Soot witch
The soot witch is a figure of the coarse, rural carnival. In the past, there were different custom designs in all areas of the Swabian-Alemannic Carnival, in which people's faces were blackened with soot on Carnival days. In some places the inhabitants blackened each other, in others traditional figures developed which carried out this rustling. In general, Friday between " Schmotziger Thursday " and " Shrovetide Sunday " is referred to as " Sooty Friday ", but the custom can also be on other days, depending on the location. The "rustling" is rather a rarity today and is therefore limited to a few places. In Empfingen (Lkr. Freudenstadt), the soot witch is one of the two original witch figures of the Empfinger Fleckenfasnet. It occurs on Schmotzigen Thursday (local dialect: Ruaßiger Dauschig) as a free custom in Empfingen. With soot-smeared hands, she vigorously blackens the faces of passers-by. So far there are no explanations as to why the rustling is carried out in Empfingen on Thursday. The soot witches are also referred to in the local dialect as "gate hood", which comes from the headgear. The origin of this hood are the traditional costume wheel hoods ("Gadderhaub") of the local female costume. These still existed in fractions until around 1970 in the free Fasnet and were put on the other way round, in contrast to wearing in bourgeois life. If you now had two wheel covers, you put both on at the same time.
Anyone who no longer had their own wheel hoods made an imitation of them, which resulted in the double gate hood that is worn throughout today. Two skirts worn by the soot witch come from the traditional clothing. A skirt on the hips and a skirt over the shoulders. To this day, the face is covered with a textile, mostly made of used fabric curtains. She walks in black leather boots. The soot witchcraft began when the church clock struck 12 o'clock and ended earlier when the prayer timed out. Executives are only men and boys of the place, especially the different age groups. When it was founded in 1951, the fools guild did not take over the soot witch or "gate hood" as a traditional figure, but only the " old witch ", who was on the road from Sunday to Tuesday, they also wore the women's costume, but mostly the traditional blouse ("Bausch-Mutz") as a top and had no broom, but the short-handled, two-pronged oven fork. This witch wore a witch's face on a picture from 1936, presumably paper mache, wooden witch masks did not follow until 1953.
The hitherto existing witch was still unchanged in the move in 1951 and 1952, after which those responsible took a rigorous course to separate traditional costumes from the association's carnival, with the intention of founding a traditional costume group with the traditional costume pieces that were still available, which then took place in 1958 . The old witch was therefore adjusted in steps to the increasingly dominant "modern Swabian - Alemannic witch". In 1955 the redesign was completed, the " new witch ", with a broom and carved wooden larva . The witch group made a complete adaptation to the modern age by imposing the name "Saiwaldhexe" on itself around 1980. Until then, the "New Witch" had no nickname at all. In order to show this remarkable development from the "old" to the "new" and to make the origin transparent, the guild of fools designed the limited number of four old witches strictly according to the earlier model. These were then integrated into the group " Alt-Empfinger-Fasnet " in 2005 , which is supposed to show the free goings-on.
Well-known customs and figures
- Soot Witch Receiving
- Russler Scheer
- Soot witch Schömberg (near Balingen) - Schörzingen
- Soot Witch Merdingen
- Soot Witch Egesheim
literature
- Werner Baiker, Klaus Warnke, a. a. Oh Latschaboo, oh Schaluschee A colorful foray through the historical recipient Fasnet, Narrenzunft Empfingen, Empfingen 2001
- Hermann Bausinger (Ed.): Village carnival between Neckar and Lake Constance. Tübingen Association for Folklore. Contributions of the Tübingen working group for carnival research (Volksleben. Investigations of the Ludwig-Uhland-Institute of the University of Tübingen on behalf of the Tübingen Association for Folklore, Vol. 12). Tübingen, Verlag Horst Bissinger KG, Tübingen 1966