Thomastag
The St. Thomas Day , the 21st December . In the Protestant and Anglican Churches (but not in the Roman Catholic Church since 1970), this day is the day of remembrance of the Apostle Thomas , one of the twelve disciples of Jesus .
In the general Roman calendar , the feast day of St. Thomas on July 3 , the day the apostle's relics were transferred to Edessa , as the day of remembrance could otherwise not be celebrated due to the high liturgical order of the weekdays of Advent from December 17 to 23. In the calendar of the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, however, the original date was retained. In popular parlance, December 21st is still referred to as St. Thomas Day and the night of December 21st as Thomas Night.
Since December 21st is the winter solstice , St. Thomas's Day is the shortest day of the year (“From St. Thomas's Day, the day grows by a cock crow”), accordingly the night of December 20th to 21st, Thomas Night, is the longest night of the year. On this day the sun (usually, sometimes the day of the winter solstice falls on the 22nd) reaches its lowest level above the horizon in the course of the year.
In some West Frisian communities, bells begin ringing for twelve days on St. Thomas' Day , which was once supposed to drive away evil spirits. This also applies to municipalities in Lower Silesia and in the new federal states.
Old council protocols show that until the 19th century, at least in the Austrian states, the one-year term of office of the city judge (mayor) and the municipal council expired annually on St. Thomas's Day. It was therefore customary that on St. Thomas 'Day or the Sunday before St. Thomas' Day "judges and council" of the self-governing towns and market communities were newly elected by the citizens with full rights . A re-election of the previous incumbent was possible. In addition, Thomastag is one of the most important meetings of student associations , it takes place every year on the weekend before Christmas in Nuremberg .
Thomas Night
The Thomas Eight is with many customs and some superstitions connected. Here, according to the ideas of the people, the spirits could have a particularly long and intensive effect. In Thuringia and Bohemia , the term "Durchspinn-Nacht" or "Durchsitz-Nacht" is common. In the Black Forest , the associated alcohol consumption is alluded to: the morning after is called “Kotzmorgen”.
In some communities in the east of the Lüneburg Heath , children and young people go from house to house, making music and singing, in the custom called “Thomsen” or “Thomsen go” and receive sweets in return. This custom is analogous to Martinssingen , which is not observed in these communities. The Thomsen has been largely superseded by Halloween in recent years and decades and is only rarely practiced today.
In Carinthia, people believed that they could see into the future that night. For example, a custom popular with young farmers was “counting the fence posts”: You named a number and then counted the corresponding fence posts to the right of the fence door. Its appearance should say what the future lover looks like: young and fresh or old and rotten.
In old Bavaria there was a similar superstition: When on Thomas Night a single woman stands completely naked on a stool in front of her bed and says, "Bet stool i step you, holy Thomas i ask you, let me see my dearest one, in this holy one Night! ", Then that night she sees her future husband in a dream.
In the rural tradition, December 21 was also the day on which the Mettensau was slaughtered . The domestic pig, also known as “Christmas”, was specially fattened for the Christmas roast after Christmas mass.
In many places the customs are similar to those on St. Andrew's Night (see also St. Andrew's Prayer ).
The Thomas night is the first rough night .