maypole
A maypole is a decorated tree or tree trunk that is found in Bavaria , the Rhineland , Saarland , Emsland , East Friesland , North Rhine-Westphalia , Franconia , Baden , Swabia , the Palatinate , parts of Saxony and Upper Lusatia, as well as Austria , the Czech Republic and Slovakia and Slovenia is set up on May 1st , in other regions tooPentecost . In Baden-Wuerttemberg , Bavaria, the Palatinate and Austria in particular , the ceremonial erection of a tree trunk on the village square is common. The special custom with the associated village or town festival, which usually takes place on April 30th, May 1st or Pentecost, is widespread in many parts of Central and Northern Europe , but in Scandinavia it tends to be around midsummer (or on St. John's Day ). In Switzerland , the custom of raising the maypole can be found in rural communities.
General
Maypoles are usually large, high-stemmed, ornate trees that have been delimbed to the top and are set up in a central place in the village during a festive event. Depending on the region - and even depending on the location - the design of the maypoles can look very different. In rural areas straightening is done by muscle power, in large parts of Bavaria z. B. in principle by the members of the local boys' association. This is now prohibited in most cities, where machines ( truck- mounted cranes or wood harvesters ) are used in view of the increased risk of accidents . Traditionally, the maypole is placed in a prepared, paved pit, in which it slides over an inclined plane when it is raised and in which it can then be safely wedged. In many places, however, reusable steel and concrete mountings are used for the lower end of the tree for reasons of effort and safety.
Either the maypole is felled anew every year, or the same trunk is used over several years and a new crown is placed on it. In East Friesland, for example, the trunk is stored under water and removed every year in May. Most of the time, the trunks are peeled and decorated with colorful garlands, fir green or crepe paper. Elsewhere they are without decoration or are left in their natural state with bark. At the upper end, the tree is usually crowned by a wreath and the green tree top.
According to Bavarian traditions, a "properly" laced (painted) trunk has turned the spiral from bottom left to top right in Bavaria. The Bavarian diamonds, which represent the white-blue sky, serve as a template. In Franconia, on the other hand, you can see the trees in white and red stripes.
In the Rhineland , a birch tree is often felled as a maypole or a small birch tree is placed on a high, limbed conifer trunk. B. in Upper Swabia and Bavaria usually a conifer is chosen.
While z. For example, in the Rhineland, the trees that are felled each year are between 20 and 25 m high and trees that have been used for several years can be up to 40 m high.
Setting up the tree
Directly before it is set up, the tree is carried through the village in a kind of procession, depending on the region , the goal of which is often a central square and / or a restaurant and which is usually accompanied by spectators and a brass band . The actual erection of the tree takes place there in the afternoon or in the evening. While in the past the maypole was mostly set up with the help of long poles, today tractors, forklifts or even cranes are used, although there is a tendency towards a return of old traditions. In some places and in Lower Austria ropes and ladders are used. Depending on local custom, the maypole stays in place until the end of the month - sometimes until autumn - and is then put down again. It is either decorated and the trunk stored for the next year or cut at a festival. The tree is often auctioned or raffled as firewood. Usually, the winner then leaves the tree to the organizer and receives a replacement price. In many parts of Bavaria the tree remains standing all year round. It is particularly common in the regions of Upper Bavaria to only set up a maypole every two to five years and, if possible, to leave the old tree up to a year before the new one.
If the tree is set up on the eve of May 1st, the event usually turns into a May dance . While the spectators mostly pass the time with beer and sausages, the young boys struggle to get the maypole, which is also decorated with symbols of various professions, in the right position.
Liebesmaien
In addition, there is also the custom that the young, unmarried men of a village set up smaller maypoles, so-called maypoles (mostly birch trees or fir trees in Upper Swabia ) in front of the houses of all unmarried women , as a "token of favor". In some parts of Germany, for example in the Rhineland , Saarland , Bergisches Land , Franconia , Upper Bavaria and Swabia , it is common for young men and young men to attach a tree to the house of the friend or loved one. Birch trees decorated with colored crepe paper are common, although the color of the ribbons originally had a meaning. Depending on local customs, a so-called May heart made of wood or sturdy cardboard can also be attached to the tree, in which the name of the person you love is engraved and, as a rule, a saying is written as an expression of affection. The setting up follows regionally varying, unwritten rules, see Customs in May .
The maypole stays there for a month, until June 1st. Then the person who set it up picks up the maypole. Usually, if the woman likes him, this is rewarded with an invitation to dinner and a case of beer. However, there is also the tradition that the young man who picks up the tree gets a cake from the woman's mother, a case of beer from the father and a kiss from herself. Cake and beer are usually given out to those bachelors who "raise" the tree. These are often the same ones that helped you set. After the tree is raised, the woman can saw off a thin slice from the base of the trunk and keep it as a memento. Usually this is done in the presence of the bachelors before the tree is removed.
In a leap year it can be the other way round: some young women, young women and married men also set up maypoles themselves.
In the last few decades this custom has been weakened in many parts of Germany, and respected girls and young women are often given several maypoles with no intention of establishing a relationship. So far this is still a sign of favor, but often not anymore. In some places on the Lower Rhine, the girls and young women of the rural youth plant maypoles for the boys and young men themselves.
The counterpart to the maypole as a token of favor is the so-called Schandmaien , which represents a malicious home payment.
Picture gallery
Birch as a maypole in Cologne-Poll
Maypole for Björn in Bonn (in leap year for men)
A record breaking Liebesmaien in Upper Swabia
Saying on the maypole in Tegernbach
Maibaumkraxler - The custom of climbing the maypole is especially cultivated in the Alpine countries
Maypole in Calvörde
Maie am Bilstein
Maypole in Bogen, Bavaria
Maypole in Woerth on the Danube , Bavaria
Maypole in Wörth on the Danube guild coat of arms and coat of arms of the city
Stealing maypole
Above all, stealing the maypole is an often practiced custom. The night before it is set up, the maypole is usually guarded by young men.
In order to prevent the maypole from being stolen, according to the custom in East Frisia, one of the guards must have a hand on the tree at the latest when strangers approach. If the opponents manage to prevent this or distract the guards in such a way that they neglect their duty and then break the ground three times against the tree, the tree is considered stolen. He is provided with a sign on which the facts are noted and either picked up immediately or the following day and placed next to the own tree of the successful thieves.
In most parts of Austria and Upper Swabia, a maypole is only considered stolen when it has been completely knocked down by the thieves, or only when it has already been removed from its original location. As a rule, only those maypoles who have set up one can steal.
In Bavaria, the future maypole must already have been felled. A tree that is still firmly rooted and only known to be chosen as a maypole must therefore not be stolen. If the tree is in the forest or on the edge of the forest after it has been felled, it must not be stolen, as this would be wood theft.
According to the original Bavarian tradition , the tree was only allowed to be felled on Walpurgis Night itself, so it could only be stolen that night. Nowadays, however, maypoles are usually felled weeks in advance and can therefore be stolen earlier. So there is still enough time until May 1st for the release and the return transport. If, during the attempt to steal, a villager finally places his hand on the tree and says the words: "The tree stays there", the maypole protected in this way must no longer be touched by the maypole thieves. This also applies in the community area.
It is common practice to release stolen trees. For this purpose, a delegation of the stolen goes to the thieves and negotiates the price that is usually to be paid in kind (drinks and food). After successful restitution negotiations, the stolen tree is brought back to its rightful owners by the thieves , often in a solemn procession accompanied by brass music . If, however, the negotiations fail and the maypole is not triggered, the new "owners" in Bavaria set it up as a mark of shame for the neighboring village / district and as an additional blessing for their own place. After a few weeks, the booty is then sawn up and auctioned. Often a plaque is attached to this "tree of shame", on which the maypole thieves express their disappointment through mockery.
In Saxony a relaxed set of rules has developed over time. The tree is usually set up the day before May 1st to celebrate the occasion extensively. However, if May 1st falls on a Friday or Saturday, in some places it is only set up on that day. In Saxony, too, there are all kinds of maypoles - from freshly felled from the forest (mostly birch trees) to peeled spruce painted green and white, and of course all of them with ribbons. The rules for stealing the tree are just as broad. As soon as the tree is struck or clearly recognizable as a maypole, it can be stolen the night before it is set up - because during the night, when it is already standing, it is usually well guarded by the village youth. However, stealing is only allowed at night and without the use of force - be it against the tree or the guardians. It only counts as stolen if it has been brought over the local border unnoticed. Since the maypole is usually set up by hand, poles and ropes based on an old tradition, these trees may only be put down manually and carried out of the place. After extensive negotiations, it is triggered by appropriate prizes in kind, mostly in liquid form.
In some parts of Lower Austria and Upper Austria, the tree can be stolen for the first two days and nights after it has been set up. On the 3rd night, stealing is only allowed until midnight. The tree is considered stolen if the thieves have turned the tree around 45 °. If one of the guards or villagers catches the thieves beforehand, the thieves have to put the tree back up. If the tree is already decorated and waiting for its big day before May 1st, it can also be stolen.
In parts of Austria it is also common for the thieves of the maypole to answer in a public show trial and to keep the punishment for their theft low through skillful negotiation .
In Upper Austria and the Mostviertel , the maypole is set up up to three days before May 1st and then guarded continuously. In this area it is only allowed to steal already standing maypoles. The trees must be moved in the same way as they were set up. The use of a tractor or even a forester is therefore only permitted if the tree was set up using the same aids. In some cases, attempts are being made to replace the guard with alarm systems or by adjusting the access routes with motor vehicles. In many communities, fire engines are used for this. Nevertheless, some communities manage to steal several maypoles at once. These then have to be triggered. Usually a few kegs of beer are requested as a trigger, but these are then usually emptied together. In 2012, a group of Upper Austrians from Engerwitzdorf caused a sensation after stealing 12 maypoles in three nights and setting them up in a square.
The theft of the maypole is subject to rules, which at least in Bavaria certainly include the fact that the police are very accommodating in the prosecution of the " crime ". Anyone who has been stolen from the police violates local customs and risks their honor.
From Linz it became known that the mayor Franz Dobusch , a lawyer, refused to release a maypole that was allegedly stolen, contrary to the maypole stealing code, not in the first 3 days but only on the 4th day. On the night of May 2nd and 3rd, 2008, the maypole donated by the Salzkammergut community of Obertraun was stolen again under the pretext of securing it from a storm in the middle of the busy Linz main square and returned to their hometown by the thieves, the rural youth of Reichenau im Mühlkreis has been brought.
The thieves looked for an extraordinary place to set up a stolen maypole in Haag in Lower Austria . They built it in the middle of the lion enclosure of the city of Haag Zoo . The tree thieves were animal keepers at the zoo.
Origins
The origins of the maypole tradition are still unclear or controversial. Germanic rites are often mentioned. The Teutons revered forest deities, to whom they worshiped in various tree rites. Even menhirs , obelisks and shamanic symbols in the Eurasian and American regions are regarded as cult stakes in connection with maypoles. However, a consistent tradition for today's maypoles cannot be established, and some folklorists even deny it.
In this context, however, influences of Christianization should be considered, which suppressed pagan customs and often even punished them, which in some places the secular authorities also joined. A probable further interruption of the reintroduced tradition in the early Middle Ages could also be traced back to this. A lost maypole tradition in Rome is documented by a painting by Agostino Buonamici, called il Tassi , (1580–1644) from the first half of the 17th century. It shows a stately maypole on Capitol Square, with young men climbing up its bare trunk.
According to a report from the Eifel, in some places in the 13th century a “Christian” Pentecostal tree took the place of the maypole . In Thuringia, Lower Saxony and neighboring regions, too, a “May” is set on Pentecost in many places .
According to a report by Caesarius von Heisterbach , a maypole was first documented in Aachen in 1224 . This is followed by a report on a custom of putting up the maypole on the village square, which has been cultivated in Franconia and Swabia since 1520. An invoice for a maypole in Bavaria dates from 1531, and the first illustration of a maypole follows in 1550.
In Austria it was first mentioned for Vienna at the Bebenbergerhof in 1230, but was temporarily banned in the 17th century. In old Bavaria there are various mentions of the term maypole between 1480 and 1611, but none of them is a community custom, rather maypoles are erected individually during this time. On the other hand, the illustration of Starnberg by Hans Donauer in the Munich Antiquarium from the year 1585 clearly shows a maypole in today's sense made of a slender, peeled trunk with crossbars on which groups of figures, coats of arms or handicraft symbols are attached. May use was banned for the first time in 1657, the police order of the Upper Palatinate prohibited it as a "filthy, unchristian thing", and the Codex Maximilianeus Bavaricus Civilis forbade it as a custom serving "nothing but mere civic and peasant pleasure". It was only officially approved again in 1827 by King Ludwig I in a moral police ordinance, since it was about "innocent and well-indulgent pleasures" of the rural people. However, these prohibitions were not followed consistently, as can be proven from various figures. Alone in the topography of the Rent Office Munich of Michael Wening from 1701 shows eight Maibäume or very similar properties usually on local places.
The maypole has been known since the 16th century in its current tall form, adorned with a green lace and wreath, but also in other functions: as a parish fair tree, as an honorary maypole for individuals or as a climbing pole with prizes. Since the 19th century (especially in Bavaria ) it was also used as a local maypole for the now independent communities (as a symbol of their self-confidence). In the course of time, however, a lot of local customs have developed around the maypole , which in many cases even differ considerably from village to village.
In the romantic era (19th century) the maypole was often interpreted as a cultic "giant phallus ", which was supposed to ensure rich harvests as a symbol of fertility. Today hardly any folklorist speaks of these "origins" that cannot be proven in this way.
It is also unclear whether the maypole in its current form first appeared in cities or in the country. It is fairly undisputed that it was not about an agrarian peasant cult, but rather about general folk customs. If it appeared in cities, there was more of a chance that this would be documented in writing - in the countryside, however, this custom was mostly preserved by relatively loosely bound bachelor groups ( Geloog , Reih , Burschenschaft, bachelor club ), which in earlier centuries were often less educated and which were correspondingly less reported.
The midsummer tree in Sweden is related to the maypole .
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Mechthild Wiswe : Whitsun May in the Salzgitter area . In: Salzgitter yearbook. Edited by the Salzgitter History Association. V., Vol. 21/22, 1999/2000, p. 154
- ^ M. Wiswe: Whitsun May in the Salzgitter area . In: Salzgitter yearbook. Edited by the Salzgitter History Association. V., Vol. 21/22, 1999/2000, p. 156
- ↑ Upper Austria: Round table stole twelve maypoles. Die Presse on May 3, 2012, accessed May 1, 2014
- ↑ Reichenau municipal councils hold a night watch at the Linz maypole nachrichten.at, April 28, 2016, accessed December 20, 2017.
- ↑ ORF Lower Austria from May 4, 2015: Lions "protect" stolen maypole . Retrieved May 4, 2015
- ↑ Forum: History of Maypole customs , accessed on May 1, 2014
- ↑ Marco Bussagli (ed.): Rome. Art & architecture. Könemann, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8331-1043-0 .
-
^ Origin of the May custom , accessed on May 1, 2014.
Manfred Becker-Huberti : Celebrations, festivals, seasons. Living customs all year round. Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-451-27702-6 , p. 333. - ^ Whitsun in Flarchheim, then and now , accessed on May 1, 2014
- ↑ National holiday - its predecessors and the erection of the maypole as well as the Austrian State Treaty 1955 - May 1st by Ulrike Kammerhofer-Aggermann at the Salzburger Landesinstitut Volkskunde from 2016, accessed on April 30, 2018
- ↑ Kirchenweb.at: Customs for May 1st , accessed on May 1st, 2014
- ^ Volker Laturell: Folk culture in Munich . Buchendorfer 1997, ISBN 3-927984-63-9 , p. 184 f.
- ↑ Ludwig Steub : The Bavarian highlands . Munich 1860, p. 63
- ↑ Georg Ferdinand Döllinger: Bayerische Verordnungssammlung, Volume XIII p. 1421 § 1120
- ^ Volker Laturell: Folk culture in Munich . Buchendorfer 1997, ISBN 3-927984-63-9 , p. 185
literature
- Rudolf Paes: Whitsun May . In: Heimatbote des Landkreis Braunschweig , Oelding, 1955, p. 71 f.
- Hans Moser: Maypole and May custom. Contributions and discussions on custom research. In: Bavarian Yearbook for Folklore. 1961, ISSN 0067-4729 , pp. 115-160.
- Hans Moser: Folk customs in historical change: Results from 50 years of folklore source research . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-422-00767-9 (= Bavarian National Museum : research books , issue 10).
- Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann : Sour Weeks, Happy Holidays. Celebrations and everyday life in the language of customs. Bucher, Munich et al. 1985, ISBN 3-7658-0471-1 .
- Hans Meinl, Alfons Schweiggert : The maypole. History and stories about a popular custom. Publishing company "Bayerland", Dachau 1991, ISBN 3-89251-102-0 .
- Ottmar Schuberth: maypoles, tradition and customs. 1995. 136 pp., ISBN 3-00-000415-7
- Mechthild Wiswe: Whitsun May in the Salzgitter area . In: Salzgitter yearbook. Edited by the Salzgitter History Association. V., Vol. 21/22, 1999/2000, pp. 154-161, ISSN 0723-757X .
- Kurt Grafschafter: It's the custom in Carinthia; Verlag Johannes Heyn, 1999.
Web links
- Article at arte, also as a video , accessed on May 1, 2014
- Maypole custom , accessed May 1, 2014
- Open your eyes when buying a maypole. Retrieved on July 25, 2014