Honolulu fools guild
The Honolulu fools guild is the oldest carnival guild in the Swiss city of Solothurn . The guild's task is to preserve tradition and organize the Solothurn Carnival . The first written mention of the Honolulu fools' guild dates back to 1853.
history
The roots of the Solothurn Carnival, the traditional foolish hustle and bustle in the week before Ash Wednesday , can be traced back to the 14th century. In the late Middle Ages, carnival games were mainly performed. Mask running, which is still popular today, did not appear until the 16th century. The first documented parade ( parade ) with 22 groups took place in 1754 under the motto Hundred Years Calendar .
The great time of the newer Carnival in Solothurn began in 1853 with the establishment of the Honolulu Carnival Society, which has been called Honolulu, the down-to-earth fools' guild since 1862 . The active guild members open the official carnival on January 13th with their general assembly. They symbolically depose the city president and the waiter (guild master) leads the scepter from then until Ash Wednesday.
The general assembly has been held in the Zum alten Stephan restaurant since 1888 . There, and then in other restaurants, the fools sang songs and verses of mockery. They are accompanied by the Hilari-Musig. The guilds carry the fool's scepter, the fool's bell, the fool's lantern and the tinny book with them as insignia. They are dressed in a green robe that is modeled on an earlier night watchman's uniform.
The founding of the Honolulu fools' guild is one of the carnival renewal movements among the bourgeoisie that could be observed throughout southern Germany in the middle of the 19th century. The guild of that time represented the political balance of power at that time: the members all came from the well-off bourgeoisie and the majority were close to liberal ideas.
Course of the carnival
According to the Catholic liturgy, Christmas ends on January 6th with the Solemnity of Epiphany ( Epiphany , popularly known as the Three Kings). In the German-speaking countries this is traditionally the beginning of the carnival season. The Feast of the Three Kings is followed by the Octave Day on January 13th, which is also the commemoration day of St. Hilary of Poitiers . Because hilaris means happy in Latin , the people of Solothurn decided that January 13th was more suitable for the beginning of Carnival than January 6th.
The Chesslete , first organized in 1883 by the Honolulu fools' guild, marks the start of the actual carnival week on Dirty Thursday . Since 1981, the children's parade has taken place on the same day after the foolish proclamation. There the Honolulu fools appear in costumes, the old city originals like Hilarius Immergrün (real name Kiefer, tower guard of St. Ursen ), Elisi (his daughter), Postheiri (Heinrich Meister, postman), Bassi (a tinkerer), Casanova (Giacomo Girolamo Casanova, fell in love with a Solothurn patrician wife) or Albertini (greengrocer).
The social meeting point on Saturday is the big carnival ball, which has been organized by the Honolulu fools' guild since 1901. Originally designed as a classic masked ball that ran according to strict rules, the occasion has now developed into a casual costume party. The event reached its heyday in the 1920s, when more than 1,000 people took part, including prominent guests such as the painter Ferdinand Hodler .
On Sunday and Tuesday, the parades with over 1200 active carnival people take place. The carnival week ends on Ash Wednesday with the Böögg burning on the market square and the foolish abdication in the Solothurn pub.
The guild
The Honolulu fools' guild consists of the fools (active guilds), the honor jesters (former active guilds), the lulus (journeymen), the honorary lulus (especially deserving journeymen) and the «fellow travelers». In total there are over 70 people who are responsible for the diverse activities before and during the carnival. These include a. the organization and implementation of the traditional events (Hilari, Chesslete, proclamation, children's parade, costume ball, Böögverbrennen), the publication of the carnival newspaper Postheiri and participation in the two large parades with your own car.
In order to be accepted as a fool, a unanimous decision of the guild meeting (assembly of active guild members) is necessary. The way to do this often leads through journeyman status. This is achieved by those who regularly take part in the guild events for five years and work in one of the departments. The guild is led by the upper (guild master). The waiter has extensive powers. He can, for example, assign tasks and departments alone and finally. As a rule, he remains in office for 4 years and determines his successor himself.
origin of the name
Because the world is upside down during Carnival, the city of Solothurn is called Honolulu during the foolish times . Honolulu , located in the Pacific, is considered the exotic antipode of Solothurn.
The term Honolulu was introduced by the editorial team of the humorous magazine Der Postheiri , published in Solothurn from 1845 to 1875 - possibly the editor Alfred Hartmann himself. From the beginning Honolulu stood for "Solothurn", Honolulesen for "Solothurn" and Honolulisch for "Solothurn"; In 1854 this terminology was supplemented by Honolulistan and in 1870 Honolulesien for the «Canton of Solothurn». The Hawaiian Islands (then known as the "Sandwich Islands") and their capital Honolulu had become more widely known in Europe in the 1840s, as the United States, Great Britain and France were vying for influence on the islands and the Kingdom of Hawai'i fought for his independence. Honolulu for “Solothurn”, like other corruptions of place names in Postheiri, has a sound-associative basis.
swell
- Solothurner Fasnacht, Verlag Altstadtbuchhandlung Solothurn, Text: Max Egger, Ruedi Rust
- Archives of the Honolulu Fool's Guild, Solothurn
- Take away brochure - the Honolulu fools' guild shows a piece of carnival history, ed. from the Museum Altes Zeughaus Solothurn , 2010
- Historical Lexicon of Switzerland, Volume XI: Schaichet - StGB, Basel 2012
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Niklaus Bigler: From Most India to Mutzopotamia. Place names in the «Postheiri». In: Festgabe for Peter Dalcher . Edited by the editorial staff of the Swiss German Dictionary , Zurich 1987, pp. 41–53 ( digitized version ).