Easter fox

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Older folklore literature reported about an Easter fox belonging to the Easter customs of the German-speaking area up to the middle of the 20th century. The fox took to these reports, the site of the rabbit as easter eggs laying one or -bringenden animal.

Regional distribution

In 1904, Karl Heßler reported from the Schaumburger Land that the Easter eggs were not laid by the rabbit, but by the fox. The day before Easter, the children prepared a nest of moss and hay for the fox and made sure that the fox would not be disturbed during the night.

Around 1910, Karl Wehrhan records that the fox was the sole egg-bringer in the villages of Schildesche and Südlengern in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia . They brought the fox and the hare to Versmold , Spenge and Asmissen . The tradition of the fox as an egg-laying or egg-bringer should have been dwindling at this time, because it is noted: "... it would look as if the fox was backing away from the hare." Robert Wildhaber in 1957, too , who notes "... that an increase in the Easter Bunny area can be observed in recent times"

In Großmühlingen in Saxony-Anhalt , the Easter fox also brought the Easter eggs.

origin

Folklore literature only contains assumptions about the origin or the origin of the belief in the fox as an egg-bringer. Wehrhan assumed that the fox was transferred from Pentecostal tradition to Easter: “The widespread use of the“ Pingstvoss ”( Pentecostal fox )” and its “relationship with the Pentecostals” made this seem obvious.

In 1927 the folklorist Hugo Hepding suspected a connection with the Christmas breads , for which in the area around Osnabrück “Hasen und Voss” (“rabbits and foxes”) is the usual expression: “… for Westphalia”, says Hepding, “where but just next to the rabbit the fox appears as an eggbringer, one [would] also expect an Easter biscuit in the shape of a fox. "Only, Hepding himself objected, no fox was mentioned as an Easter biscuit in Max Höfler's study of the Easter biscuits, but the" ... there is a connection between the children's notions of the animals laying the Easter eggs and these different animal-shaped Easter breads "Possibly the belief in the fox and the rabbit as egg-bearers arose because of this, so Hepding, because both" ... not infrequently into the gardens of the houses ”would have stimulated the child's imagination.

Theodor Schnitzler pursued a different explanation in his study from 1957: He refers to the Easter eggs cooked in onion skins and thereby colored brown-red, which in Westphalia are called "fox eggs". Their color is reminiscent of the color of the rabbit fur or the red fur of the fox. "The unusual brown-red coloration of the egg is then easily attributed to the origin of the fox and the hare."

Fox eggs

Fox eggs colored with onion skin

In addition to the proven meanings “colored Easter egg” or “Easter egg in children's language” in the Lower Saxony dictionary, “brown-colored (by cooking in onion leaves) egg given away at Easter” in the Westphalian dictionary and “lie” or “deceit” in the Middle Elbe Dictionary, there are also various idioms related to the fox egg.

In the Middle Elbian area, “from Fosseier (n) drömen” stands for impossible thinking or expectation, while “Fosseier (ge) freten hebben” means that someone is knowledgeable or has a guilty conscience. “Du dröömß woll van Foßeier” is also known in Lower Saxony; Here the saying means “you are in your thoughts, not on the matter, you think of the impossible, you have a strange opinion, you hit with the view wrong.” For the Westphalian, “Met Fossoeggern feort (fed)” is proven, that for cunning, uncomfortably cunning or people who care about their benefit.

In Westphalia, “Fosei” can also designate a mushroom, the Bovist , also in the Middle Elbe, where the meaning “chicken egg without a solid shell” (cf. Windei ) is added.

literature

Articles and monographs

  • Hugo Hepding : Easter eggs and Easter bunny. In: Hessian sheets for folklore. Volume 26/1927, pp. 127-141.
  • Karl Heßler: Hessian country and folklore. Volume 2: Hessian folklore. Marburg 1904 (on the egg-bearing fox, p. 581).
  • Paul Sartori : Days and Feasts of the Year. In: Journal of the Association for Rhenish and Westphalian Folklore. Volume 4, 1st issue, 1907, pp. 1–31 (on the "fox eggs" p. 24).
  • Paul Sartori: Customs and Customs. Third part: times and festivals of the year. Leipzig 1914, p. 160, note 64.
  • Theodor Schnitzler: Easter egg and Easter bunny. References to the results and tasks of research into customs. In: Balthasar Fischer, Johannes Wagner (ed.): Paschatis Sollemnia. Studies on Easter Celebration and Easter Piety. Basel / Freiburg / Vienna 1959, pp. 267–274.
  • Karl Wehrhan: hare or fox as egg donor. In: Journal of the Association for Rhenish and Westphalian Folklore. Volume 7, Issue 3, 1910, p. 232.
  • Robert Wildhaber : The Easter Bunny and other egg bringers. In: Swiss Archives for Folklore . Volume 54/1958, pp. 110-116 (on the Fuchs pp. 114 f.)
  • Alfred Wirth: Anhalt folklore. Dessau 1932, p. 225.

Dictionaries

  • Fossei. In: Middle Elbian Dictionary. Founded by Karl Bischoff, continued and edited by Gerhard Kettmann, Volume 1, Berlin 2008, Sp. 1034.
  • Easter fox. In: Middle Elbian Dictionary. Founded by Karl Bischoff, continued and edited by Gerhard Kettmann, Volume 2, Berlin 2002, Sp. 1252.
  • Fossei. In: Dieter Stellmacher (Ed.): Lower Saxony dictionary. Volume 4: F. Karl Wachholtz, Neumünster 1994, Sp. 893.
  • [Fos] ~ egg. In: Commission for dialect and name research of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (Hrsg.): Westphalian dictionary . Volume II, 10th delivery, Neumünster 2006, Sp. 833.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The lemma “Easter Fox” can be found in the Middle Elbian Dictionary from 2002, but only with reference to the monograph Anhaltische Volkskunde , Dessau 1932 by Alfred Wirth. The Easter Fox is also featured several times - from 1994 to 2009 - in the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung ( results of the archive search; accessed on July 4, 2010  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to instructions and then remove this note. ) mentioned, however, the local history contributions from March 26, 1994 and April 14, 1995 follow Wirth's monograph very closely.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / archiv.mz-web.de  
  2. ↑ Karl Heßler: Hessische Landes- und Volkskunde, Volume 2, Hessische Volkskunde. Marburg 1904, p. 581.
  3. ^ A b Karl Wehrhan: Hare or fox as egg donor. In: Journal of the Association for Rhenish and Westphalian Folklore. Volume 7, Issue 3, 1910, p. 232.
  4. ↑ Robert Wildhaber : The Easter Bunny and other egg bringers. In: Swiss Archives for Folklore . Volume 54/1958, pp. 110-116, here p. 110.
  5. ↑ It is unclear whether this still applies to the year the monograph was published - 1934 - as the author notes that “Much of what I have described… no longer [lives], the changes of the last 30–50 years have it destroyed or disfigured. ”(Alfred Wirth: Anhaltische Volkskunde , Dessau 1932 in the foreword on p. VI; on the Easter fox p. 225.)
  6. ↑ a b c Hugo Hepding: Easter eggs and Easter bunny. In: Hessian sheets for folklore. Volume 26/1927, pp. 127-141.
  7. ↑ Hepding refers to Max Höfler: Ostergebäcke. A comparative study of the Gebildbrote at Easter time (= magazine for Austrian folklore. Supplement No. 4), Vienna 1906.
    Albert Becker is clearer: “... while the fox, the z. B. in Westphalia brings the eggs, as Easter biscuits never met. ”(Becker: Easter egg and Easter bunny. On the customs of the German Easter period (= folk art and custom ). Jena 1937, here p. 40.)
  8. ↑ a b Theodor Schnitzler: Easter egg and Easter bunny. References to the results and tasks of research into customs. In: Balthasar Fischer, Johannes Wagner (ed.): Paschatis Sollemnia. Studies on Easter Celebration and Easter Piety. Basel, Freiburg, Vienna 1959, pp. 267-274.
  9. ↑ According to Paul Sartori: Customs and Customs, Part Three: Times and Festivals of the Year. Leipzig 1914, p. 160, note 64, they are yellow in color. Sartori refers here to Adalbert Kuhn: Legends, customs and fairy tales from Westphalia and some others, especially the neighboring areas of northern Germany. Part 2: Customs and Fairy Tales. Leipzig 1859, p. 142, where there is no corresponding reference.
  10. ↑ a b Fossei. In: Dieter Stellmacher (Ed.): Lower Saxony dictionary. Fourth volume. Neumünster 1994, column 893.
  11. ↑ a b c [Fos] ~ ei. In: Commission for dialect and name research of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (Hrsg.): Westphalian dictionary. Volume II, 10th delivery, Neumünster 2006, Sp. 833.
  12. ↑ a b c Fossei. In: Middle Elbian Dictionary. Founded by Karl Bischoff, continued and edited by Gerhard Kettmann, Volume 1, Berlin 2008, Sp. 1034.
  13. ↑ Fox egg. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 4 : Forschel – retainer - (IV, 1st section, part 1). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1878, Sp. 342 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).