Next to Christmas and Easter, Pentecost is the most important festival of the year for Christians. It is considered the hour of birth of the Christian Church. Many customs have also been preserved in Saxony-Anhalt.
Halle (dpa/sa) - The Mansfeld region in Saxony-Anhalt maintains a bizarre Pentecost custom: the dirty pig festival. "As far as I know, there is only something like this here," said the magistrate of the Hergisdorf Pentecostal Society, Marc Nakielski. "The earliest written mention is in a church book entry from 1620."
The annual ritual is maintained in the so-called four basic villages of Ahlsdorf, Hergisdorf, Kreisfeld and Ziegelrode. It's about driving out winter and welcoming in spring and summer. "After a two-year break, it could be that many visitors will come again, before the pandemic there were always almost 1,000 people," said Nakielski.
On Whit Monday, the disguised and painted "dirty pigs" push each other into the mud in a hollow at the edge of the forest. But the "runners" finally intervene with their long whips and drive the "bastards" out of the mud hole. White "runners" with many colorful accessories embody summer, the bastards winter.
But there are also other customs at Pentecost. In numerous communities, including in Saxony-Anhalt, a hearty Whitsun beer is celebrated after the service. The tradition of the Pentecost fires commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit described in the Acts of the Apostles.
"At the finch maneuver in Benneckenstein, the most beautiful and longest bird song is awarded," said the scientific officer for cultural heritage at the Federal Association of Homeland Care BHU (Bonn), Annette Schneider-Reinhardt.
Equestrian games, such as ring riding in Mildensee near Dessau and Jerchel near Gardelegen, have their origin in the fact that men capable of bearing arms were recruited at Pentecost and so-called military inspections took place for this purpose. Ring riding is now an intangible cultural heritage.
It is also customary to carry a person wrapped in fresh greens with you in the parade at the Hunnebröselfest in Dannefeld/Drömling or at the "Green Man" in Zedau/Altmark.
Pentecost is also a pastoral festival. "In some places in the Altmark, a boy carrying a frame wrapped in green is called a ox," said Schneider-Reinhardt.
At Pentecost, the houses are decorated with green, the Pentecost Mays. This tradition is cultivated by numerous Pentecostal societies or Pentecostal boys' associations, especially in the Burgenland district.
The setting up of Pentecost trees, in Lindstedt/Altmark it is a pine, is linked to the Pentecost date, similar to the decoration of the Queste in Questenberg. The Pentecost trees are entwined with birch branches, along with a wagon wheel with straw dolls. "The robber festivals taking place in Anhalt, such as in Beesedau, Strenznaundorf, Lebendorf and Cörmigk, are possibly an indication of Pentecost as a military date," said the expert.
