Midsummer Night (Mainz)
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The Mainz Midsummer Night was first held in 1968 and, along with the Mainz Carnival and the wine market, is one of the three major Mainz folk festivals . Thematically, the festival is closely linked to the person of Johannes Gutenberg and the external image of Mainz as a city of literature and the arts of printing. The Mainz Midsummer Night takes place every year on four days near Midsummer's Day (June 24th) and attracts well over 500,000 visitors.
history
The Mainz Midsummer Night was first organized by the city of Mainz in 1968 on the 500th anniversary of Johannes Gutenberg's death. In addition to the purely academic celebrations on this occasion, Karl Delorme , a self-trained book printer and at the time head of social affairs for the city of Mainz, picked up on an old book printer tradition and launched a large public "Gautschen", so called the printer baptism, with which the sins of the apprenticeship and lead dust symbolically be washed off, held in public in historical costumes. Conceived as a folk festival, it was intended to remember Johannes Gutenberg, the Mainz inventor of the art of printing, who had been neglected in the consciousness of the Mainz population. In reference to the St. John's Festival, which has been celebrated by book printers since time immemorial, the event should be called "Mainz St. John's Night". The "Mainzer Midsummer Night" has meanwhile developed a specific character that has a decisive influence on the festival area in the heart of the city center.
Midsummer Night in Mainz, Gutenberg and the art of printing
The festive events surrounding Midsummer Night in Mainz were closely linked to the person of Gutenberg and the art of printing right from the start. One of the most popular partial events is the so-called “ Gautschen ” on Liebfrauenplatz in front of the Gutenberg Museum . This traditional ceremony in the book printing trade is often referred to as the printer's baptism. Former trainees in the printer and typesetter industry are immersed in public as newly trained journeymen of their trade in a large water tub (in the event of more or less violent resistance). This is intended to wash away the sins of the apprenticeship and the lead dust and at the same time to include the printers and typesetters, as it were, as successors of Gutenberg in the professional guild of the "black artists".
At the ball court , around the Gutenberg Museum and in the print shop of the Gutenberg Museum, various themed activities will take place on the festival weekend. Practical demonstrations by calligraphers and paper makers are mostly offered, and printing techniques are demonstrated. Visitors can produce their own print products such as letters of indulgence or leaflets under expert guidance. The Johannis book market, now one of the largest antiquarian book and graphics markets in Germany, also takes place on weekends (from Saturday to Monday) around the Schiller and Ballplatz.
Mainzer Midsummer Night as a cultural festival
On the one hand, the six music stages in the city center make up the cultural part of the Mainz Midsummer Night. Here visitors are offered a wide range of music from hits to folk music and hard rock . There are also numerous other street musicians and artists as well as music groups that roam the city center. Cabaret is also offered on the stage at the ball court .
A large artists' market can be found along the banks of the Rhine from the Kaisertor to the Fischtorplatz. The “ Mainzer Culinarium ” of the top Mainz chefs follows in the green spaces there . The Mainz winegrowers serve their wines in the shadow of the cathedral on the Leichhof , and from 2007 also on the market .
Mainz Midsummer Night as a folk festival
A traditional component of the Mainz Midsummer Night is the boat jump . It was removed from the program for three years in 2006 and took place again in 2009. Schifferstechen is a fight between two people with long poles, each standing on two boats on the Rhine. The aim is to push the opponent into the Rhine with a pole.
In addition, on Midsummer Night in Mainz there are extensive rides (Ferris wheel, roller coaster, ...), snack bars and winegrowers from all over the area. For the Mainz clubs there is a separate place for the clubs at Jockel-Fuchs-Platz on the town hall plateau, where they present themselves with hospitality and information.
The three-bridge run has been an integral part of St. John's Night for many years. Over 500 runners regularly take part in the almost 8 km long fun run along the banks of the Rhine.
The midsummer night is always a Rhine fireworks display on Monday evening.
literature
- Günter Schenk : The Mainz Midsummer Night. In: Mainz. Quarterly issues for culture, politics, economics, history. No. 2, 1981, ISSN 0720-5945 , pp. 48-51.
Web links
- www.mainzer-johannisnacht.de - Information from the City of Mainz on St. John's Night
Individual evidence
- ↑ Festival department head Marianne Grosse: "Midsummer Night remains an absolute pearl on the Rhine" ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Press release from June 26, 2012 on mainz.de
- ↑ Three-Bridge Run. Retrieved November 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Result lists . Accessed November 12, 2018 (German).