Paias
The paias is a traditional symbol of the Rhenish fair . He is a life-size doll stuffed with straw and clad in rags , which can be seen as an image of the buffoons that were to be found at the fair in the Middle Ages .
The name Paias derives from French paillasse (straw mattress, figuratively as well as puppet , buffoon ). The name is likely to have become at home in the Rhineland during the French occupation around 1800, as the paillasse figure is also known in southern France. In French, the word for straw sack also became the name of the Italian figure of Pagliaccio ( Bajazzo ) from the Commedia dell'arte . Similar dolls, called Fallas , play an essential role in a Catalan national festival of the same name .
In the Rhineland, in the Ruhr area and in Central Switzerland , the term Paias is a common swear word and means something like idiot or clumsy . It is then also used as a paiaskopp , which means straw head .
In addition to " Kirmesmann " or Nubbel (as in Cologne, where it also and especially appears on Carnival days), the straw doll is also referred to in some places as Zacheies and is thus the embodiment of what is mentioned in the Gospel of the church festival Sunday (Luk 19, 1-10) To recognize short-stature chief customs officer Zacchaeus from Jericho, who climbed a tree to see Jesus passing by. Secular and spiritual are thus united in this figure.
With jokes and to the sound of music, the Paias is still or again in many places at the beginning of the fair in a köttzug of the bachelors presented to the villagers, before it is hung in the gable of an inn or (like Zacchaeus once) in a tree from which from he should guard the fair days over the happy goings-on. However, as was once the case with the dishonorable “ traveling people ”, all the misfortunes and atrocities that occurred during the fair and beyond throughout the past year can also be ascribed to him. A court hearing awaits the Paias , which inevitably ends with cremation, sinking in the Rhine or simply with burial, depending on local traditions and circumstances, and marks the ritual end of the fair.