Carrying out death
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The Todaustragen is an old custom that on Sunday Laetare , the fourth Sunday of Lent , and at the same time the third Sunday before Easter , in some parts of Central Europe is committed. The winter is driven out, which is often celebrated like a folk festival . The custom, the origins of which presumably go back to pre-Christian times, is closely related to the May Festival, which ushered in spring or summer a few months after the expulsion of winter.
Basic pattern of customs
The custom of Todaustragens shows up in different regional forms, but is subject to a large extent matching pattern: Under the singing of certain songs a part one is snowman modeled straw or cardboard cut through the town or out of worn out and burnt afterwards otherwise destroyed or to Thrown water. This straw doll is called by different names: In Central Germany it is usually simply called Death , in Hettingen / Odenwald it is called the Dead Sword . The southwest German Hisgir or Hisgier , on the other hand, is not burned, but collects gifts and recites Heischeverse . This used to be common in parts of Bohemia .
The figure symbolizes this very likely the origin of the death , because it is where the word death is a male in the national language, depicted as a man, as also in the German area was common. Wherever the word death is feminine in the national language, such as in Czech (smrt), the figure is also feminine. This also explains why in Bohemia, which was bilingual until the expulsion of the German population , there was a female equivalent called Tödi in addition to the male death , which, however, expected a similar fate. In addition to death or winter, there is also a second figure depicting spring in the Heidelberg area , who symbolically defeats winter in a verbal battle with subsequent physical confrontation.
Distribution and regional names
Carrying out death was and is being committed in several parts of Germany and its eastern neighbors. The custom still exists today in Silesia, Brandenburg , Lusatia , Bohemia, Saxony , Thuringia , Franconia , Baden , Alsace , the Palatinate and Hesse . The distribution area extends beyond Poland towards south- east Europe .
The same custom is used in south-west Germany, but here under the umbrella term of winter burning . The festival in Rheinhessen is known as the Stabausfest and the summer day trains are held in the Palatinate . In the East Central German- speaking area, the population described the custom primarily as carrying out death or driving out death.
Gradually, however, the custom declined sharply. For example, it was last celebrated in Radeberg on March 28, 1745. The strongholds to this day are Eisenach with its summer profit , Heidelberg , Weinheim and Speyer with their summer day trains, Nuremberg with the winter drive and Hettingen, where the death takes place every year.
Geographical names
Places that are or were related to the custom sometimes have a name reference to the local name of the custom. For example, north-east of Dresden along the course of the Prießnitz there is the Todberg with the Todberg houses, the Todmühle and two death bridges, one of which is located near Ullersdorf and the other near Klotzsche . In many places there are also dead or dead meadows, near Bad Schandau there is also a dead bump . The meadows and fields in Upper Silesia where idols called Marschaseka were thrown into the water were called Marsehanka.
Regional particularities
The carrying to death was celebrated in many different variations. The respective ceremonies sometimes differed from village to village. These are mainly shown in deviating song texts and processes. The essence of the custom depends not least on the degree of preservation of the original manner of these habits, because finally carrying out death has been rededicated or reinterpreted several times. In some places, the actual carrying out of death has been preserved to the present day, while in other places the focus is on the competition between summer and winter, which winter always loses. In still other places carrying out death degenerated into popular fun, until it was finally banned due to accidents, or it developed into requests for gifts from children. In Silesia, for example, the children held little decorated fir trees in their hands during the so-called summer singing, as was the case in Fichtenberg in Brandenburg. In the Bohemian Schneidmühl the doll symbolizing death was thrashed with wooden swords after being carried to death in a field. In Nuremberg, on the other hand, the doll is burned on the main market, as is the case in Hettingen. In Radeberg the straw doll was torn up in a meadow until carrying death was prohibited in 1745 and then burned. Also from the often sung on the occasion of carrying out death there are different versions.
history
In its oldest origins, carrying out death may go back to ancient pre-Christian customs. A connection with pagan spring and fertility festivals is conceivable, some of the traditions of which could have already flowed into later custom. In an earlier phase of Christianity , such an integration of old into new customs was permitted or even promoted by the church .
Already in the Bible there is an astonishing parallel to today's customs, which also occurs in the course of the year. According to the Gospel of Thursday after Laetare, Jesus came near the city gate of Naïn and there resurrected a young man who had previously been carried dead through the gate outside. Since Laetare was often preached about this text on Sunday, it is possible that the carrying out of death was one of the not uncommon illustrations and reenactments of sermons in the beginning.
The custom was therefore alienated for the first time as a result of the great plague epidemic in Europe in the middle of the 14th century. In the superstition that this would allow the black death to be banished from the villages, the figure modeled on the youth of Naïn was rededicated to the death of the plague. This condemned and forbidden, among other things, the Prague Synod of 1366 in a document that mentions the carrying out of death for the first time in history.
However, the church soon allowed the custom again and completely adopted it for itself in order to explain Lent in terms of salvation didactics and at the same time to arouse the anticipation of Easter. After the transience symbolized by the ashes of Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent, Jesus Christ showed his superiority over death by raising a dead person at mid-fast and pointed out his own resurrection three weeks later .
The custom of carrying out death was combined with the driving out of winter around 1540. In the late 18th century , local literature reinterpreted carrying death to simply driving out winter, which eventually became popular through Romanticism . As a result, the expulsion of death is sometimes reduced to an existence as a remnant of the pagan spring festivals , although influences of Christianity and the plague epidemic may have played more important roles in the development of the custom.
Similar customs
Festivities and customs that are related to carrying out death, but which differ in origin, are celebrated especially in the south and west of Germany and neighboring countries there. As is often the case with carrying death, they are related to fire and are intended to usher in spring. A major difference is the different time at which the customs are observed. This is usually the local sheep and Sunday called radio Sunday , which is the first Sunday of Lent and is three weeks before the Laetare. In the Eifel and Luxembourg the custom is called Burgbrennen or Hüttenbrennen . The Hutzel fire in the Fulda area , the Alemannic disc fire and the Chienbäse custom in Liestal , which all take place on the same date, are also related to this . Other customs that are similar to carrying death are the North Frisian Biikebrennen and the Rhaeto-Romanic Chalandamarz .
In Italy there is a custom that is closely related to carrying out death, both in terms of time and in the process. Either at the mathematical center of Lent, the Thursday before Laetare, or on the Sunday Laetare itself, a large doll symbolizing Lent is carried through the streets and then sawn up.
Subject in literature
In the older literature, the earlier widespread death is mentioned or dealt with many times. This is how Achim von Arnim described the custom in his work The Crown Guard in its sixth story, which is called The Driving Out .
literature
- Friedrich Sieber , Siegfried Kube: German-West Slavic Relations in Spring Customs. Carrying out death and dealing with summer . Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1968 ( publications by the Institute for German Folklore 45, ZDB -ID 515889-8 ).
- Helmut Seebach: Old festivals in the Palatinate . Volume 3: summer day, Easter, Pentecost, St. John's day . Bachstelz-Verlag Seebach, Mainz-Gonsenheim 1998, ISBN 3-924115-20-6 .
Web links
- Death carrying out in Meyer's Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 19. Leipzig 1909
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b heimatverein-hettingen.de, death to carry out
- ↑ labbe.de
- ↑ a b c Page no longer accessible ( memento of the original from March 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Maybe the article by Thomas Steimer was: In Hollerbach in the Odenwald there is a tradition of carrying out death .
- ↑ bierstadt-radeberg.de
- ↑ eisenachonline.de, summer profit on March 9, 2013 and 2011 ( Memento from August 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Axel Müllner: About Ullersdorf ( Memento from May 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ wandern-saechsische-schweiz.de ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ namslau-schlesien.de (PDF file; 74 kB)
- ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: fichtenbergelbe.de )
- ↑ kfm-online.de Driving out winter at Laetare ( Memento from May 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Axel Müllner: About manners and customs ( Memento from May 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ peter-grunwaldt.de ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2008 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.
- ↑ prosieben.de, driving out winter from Meyers Lexikon ( Memento from March 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Driving out death, carrying out death in Herders Conversations-Lexikon, Volume 5. Freiburg im Breisgau 1857
- ↑ Achim von Arnim: The crown guards in the Gutenberg-DE project
