Lychgate
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As Lychgate, Lychgate or Lych gate [ lɪtʃgeɪt ], alternative spelling: Lich, in is English-speaking , and especially to the British Isles a covered cemetery called hinged gate, where before the start of the funeral service , the bier was placed. Lychgates are mainly found in Great Britain and Ireland , but they are also found in other regions with a cultural connection to the British Isles (e.g. Canada , United States , Australia) to be found.
The word lychgate, a compound from Middle English lich (e) / lych (e) ' corpse ' and yate / gate 'gate', 'gate' has been used since the 15th century, although such gate structures in cemeteries in England were much earlier - from the 7th century - existed.
The oldest surviving lychgates date from the 13th and 14th centuries. In the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the early modern period, wood was used almost exclusively as building material, and the roof was covered with tiles or thatch . There was no uniform design: Simple specimens were nothing more than a roofed wooden frame, while in the more elaborately designed Lychgates z. B. in the middle of the passage a stone platform (Lychstone) could be to set down the coffin and there were benches for the funeral party to the side.
Lychgates were increasingly created from the 16th century after the Book of Common Prayer had established binding rules for the rites of the Church of England in 1549 . Among other things, it was now stipulated that the priest should receive the coffin at a funeral at the cemetery border and that the service should begin there. In this respect, in addition to its purely practical function as a weather-protected main entrance to the cemetery, the Lychgate also had a symbolic function: It marked the boundary between consecrated and unconsecrated ground. As is not uncommon for such threshold places, local legends and customs were often associated with it. In the 19th century, for example, in various places in England it was considered a sign of bad luck when a wedding party took the Lychgate on their way to church.
However, the liturgical use of the Lychgates had already lost importance in the course of the 18th century. Medieval lychgates that were still in existence were removed in many places because they were dilapidated and replaced with simple wooden or iron gates without a roof. In the 19th century, stone lychgates came back into fashion, but were now primarily used for representation. Under the influence of the two world wars, new lychgates were built as memorials to the fallen in the first half of the 20th century , or existing ones were rededicated for this purpose.
Historical names for the Lychgate are corpse-gate, bier-house (from bier 'stretcher') and scallenge (-gate).
literature
- Dale Gilbert Jarvis: Lych-gates in Newfoundland. In: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland & Labrador (eds.): Occasional Paper on Intangible Cultural Heritage, No. 4, August 2013.
- Lichgate. In: Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language. Edited by Thomas Davidson. W. & R. Chambers, London 1903, p. 525 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Brief information on Lychgates on the UK National Churches Trust website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lychgate to St George's Churchyard. In: National Heritage List for England, accessed May 25, 2021.
- ↑ Lych-gate. In: Merriam-Webster , accessed May 25, 2021.
- ↑ a b Lych-gate. In: Encyclopædia Britannica , accessed May 25, 2021.
- ↑ Dale Gilbert Jarvis: Lych-gates in Newfoundland. In: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland & Labrador (eds.): Occasional Paper on Intangible Cultural Heritage, No. 4, August 2013, p. 2.
- ↑ Dale Gilbert Jarvis: Lych-gates in Newfoundland. In: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland & Labrador (eds.): Occasional Paper on Intangible Cultural Heritage, No. 4, August 2013, p. 4.
- ^ Joseph Wright: The English Dialect Dictionary. Volume 5 (R-S). Henry Frowde / Putnam, London / New York 1904, p. 237 ( digitized version ).