Water bird singing

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When water bird singing is a Heischebrauch , which was mainly in the lower Bavarian Forest ( district of Freyung-Grafenau and northern district of Passau pleased) at Pentecost great popularity.

description

On the night from Whit Sunday to Monday or even on Sunday afternoon, young villagers, mostly members of a local sports club or the volunteer fire brigade, wander from house to house in waterproof clothing and sing the waterfowl song. Common cantor stanzas include:

"Mia san so bresltrucka, ös wia an Ofakrucka"
"D'Wasservögel must water, otherwise it'll be ös boid angry."

These are often supplemented by individual Gstanzln , the content of which relates to the house just visited. The opening sequence is repeated after each verse. The residents of the houses pour water on the "birds" from windows and balconies. The water birds want to be watered, but also to be given presents. In addition to the eggs that were common in the past and were usually sold afterwards, there are now also monetary gifts.

history

The age and origin of the custom are unknown, but it was widespread in the lower Bavarian Forest in the second half of the 19th century. The first evidence known so far is the letter from the pastor of Herzogsreut to the Wolfstein district office on May 10, 1899, in which he calls on the authorities to take action against this "night-time disturbance of the worst kind".

The waterfowl singing is described in detail in a letter from the Mauth Gendarmerie Section dated May 16, 1906 to the Wolfstein District Office. After that there were repeated official interventions, often with a local police ban, but this was expressly rejected by some communities because waterfowl singing is an old custom.

The local poet Max Matheis published a four-stanza poem in his poetry book Bayerisches Bauernbrot from 1939 with the title s' Wasservoglsingen , which begins with the following verses:

It's getting funnier now
Ruaft the Pentecostal bird in the forest,
grab your boyfriends,
because Pentecost is coming soon.
Water fowl becomes gsunga
in front of every farmhouse,
long until the farmer's wife gets stupid
and until the Oa jerks out.

In this context, it was repeatedly pointed out that the custom was of pre-Christian, old Germanic origin, with the work of Wilhelm Mannhardt : Forest and Field Cults (2 volumes, 1875) being used as evidence . The idea that ancient Germanic folk wealth lived on in this custom became very popular from then on and mostly spread without further evidence. Ernst Dorn writes: “These are the tenacious, reflection-like interpretation patterns of the 19th century. B. pouring out water automatically means rain magic. "

See also

With Pentecost singing, there is a comparable custom in the Bergisches Land .

Individual evidence

  1. Rudolf Kubitschek: The spread of water birds singing in the Bohemian Forest , in: Monthly for the East Bavarian border marks 11 (1922), pp. 103-105.
  2. Max Matheis: Bayerisches Bauernbrot , 6th edition, Morsak Verlag, Grafenau, ISBN 3-87553-019-5
  3. Ernst Dorn: Home on the border. Philippsreut community , Tittling, 1997, ISBN 3-00-001354-7 , p. 500 ff.