LL-L "Tradition" 2011.01.02 (02) [EN-NL]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 02 January 2011 - Volume 02
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From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org>

Subject: LL-L "Tradition" 2010.12.31 (03) [EN-NL]



From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>



I'm prepared for big expenses at my door tomorrow, cf:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZPe5S7wwH4



Here is one of the versions:



Nieuwjaarke zoete
Mijn varken heeft vier voeten
Vier voeten en ene staart
Is dat dan geen wafel waard
Is die wafel nog niet gebakken
Geef me dan een schotel pap
Is die schotel pap nog niet gereed
Geef me dan een beste kleed
Is dat beste kleed nog niet genaaid
Geef me dan een haantje dat kraait
Is dat haantje dat kraait nog niet geboren
Geef me dan een pot vol kolen
Is die potvol kolen nog niet gebrand
Geef me dan een dikke, dikke, vette vleeskant.
(De tekst werd uiteraard in het dialect gezongen.)



Generally one sings only a few lines and one collects some coins.



When I was a kid in the early fifties, it was not unusual that people (not
only kids) came with a white debarked stick with a sharp point and collected
slices of bacon on it.



Interesting. I guess this tradition is related to the tradition of
Faslam<http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faslam>.
"Faslam" is a highly compacted Low German word form originating from
"Fastelavend". It originally meant the day of Shrove Tuesday, but in its
rural Northern German context there was much contamination with other
festivities and the date is different in each village. It ranges between
January 1 and the actual Shrove Tuesday. My personal impression is that
"Faslam" has nothing to do with Carnival or Lent. I am not aware of any
aspects of Faslam that make any connections to christianity. Just the name
was borrowed from an event of the liturgical year.

I'll try to give a short description of the basics of Faslam. Faslam is
different in every single village, but the main course is this: the
participants (usually the young people of the village, in earlier times the
main participants were the "Knechten" [farm hands]) walk from house to
house, singing songs and making noise, often in costume, and collecting
food. They collect bacon and sausages on birches or on pitchforks, eggs in a
basket, and Korn (sort of hard liquor) in their stomachs. After that they
visit the local inn, have a dance, consume the collected food and even more
Korn and beer.

In modern times this tradition is restricted to northeastern Lower Saxony
and northern Saxony-Anhalt. But in earlier times it was also known in many
other regions of northern Germany. Would be interesting to hear whether
Faslam or something similar to Faslam was known in the Dutch regions too.

Marcus Buck



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