Holy fire
The bonfire is a custom cultivated especially in Austria and is a light blessed by Catholic priests, which is carried from house to house by children on Holy Saturday . The activity is called carrying a holy fire . In parts of Carinthia, such as the Lavant Valley , one speaks of sponge consecration .
history
An early evidence can be found at Peter Rosegger's Easter in Obersteier (1870) - after that it was the job of the stable boys to bring the bonfire home from the church :
“The grave digger makes a fire in the cemetery, which is usually around the church, from decaying grave crosses and half-decayed coffin boards, which the pastor consecrates either before or after the resurrection ceremony. When the service is over, a boy from every house rushes to the cemetery, takes a burning or glowing piece of wood from the holy fire in a pan and runs it to his court. It is very bad when the fire goes out for him on the way, then someone dies in his house in the course of the year. [...] When the boy brings his embers home happily, the coals are poured over the hearth fire, and the farmer's wife is immediately concerned that the holy fire does not go out completely for years, so that the flame of true piety in the house lohe and the angel of death pass. "
According to the Styrian vocabulary of 1903, the boys were given food (St. Veit) or eggs (Sausal), a piece of the bonfire was put in the oven so that the Easter bread would flourish, another piece was carried out onto the field to protect against storm damage ( Gleichenberg). In parts of Eastern Austria it is the ratchet boys who carry the fire into the houses.
procedure
The bonfire is given out to the bonfire bearers in their tin cans in the early hours of the morning, with the cans constantly swinging to keep the glowing up. Wires attached to holes in the sides of the tin cans lead to the handle, allowing the holy fire box to swing. The holy fire bearers carry tree sponges and dried wood to nourish the embers. Large, dried sponges, which are attached to an approx. 1 m long wire, are lit in the holy fire and then brought home with sporadic rotation, where they catch fire again from the embers. The porters pass the fire on to the households visited even after saying a saying and for a small fee so that they can ignite the stoves with the smoldering and blessed pieces of wood.
literature
Sepp Walter: Styrian customs throughout the year . 1997. Publisher: Verein Schloss Trautenfels. ISBN 978-3-900493-45-5
Individual evidence
- ↑ PK Rosegger: Easter in Upper Styria , in the entertainment sheet of the latest news from the field of politics 1870, pp. 429-431, also in Ders .: The people's life in Styria: in character and moral images.
- ↑ Styrian vocabulary as a supplement to Schmeller's Bavarian dictionary. Graz 1903, p. 625
- ^ Ernst Burgstaller : Austrian Folklore Atlas. Volume 7, 1980, p. 30