LL-L "Tradition" 2011.01.02 (04) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

=====================================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 02 January 2011 - Volume 04
lowlands.list at gmail.com - http://lowlands-l.net/
Posting: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org
Archive: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-08)
Language Codes: lowlands-l.net/codes.php
=====================================================



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

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



> From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org>

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

.........

> 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.



I see here that, depending on village etc. there is some variation of focus
and also some repetition.

I see several moments of *beggarrish singing*, as it was in the fifties
(even often more by adults than by children at that time):

- *New Year*: with a strong focus on gin for elder people indeed.

- *Epiphany* (Driekoningen): with focus on bacon on the birch (people
disguised as kings)

- *Carnaval Tuesday* (with carnaval disguise)

- *Eastern*: with focus on boiled eggs (preferrably painted brown by boiling
with onion skins, except for some figures in white, drafted with wax on the
shell of the egg before boiling). The onion skins also gave a special taste
to the hard boiled eggs. It was standard to give a pair of eggs.

However there were some regional differences. In the Antwerp Kempen area New
Year singing was most popular. In my Limburgish village Epiphany singing had
a stronger focus.

New is over here (Steenokkerzeel) a tendency for kids to repeat the carnaval
thing also at *Halloween*.



Regards,

Roger



=========================================================
Send posting submissions to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.
Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
Send commands (including "signoff lowlands-l") to
listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or lowlands.list at gmail.com
http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=118916521473498<http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#%21/group.php?gid=118916521473498>
===============================================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20110102/b4eb4a87/attachment.htm>