Pentecostal fox

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The Pentecostal fox has a connection to Donar because the common custom of going from house to house with a fox on a leash at Pentecost and collecting donations has its origins in a sacrificial cult to the Germanic god of thunder, and because the fox carried around during summer proclamations became what marks him as Donar's animal.

One of the numerous vernacular descriptions for Pentecostal fox (such as pengsvoss, pinkestfoss, pinkstervoss and many more) was pinkstfos. Friedrich Woeste remarks regarding the Grafschaft Mark that the saying presupposes an old Pentecostal custom.

Regarding the origin of the term Pentecostal fox, Woeste writes that the custom still prevailed in the 18th century to carry a captured or killed fox, marten, polecat or the like around to the neighbors and to collect eggs for it. Woeste speculates that this was done in order to have an egg supply at Pentecost, and he believes it was a living fox with mutilated tail. Because, in his opinion, this explains the saying of the screaming fox: Foss foss foss - lech dinen stiärt oppen kloß! Hit the corner well, you sat blue, - foss foss foss!

In Holstein, the boy who carries the fox around is called Hans Voss .

There was the saying he cried as'n Pingstfoss ; If you could catch it, you put it in the pond, which, according to folklorist and mythologist Wilhelm Mannhardt , indicates rain magic.

There is also evidence of the custom of calling the girl or boy who came last with his own when driving cattle, the Pentecostal fox or pingvoss. This Pentecostal fox was then decorated with leaves and led through the village to great cheers. Mannhardt also confirms that the Pentecostal fox and other Pentecostal animals were wrapped in leaves and that real foxes were carried around in spring and summer customs.

In Low German, Pingstvoss is a dirty name for those who get up last on the first morning of Pentecost.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adalbert Kuhn, W. Schwartz: North German sagas, fairy tales and customs from Mecklenburg. Leipzig 1848, p. 390, no.78a.
  2. ↑ Martha Paul: Wolf, fox and dog with the Germanic peoples. Vienna 1981, p. 171.
  3. ^ Friedrich Woeste: Standing or proverbial comparisons from the county of Mark. In: Die Deutschen Mundarten, Nördlingen, 5. 1858, p. 167 (note 136)
  4. ^ JFL Woeste: Folk traditions in the county of Mark. Iserlohn 1848, p. 27
  5. ^ Karl Müllenhoff: Legends, fairy tales and songs of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. Kiel 1845, p. 35f; Karl J. Simrock: The German People's Books collected and restored to their original authenticity. Vol. 9, Frankfurt a. Main 1856, p. 300
  6. ↑ Wilhelm Mannhardt: Mythological research from the estate and Die Korndämonen. Berlin 1868, p. 110, footnote; Adalbert Kuhn: Legends, customs and fairy tales from Westphalia and some others, especially the neighboring areas of northern Germany. Vol. 2, Leipzig 1858, pp. 159-160
  7. ^ Friedrich A. Diesterweg: The village and the Catholic parish of Welver. In: Rheinische Blätter for Education and Teaching, Volume 63–64 / III.t 1859, p. 247; Karl J. Simrock: Handbook of German Mythology. Bonn 1869, p. 560
  8. ^ Wilhelm Mannhardt: Die Korndämonen: Contribution to Germanic morality. Berlin 1868, p. 9
  9. ↑ Lüder Woort: Platt German seals. Bremen 1869, p. 216