Palm donkey
The palm donkey is part of the tradition of the palm procession of the Roman Catholic Church on Palm Sunday in the southern German-speaking area.
The palm procession with green branches and hymns commemorates the festive entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey . It has been documented since the 7th century. Since the 10th century, the village pastors have ridden a donkey in the palm procession. This ride is described in detail in the biography of St. Ulrich . Since the donkey often behaved rather stubbornly, it was usually replaced by a wooden donkey with a riding figure of Christ. The palm donkey ride was pushed back, especially during the Enlightenment; its use in the context of church celebrations was temporarily prohibited in many places. In Salzburg, for example, Archbishop Hieronymus von Colloredo forbade such “theatrical representations” of liturgical events in 1779 and again in 1782. This led to the destruction of many palm donkeys.
An artistically significant palm donkey from the late Middle Ages has been in the Bode Museum in Berlin since 1915 . In Kößlarn , a palm donkey was first mentioned in 1481 in a church bill. The late Gothic palm donkey was only replaced by a new one in 2002. The Metten monastery owns a palm donkey from the Baroque period, as does the Zwiesel parish . In St. Martin in Landshut there is a new palm donkey on permanent loan , and one of the earliest medieval figures in the local museum there. The palm donkey from Puch near Hallein in the state of Salzburg (Austria) dates from the 17th century. In Tyrol, the same old palm donkeys are preserved in church customs in Thaur and in Hall in Tyrol .
Palm donkey made of stones SZ , around 1055,
National Museum Zurich
Detail of the palm donkey of the church in Bad Oberdorf
The term “palm donkey” was also used in a figurative sense for people with similarly improper behavior. For a long time this was the name of the boy who was the last to enter the church with his palm frond , the palm donkey. In Würzburg , on the other hand, it was customary to press a stuffed donkey dusted with chalk onto the clothes of church visitors who, contrary to tradition, appeared to the service in worn-out clothing, symbolically identifying them as "palm donkeys". Today that family member - usually just the boy - is teased as a palm donkey who is the last to get up on Palm Sunday.
See also
Web links
- Palm donkey procession in Thaur
- Ride on the Palm Donkey (PDF; 68 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://sbgv1.orf.at/magazin/leben/stories/101490/index.html Öst. Broadcast. »On Palm Sunday it is the palm donkey, on Maundy Thursday it is followed by the› Gründonnerstaglackl ‹, then the› Good Friday Gossip ‹, the› Fire Dog ‹on Good Friday, the› Stinky Egg ‹or the› Osterflade ‹on Easter Sunday and the› Easter Monday Bull ‹on the Line". - Abg. Palm Sunday 2020