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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">===========================================<br>
L O W L A N D S - L - 30 December 2008 - Volume 03<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>>
<br>
Subject: Traditions<br>
<br>
Dear Lowlanders,<br>
<br>
New Year's Eve is almost upon us and some of you might like to share how they
used to celebrate it in the cultural Lowlands environment of their youth and
how that differs from the way they celebrate it these days, if at all.<br>
<br>
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</style><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">In Low-Saxon-speaking Northern
Germany traditions vary from location to location. The two
predominant names for New Year's Eve (aside from German <i>Sylvester</i>) are <i>Oljahrsavend</i>
(<i>Oldjaarsavend</i> "Old Year's Eve") and <i>Fastelavend</i>. The latter of
these names seems to point at some confusion that occurred with the coming of
the Reformation and the abandonment of Carnival (<i>Fastnacht</i> "fasting
night"). Some of the customs seem to have been transferred from Carnival to New
Year's Eve, probably in conjunction with pre-Christian Winter Solstice customs.
Especially the making of noise comes to mind, as does going from house to house
in disguise and singing for tokens of appreciation from the inhabitants. This,
of course, is also related to Halloween customs of Britain and its overseas offshoots.
We still followed this custom when I was a child, and even then it was a far
cry from what used to be done in earlier days when the <i>Rummelpott</i> (known
on the Netherlands side as <i>foekepot</i>, <i>rommelpot</i>, <i>foekerommelpot</i>)
used to be played (a friction drum known in Dutch as <i>rommelpot</i>, in
Danish as <i>rummelpot</i>, in Limburgish as <i>foekepot</i>, in German as <i>Brummtopf</i>,
in Italian as<i> caccavella</i>, in Spanish as<i> zambomba</i>, in Portuguese
as <i>sarronca</i>, in Romanian as <i>buhai</i>, in Ukrainian as <i>бугай</i></span>), <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Crhahn%5CLocal%20Settings%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><style>
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--</style><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> in Hungarian as <i>köcsögduda</i>, and in
Basque as <i>eltzagor</i>, all being associated with end-of-the-year traditions
and/or Martinmas).</span><br style="">
<br style="">
<br>
Here is a ditty in Low Saxon of Achterhoek on the Netherlands side of the border:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Foekepotterij, foekepotterij,</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">geef mien 'n cent, dan gao ik weer veurbij.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="DE">ik heb geen geld um brood te
kopen,</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="DE">deurum mot ik met de foekepotte
lopen.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="DE">Foekepotterij, foekepotterij,</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="DE">geef mien 'n cent, dan gao ik
weer veurbij.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
And one from Northern Germany:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="DE">Fruken, maak de Dœr op! <br>
De Rummelpott will rin.<br>
Daar kümmt een Schipp ut Holland, <br>
de hett keen goden Wind.<br>
Schipper, wullt du wieken,<br>
Bootsmann, wullt du strieken.<br>
Sett de Segel op de Topp,<br>
und giff mi wat in´n Rummelpott!</span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="DE"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">And for us
here at Lowlands-L New Year's Eve comes with a bonus in that it is the birthday
of our own Sandy Fleming (<a href="mailto:sandy@scotstext.org">sandy@scotstext.org</a>) and Roger Thijs (<a href="mailto:roger.thijs@euro-support.be">roger.thijs@euro-support.be</a>),
each of them "Mr. Resources" in his own right.<br>
<br>
Happy birthday, Sandy and Roger!<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron</span></p>