Worms Backfischfest
The Backfischfest with up to 700,000 visitors the largest according to the organizers the people - and wine festival on the Rhine . It is celebrated annually on the Kisselswiese fairground in the Nibelung city of Worms and has been taking place since 1933. It was also intended to be a replacement for Sedan Day, which was celebrated across Germany in earlier years .
The focus of the Backfischfest is one of the oldest fishing guilds in Germany, the Worms fishing guild founded in 1106 by Bishop Adalbert II .
The Backfischfest traditionally opens on the market square on the Saturday before the last Sunday in August, where there is a performance of the historic Worms journeyman's dance. The Bojemääschter vun de Fischerwääd (Mayor of the Fischerweide) with his Backfischbraut symbolically takes over the official duties in the town hall during the fair on the Rhine. On the first Sunday there is a parade through the streets of Worms to the fairground, in which many associations and numerous companies take part. During the festival week , a number of events such as the Fischerwääder Kerb take place. The festival ends on the first Sunday in September with the traditional fisherman jousting in the Worms raft harbor and a large fireworks display on the Rhine, which was accompanied by music for the first time in 2007.
Among the attractions at the 2003 redesigned and about 17,000 square meter fairground include the numerous rides, the Wonnegauer wine cellar, a tent where more than 400 different Rheinhessen red and white wines and sparkling wine in Piffchen offered for tasting and the flapper bratereien from which the festival is said to take its name. The name for young girls can also be used as the origin of the name .
history
After the Sedan Festival, which took place from 1873 to 1903, Worms only had two noteworthy festivals, the Whitsun and All Saints Masses, which increasingly lost importance after the First World War . In the early summer of 1933, there were increasing suggestions that there should be another bigger festival in Worms. The tourist office was commissioned with the planning. Traffic director Konrad Fischer, who started the short-lived "Rose Festival" as a replacement for the Sedan Festival at the beginning of the century, already had concrete plans: A wine festival on the Rhine as a continuation of the Sedan day with the name "Backfischfest", the festival of fishermen and the ambiguous Flappers. The premiere in September 1933, then as now over nine days, was a complete success, despite initial difficulties in convincing the hosts and fishermen. After the war, the Backfischfest revived in 1949. The Wonnegau wine cellar, fishermen's jousting, journeyman's dance, fireworks and the expansion of the Fischerwääder Kerb were also added.
regional customs
Fischerwääd
In the Fischerwääd (fishing pasture), a lane between the city wall and the Rhine, once lived the Worms fishermen, according to their own account one of the oldest fishing guilds in Germany (founded in 1106). It forms the center of the same with the Bojemääschterei (mayor's office) of the Fischerwääder Association for the Maintenance of Customs. In the Bojemäschterei the Fischerwääder Stubb is housed, where memorabilia and documents of the fishing guild are presented. The Bojemääschter (mayor) symbolically takes over the reign of Worms together with his Backfischbraut during the Backfischfest. For this purpose, he receives the city key from the mayor of the city in exchange for a representative fish platter at the opening. This custom dates back to the Middle Ages, when the Worms fishermen also asked for approval for their festivals with fish as a gift. In the Fischerwääd, the Fischerwääder morning pint takes place on the first festival Sunday, the Fischerwääder Curb on the Backfischfest Wednesday .
Worms journeyman dance
The Worms journeyman dance is an integral part of the opening ceremony. It was first published in 1483 in honor of Bishop Johann III. performed publicly by Dalberg on his arrival in Worms. The first mention of the dance comes from a contemporary chronicle:
“On the day of riding in, the guild gathered in front of the coin, as did the servants, and at the set hour the servants all went neatly two and two together and had a captain who had been in war runs a lot and was able to organize the servants that they did a dance and a wheel. For this they had been ordered a timpanist with a piper ” .
Based on this historical report, the dance could be reconstructed. In 1926 the dance to the melody of the Old Piper March was performed again in an expanded form by the gymnastics community in Worms in 1846 . It is performed by sixteen guild journeymen, a lead dancer and a flag thrower, accompanied by four musicians (oboe, clarinet, bassoon, mercenary drums). The participants are dressed in historical costumes in the Worms city colors, red and white.
Worms leather dance
Also part of the official opening ceremony is the Worms leather dance, traditionally performed by high school students from the Worms Gauss high school. The exclusively male students symbolically represent the steps involved in tanning in leather processing. This is a reminder of the once dominant leather industry in Worms, which was responsible for the economic recovery of the city from 1834 (foundation of the leather factory "Cornelius Heyl AG") and after Second World War lost its importance. The last leather factory in Worms, “Heylsche Lederwerke Liebenau”, closed in 1974. The dance was created on the occasion of the Rhineland-Palatinate Day in 1986, when schools in Worms presented the history of the city of Worms and the Gauss-Gymnasium decided on the history of the leather industry.
Jousting
According to the company, the oldest fishing tournament has been taking place on the last day of the Backfischfest (Sunday) since 1933. The participating teams, mainly members of local water sports clubs, gather in the Fischerweide, the fishermen's former residential area, and move towards the Rhine together. In the adjacent raft harbor, the jousting traditionally begins at 2:30 p.m. with the opening duel between the farmer and the farmer's wife, then the teams fight for the mayor's trophy. A team consists of two helmsmen and the engraver. The engraver stands on a pedestal attached to the tip of the boat and tries to push his opponent into the water with a five-meter-long lance. The record holder is the former European vice-champion Uwe Thudium ( Worms rowing club Blau-Weiß from 1883 ) with seven victories.
In 2006 the jousting was canceled due to a tragic accident. At the opening of the tournament, a parachutist landed almost unchecked between two boats and died of his injuries at the scene of the accident. The jousting and closing fireworks were then canceled.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Til Schrecker: Website on the history of the Worms fishing guild. In: backfischfest.de, accessed on December 26, 2018.
- ↑ Heinfried Becker: Dance of the Worms leather workers. The leather industry in Worms. (No longer available online.) In: gauss-worms.de. Gauß-Gymnasium Worms, archived from the original on September 1, 2016 ; accessed on December 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Acrobatic jousting in Worms. Old master Uwe Thudium takes seventh victory. (No longer available online.) In: wormser-zeitung.de. Wormser Zeitung , September 5, 2010, archived from the original on October 23, 2013 ; accessed on December 26, 2018 (article text only available for subscribers).
- ↑ Tragic accident in the raft harbor. (No longer available online.) In: worms.de. September 4, 2006, archived from the original on January 14, 201 ; accessed on December 26, 2018 .