Woodman Day
January 2nd is considered to be Waldmännchentag , also known as mallet day or forest festival . This is a deeply rooted pagan tradition that is particularly widespread in the Hessian-Thuringian border region, in Hainich and Eichsfeld .
In popular belief, January 2nd was considered a bad day. On that day there was a forest celebration and all forest work had to be stopped . This was considered Schlägelstag from the 15th century on the work in the mine, in the shafts at the Hohe Meissner and Richelsdorfer mountains extended. Anyone who disregarded this prohibition was sure to come across the forest man in the forest, a kind of forest rascal or goblin , who felt disturbed in its winter rest and punished with fierce vengeance, usually with death. The day also falls in the time of the Rauhnächte , when one always had to reckon with ghostly phenomena.
See also
literature
- Martin Bernhard: Waldmännchentag, mallet day and forest celebration in Hessen In: Hessian sheets for folklore. 39 (1941), pp. 10ff
- Rainer Lämmerhirt : Mihla - from the history of a village in West Thuringia , Neustadt an der Weinstrasse , 1993, p. 238f.
- Karl-Heinz Berndt: History and stories from the Richelsdorf mountains: A home book. Nentershausen (2009). Pp. 191f, ISBN 978-3837032666
