Hen party

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Good luck shards

Under a hen party is defined as a widespread, especially in Germany wedding custom , a bride and groom before the marriage by the breaking of pottery and porcelain , a success of marriage to be desired. The term is also known in Poland, Austria, Switzerland and Nordic countries such as Denmark and Finland, but there mostly describes the exuberant farewell to being single, which is known in Germany as the bachelor party and in the Anglo-Saxon countries as a stag party or party. Hen Night is known.

History and interpretation

The historical origin of the bachelorette party is not clear; There is little literature for the German-speaking area, the folklore research situation in Scandinavia is better. According to the folklorist Annette Remberg, the custom has been attested since the beginning of the 16th century, but according to the historian Hans Dunker from the 16th and 17th centuries, at least for Schleswig-Holstein, "it has not been reported", which he did in view of the tradition rooted in popular superstition would have expected. The first records of such customs can be found in the late Middle Ages; the name is first handed down at the end of the 17th century, but as a Polternacht ("hymenalia") already in Anhalter Trochus (1517). The tradition of bachelorette parties in connection with bachelorette party jokes and games has been documented many times since the 19th century. Grimm's dictionary describes bachelorette parties in the 19th century as “the eve of a wedding celebrated through feasting, dancing and all sorts of jokes”.

The custom of breaking porcelain is probably based on the folk etymologically interpreted proverb : "Shards bring luck". The term " shard ", which comes from the pottery trade, originally referred to all earthen vessels, not just the broken ones. “Shards bring luck” could therefore be interpreted as meaning that many vessels in the sense of filled storage containers represent a lucky coincidence for the owner. In the ritual destruction of property on display, the sociologists Peter von Haselberg and Heinz Abels have seen a remnant of the anthropological phenomenon known as potlatch of demonstrative waste . It is therefore a sacrificial rite. Such rites are deeply rooted in Germanic customs, as in countless other cultures. A rite of passage from the group of unmarried into married life can also be seen in the destruction of the old ; At the beginning of the 19th century, Achim von Arnim wrote in his novel Die Kronenwächter that "the old pots are thrown up to start a new life". The medical historian Oskar Scheuer interpreted the custom as a symbolic anticipation of defloration on the wedding night and made a reference to the folk-cultural chastity test .

The noise should follow the most common interpretation as wards keep the bride and groom spirits and demons, comparable to the Fireworks Noise New Year's Eve. Johann Heinrich Voss , for example, refers to this interpretation in his poem Luise: A rural poem in three idylls , in which the pastor calls for a noise before the wedding: “All sounds to me! / Everyone with loud music! That a night goblin or Asmodi does not offend you in the bridal chamber / Gämisch ! ”The legal historian Karl Frölich also suspects a legal function: to make the marriage known to the general public through the noise. Problems with public order during the bachelorette party are documented in the street police regulations for the 19th century residence city of Braunschweig , which stated in Section 112: "Throwing pots on the street at bachelorette parties is prohibited."

Andrea Graf points out that since the late 1980s the tradition of bachelorette parties has been changed and pushed back, among other things because “mountains of rubbish were dumped in the bridal couple's yard”. The traditional form continues to exist, but is increasingly being replaced or supplemented by the globalized form of the bachelor party originating from the Anglo-American cultural area, which it interprets as a “ post-modern ritual of passage”. The folklorist Gunther Hirschfelder does not see the new ritual as a pure cultural import, as it is too diverse, and explains it from the reduced integration of people into their local community, the lower importance of marriage in the course of life and the everyday cultural development towards an “event culture ".

Elements of custom

The hen party usually takes place in front of the bride's house or her parents' house. The bride and groom only announce the date, but do not invite anyone in detail. Many a bridal couple see this as an opportunity to let many people, who cannot be invited to the wedding themselves, participate. Therefore, food is provided, a traditional dish for the hen night is the chicken soup , as chickens are a symbol of fertility and in earlier times chickens were given to the bridal couple on hen night. A connection with the term hen night is suspected.

The core of this custom is breaking by throwing porcelain brought along. But earthenware , flower pots or ceramic items such as tiles, sinks and toilet bowls are also popular throwing objects. Metal objects such as tin cans, crown caps and can lids are also common for rumbling. On the other hand, glasses (glass stands for happiness that should not be destroyed) or even mirrors (a broken mirror stands for seven years of bad luck) are prohibited . The bridal couple must then dispose of the pile of broken glass together. This should represent a first symbolic act for the joint tackling / work from now on, comparable to the common sawing of a wood (trunk) after the wedding.

Particularly in northern Germany, the custom of burning the groom's trousers at midnight to symbolically end the bachelorette party is widespread . The ashes are then buried along with a liquor bottle (often corn brandy ). After a year the bottle is dug up again and drunk together. In addition, the bride's shoes are nailed to a tree, the idea behind this is to prevent the bride from "running away". In some regions, the bride's bra is also burned instead.

The hen party is traditionally celebrated on the eve of the church or civil wedding. If the bachelorette party takes place on the eve of the wedding, the bride and groom are allowed to leave the celebration early ( e.g. at midnight ) in order to be fresh and not hungover the next day. It has now become common practice to hold the hen party weeks before the wedding day.

Comparable customs

A tradition similar to bachelorette parties is the Hielich , a custom in the Bergisches Land and the Eifel , where people shot and drank before the wedding as well as at the bachelorette party. The Letsch is a similar custom that is widespread in the Rhineland. A corresponding custom in Bremen is tying a wreath .

A similar tradition of clamoring and joking before weddings called Charivari exists only for remarried people in France, including the Bal des Ardents 1393 as a well-known example .

In Muslim cultures, the evening before the wedding is called henna night .

literature

  • Annette Remberg: Change in wedding customs in the 20th century illustrated using the example of a medium-sized town. A folklore-sociological investigation (= contributions to folk culture in north-west Germany. Volume 90). Waxmann, Münster 1995, ISBN 3-89325-361-0 , Chapter C: Polterabend , pp. 113-125 (preview) .
  • Hen party , m . In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 13 : N, O, P, Q - (VII). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1889 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).

Web links

Commons : hen party  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: hen party  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the Finnish polttarit or polterabend and the Swedish counterpart, see Beth Montemurro: Something Old, Something Bold: Bridal Showers and Bachelorette Parties as Traditions of Transition. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ 2006, ISBN 978-0-8135-3810-5 , pp. 184-188 , and Anna-Maria Äström: Polterabend. Symbols and Meanings in a Popular Custom of Aristocratic and Bourgeois Origin. In: Ethnologica Scandinavica , Volume 19, 1989, pp. 83-106.
  2. ^ Annette Remberg: Change in wedding customs in the 20th century illustrated using the example of a medium-sized town. A folklore-sociological investigation (= contributions to folk culture in north-west Germany. Vol. 90). Waxmann, Münster 1995, ISBN 3-89325-361-0 , p. 113 .
  3. ^ Hans Dunker: Advertising, engagement and wedding customs in Schleswig-Holstein. Philosophical dissertation, University of Kiel 1930, p. 77.
  4. ↑ Karl von Bahder : Dialect names of the bachelorette party. In: Journal for German Dialects. Born 1910, pp. 193–199, and Julius Leithaeuser : Polterabend. In: ibid., P. 316 f., Textarchiv - Internet Archive .
  5. ↑ Below: PF Lembert: Polterabend = jokes with and without publicity. A collection of poems, salutations, dialogues and other hen party = scenes. In: RL Methus. Müller (ed.): Newspaper for the elegant world . Leipzig 1830, column 1913, Textarchiv - Internet Archive . Caroline Hausberg: hen party jokes. 9 p. Described by an old hand. Private print, 1880 (with contributions such as Die Zauberinn , On handing over spoons , Die Zuckerzange , Das alten Mütterchen ). Julius Bauer : hen party jokes. Dedicated to the bride and groom Isabella Geiringer and Victor Herz by Julius Bauer. Presented on March 17, 1894 by Alexander Girardi . 1. Wiener Zeitungs-Gesellschaft, Vienna 1894.
  6. ↑ hen party , m . In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 13 : N, O, P, Q - (VII). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1889 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
  7. ↑ Shard , f . In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 14 : R - skewness - (VIII). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1893 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ). Section II.4.
  8. ↑ Peter von Haselberg : Functionalism and Irrationality. Studies on Thorstein Veblen's "Theory of the Leisure Class" (= Frankfurt Contributions to Sociology. Vol. 12). European Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1962, p. 24; Heinz Abels : Clothes make the man, but do we really want that? (= Coesfeld lectures on sociology. No. 11). October 2011 (PDF) (PDF) p. 10.
  9. ↑ Related to the Andrea Graf bachelorette party: The last day in freedom - the bachelorette party as a postmodern ritual of passage? ( Memento of the original from June 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Presentation of the dissertation project. In: Institute for Archeology and Cultural Anthropology , University of Bonn. Especially for the hen party as a rite of passage Christiane Cantauw, Folklore Commission for Westphalia . In: Marry. Why the hen party is actually pointless these days. In: Der Westen , February 27, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.volkskunde.uni-bonn.de
  10. ↑ Achim von Arnim : The Crown Guard. Berthold's first and second life (= Complete Works. Volume 3). Maurer, Berlin 1817, p. 182, Textarchiv - Internet Archive .
  11. ↑ OV Scheuer : hen party. In: Max Marcuse (Hrsg.): Concise Dictionary of Sexual Science. Encyclopedia of the natural and cultural science of human sex education. New edition with an introduction by Robert Jütte . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 2001, p. 563 .
  12. ^ A b Karl Frölich: Legal history and folklore in the Low German marriage tradition. In: News of the Giessen University Society. Volume 20, 1951, pp. 102-138, here p. 122 f. uni-giessen.de (PDF)
  13. ^ Johann Heinrich Voss : Luise. A rural poem in three idylls. University bookstore, Königsberg 1826, p. 315 .
  14. ↑ Quoted from: Richard Andree : Braunschweiger Volkskunde. 2nd increased edition. Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig 1901, p. 304.
  15. ^ A b Andrea Graf: First results of the survey on bachelorette parties in the Rhineland. “The last day in freedom?” In: Everyday life in the Rhineland. Communications from the Language and Folklore Department of the LVR Institute for Cultural Studies and Regional History (ILR). Volume 2012, pp. 18–24, here pp. 20 f. rheinische-landeskunde.lvr.de (PDF)
  16. ↑ Bachelor party. Party instead of rumbling. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 17, 2010.
  17. ↑ When pants and bra catch fire Description of the custom "Pants burn on polteridoo.de
  18. ↑ Polterabend ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Description on www.ein-unvergesslicher-tag.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / einsunvergesslicher-tag.de
  19. ^ P. Brauers: Wedding customs. The somewhat different non-fiction book about the wedding. 3. Edition. Books on Demand , Norderstedt 2011.
  20. ↑ This connection is made by Julius Leithaeuser : Polterabend. In: Journal for German Dialects. Born 1910, p. 316 f., Textarchiv - Internet Archive .