Spinwood

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Spinholz is the name of a Jewish custom that was celebrated before a wedding. According to the current state of research, the celebration was only celebrated in medieval and early modern Germany.

description

There were two celebrations. The so-called little spinning wood was celebrated two weeks before the wedding.

The big spinning wood was celebrated on the Friday night before the wedding. Only the closest friends of the bride and groom were invited to this intimate celebration. In Frankfurt only "Confectionery and food items could be brought up for a maximum of 2 thalers" for the meal, and something could only be sent to the rabbi . It was forbidden to place more than three silver vessels in front of the groom and bride. In Alsace, the groom gave the Spinholz Festival on the afternoon of the last Saturday before the marriage, a sort of farewell to bachelor life. The bride did the same for her friends. In Hegenheim, the newly wed husband has to pay a regulatory amount to the community at Spinholz as well as for the housekeeping, but is entitled to be called to the Torah and to Glila (winding the Torah scroll ).

The following description comes from Emanuel Bollag: "Before the wedding, on the Sabbath before the wedding, there was the Spinholz. The Spinholz, that was an invitation. People went to congratulate even before the wedding, and there is also a meal Macaroons and cakes and small cakes, schnapps, if there was any, they didn't have that much choice, but what they had they put down. "

Origin of the term

There are various assumptions about the origin of the term, but none have been confirmed so far. According to Leopold Zunz , the roots of the term can be found in the Italian spinalzare , which means to play in the vulgar language , to have fun . According to Marcus, the name of the custom could also go back to the female symbol of the spindle.

Krauss, on the other hand, suspects that the term, which should be Spinnholz in the original , comes from Old High German . The term locker or locker denotes a pantry - as it is today in Dutch - and " wood is what is put into the pantry; the pantry of the newlyweds was filled with a lot of fine stuff through donations."

The fact that the word Spin (n) hol (t) z can hardly be found in any German dictionary or lexicon may still be accepted. It is astonishing, however, that the Yiddish dictionaries do not use the word either. Even today this term is unknown to most Jews.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Abraham Berliner: From the life of the German Jews in the Middle Ages, at the same time as a contribution to German cultural history. Based on printed and unprinted sources. Berlin 1900, p. 44.
  2. ^ A b c Ivan G. Marcus: The Jewish Life Cycle: Rites of Passage from Biblical to Modern Times. Washington 2004, ISBN 0-295-98440-6 , p. 152.
  3. ^ Leopold Zunz: The worship lectures of the Jews, developed historically. 2003, ISBN 1-59333-034-0 , p. 457.
  4. ^ S. Krauss: From the Jewish people's kitchen. In: Messages. NR 17.Jg. Vienna 1914, Issue 49, p. 18.
  5. ^ Alfred Klepsch: Yiddish dictionary on the basis of dialectological surveys in Middle Franconia. Tuebingen 2004.
  6. ^ Siegmund A. Wolf: Yiddish dictionary. Mannheim 1962.