Garlic Wednesday
The Garlic Wednesday or Garlic Wednesday goes back to a time when King Henry IV turned against the Saxons in 1085 and wanted to humiliate them because of their old free jurisdiction. The Saxons then set up the anti-king Hermann von Salm , who had a large following, especially in the area around Eisleben. Since a lot of garlic grew here, the opposing king of the Saxons received the name "Garlic King" from his enemies. He was slain on the Wednesday after Pentecost, in the year 1088. Since then, this day has been popularly known as "Garlic Wednesday".
Garlic Wednesday is celebrated as a traditional festival in Halle (Saale) , Krosigk , Thaldorf (the traditional fountain festival is celebrated here on Garlic Wednesday) and other places in the area on the Wednesday after Whitsun .
The origin of the Halle festival is that the Kaland Brotherhood introduced a day of health maintenance with a garlic meal after an extensive meal on the holidays . The tradition continued in Halle even after the Reformation. Believing in better health, they ate only garlic that day. A corresponding folk festival on the Würfelwiese was banned by the police in 1870. Norbert Böhnke and Ulrich Hellem founded the Knoblauchsmittwoch-Gesellschaft in 2002 and brought the festival back to life. Since then, the banquet table on the Würfelwiese has been opened every year by the association's board of directors together with the patron, the current police president .
literature
- Knoblauchsmittwoch-Gesellschaft zu Halle (Hrsg.): The Knoblauchsmittwoch in Halle ad Saale. The oldest fair in Halle and its history in documents. Druck-Medienverlag, Queis 2007.