November 12, 2012
- Request of the Vinxeler bachelors on the wedding evening to the groom retrieved on November 12, 2012
- The following terms begin with Hielich, accessed on November 12, 2012
- The Vinxel Jura accessed on November 25, 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Brigitte Schauerte-Lüke: People and Customs . In: The districts in North Rhine-Westphalia , Volume 8, The Rheinisch-Bergische Kreis . Wilhelm Stollfuss Verlag, Bonn 1974, p. 136 f.
- ↑ The bachelor club of the place where the bride comes from moves to the wedding party in order to claim Hielich / Hielich money. Retrieved November 12, 2012
- ↑ Hielich. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 10 : H, I, J - (IV, 2nd division). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1877 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
- ↑ Manfred Schönenberg: The Hielich . In: Heimatblätter of the Heimat- und Geschichtsverein Neunkirchen-Seelscheid e. V. , Yearbook No. 12, 1997, p. 280 ff.