LL-L "Folklore" 2003.05.08 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

======================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L * 08.MAY.2003 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
http://www.lowlands-l.net * sassisch at yahoo.com
Rules & Guidelines: http://www.lowlands-l.net/rules.htm
Posting Address: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org
Server Manual: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html
Archives: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
=======================================================================
You have received this because you have been subscribed upon request.
To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l" as message
text from the same account to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or
sign off at http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
=======================================================================
A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
=======================================================================

From: burgdal32admin <burgdal32 at pandora.be>
Subject: LL-L "Folklore" 2003.05.04 (04) [E]

> From: "thomas byro" <thbyro at earthlink.net>
> Subject: LL-L "Folklore" 2003.04.28 (08) [E]
>
> Ron
>
> I recall that we ate horsemeat in my area.  A practise that the church
> tried to exterminate in times past because of its strong associations
> with the old religion.
>
> I am curious about some other aspects of life in my area.  For example,
> when someone died, the body was kept in a pavillion in the cemetery for
> three days before burial.  Was this a purely local custom or was this
> common in all the lowlands areas?

Hi thomas and ron,
The burial custom  is still in use in Flanders. Every dead person is
kept  in a room (in his  own house or more recently in a pavillion near
a cemetry, in a mortuarium in a hospital or in a private mortuarium,
so that people  can go there to show there respects for the person in
question.
In the sixties, dead peole lay in their own houses for three days. The
walls of room were covered with black sheets. Near the frontdoor(in the
street) stood a  straw cross and a  burning lantern.People went to the
funeral and the body of the deceased was braught to the churh in a
"wittewagen" with horses.
>
> In walking to a friends house, I used to pass a thatch roofed farm
> house(with the usual horse heads on top).  The old woman who lived
> there
> had pigtails that virtually swept the ground.  It was said that she had
> never cut her hair in her life.  She used to keep her pigtails clean by
> covering them with cloth sheaths.  Was this her personal abberation or
> was she one of the last practitioners of an old custom?
>
> Tom Byro

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Language survival
> As many of you probably know, horse meat is eaten in several parts of
> Europe, most well-known in French-speaking areas.  In Germany it is
> eaten too, though by a minority.  Where I lived in a part of Hamburg,
> there was a special horse butcher shop.  My father liked horse meat and
> would occasionally demand it, but I absolutely detested it for
> psychological and sensory reasons and had to be forced, literally
> starved, to eat it (and my stomach still churns as I think of it,
> especially horse sausage ...), and the same applies to rabbit meat,
> especially when served on Easter ...

In Flanders many people still enjoy eating horse flesh. I know several
restaurants that have horsesteack on the menu, specially in the
Brussels region (Anderlecht-Vilvoorde) . People queue for it.
And flemish rabbit is a wellknown dish.
>
> Anyway (as he stops gagging), I have looked into this horse cult thing
> a
> bit more, and, yes, such a thing did exist in various parts of Eurasia,
> also among pre-Christian Celtic and Germanic tribes.  This included
> horse sacrifices and the ritual partaking of horse meat.

In the franconion kingdom that started in Doornik (Tournai), horses and
hair were really very important.
There has been a very interesting excavation of a 'merovinger' king,
Childeric, who was burried together with  many horses.
There was money found in the grave with his picture showing him with
long hair which gives him the status of  a king. Indeed  one of the
'merovinger' queens (Fredegonde? I have to look that up in our
library)) was forced to make  a choise between the killing of her two
sons or the cutting of their hair? She chose the first option, to save
her children from the disgrace.When people cutted the hair of a king,
the man had to abdict and mostly  went into a cloister  or  started a
minor profession, serving other people.

groetjes
luc vanbrabant
oekene

================================END===================================
* Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.
* Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.
* Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
* Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
  to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at
  http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
=======================================================================