May Queen
Since the Middle Ages, it belongs to the German Maibrauchtum that the most beautiful girl an area for May Queen (regional and Maibraut or Maigräfin chosen) and after the coronation on the May festival was offered for sale up for auction. After that, the girl was given either to the highest bidder or to an elected May King . The auction money obtained was given to the less popular girls as support for dowry . Before the auction, a straw doll in the image of the May Queen of the previous year was also made and burned (in Franconia this auction was called Mailien or Mailehen , the straw dolls also Mailiene).
In some villages in the Lower Saxon municipality of Brome and the neighboring Altmark , a similar habit is still practiced today (as of 2016). On the first day of Pentecost, a group of flower-adorned girls with the “May bride” asks for gifts while singing. There is rarely a group of boys there on the same day around the fisherman's egg , which is decorated with green branches , who also ask for gifts.
See also
reception
- Alfred Tennyson : The May Queen. In: Book of songs and ballads by contemporary American and English poets. Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1862, pp. 181-195 ( Wikisource ).
- Marriage: The May Queen. Acting in five acts . Theater Commissions Business, Berlin 1863, OCLC 320195907 .
- Elisabeth Mentzel: The May Queen. A story from the fifteenth century . Jügels Verlag, Frankfurt aM 1888, OCLC 257319499 .
- Jos Flavus, pseud. by Bernard Joseph Fuß: The May Queen of Poppelsdorf. Story from the French era (= from the past and present . Volume 31 ). Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer / Leipzig 1901, OCLC 65939188 .
- Ernst von Wolzüge : The Maibraut: a consecration game in three acts . F. Fontane, Berlin 1909, OCLC 466133639 (music by Artur Rother ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: website of the community of Rorien ), accessed on June 29, 2014.
- ^ Whitsun in the Altmark: Fischemeier and Maibrut. Volksstimme of May 30, 2012, accessed on June 29, 2014