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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="PT-BR">===========================================<br>
L O W L A N D S - L - 11 April 2009 - Volume 02<br>
===========================================</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
From: R. F. Hahn <</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="IT"><a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank"><span style="" lang="EN-US">sassisch@yahoo.com</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">> <br>
Subject: Traditions<br>
<br>
Hanne share with us a tradition of her region of Mecklenburg, which I
summarized:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Â </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 40px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">What Hanne is asking above is if other Lowlands cultures
have traditions similar to that of her </span>Mecklenburg<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
area's "Fetching Easter Water".</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
<br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
On Easter morning people fetch water from a nearby stream. This water is then
considered to have healing power if during the entire process no word has been
spoken. If the silence is broken during the process, the water is deemed to
have lost its power and is called "babble water".</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
<br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
Hanne also mentions that in many areas this tradition is nowadays followed in a
humorous manner.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Â </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">In the meantime I found a few references, among them the
following:<br>
<br>
<i>L’eau de Pâques</i> among the Arcadians of Canada:<br>
<a href="http://www.museeacadien.ca/argyle/html/ecomm13.htm">http://www.museeacadien.ca/argyle/html/ecomm13.htm</a><br>
<br>
Among the Low Saxon speakers and Kashubians (Eastern Pomeranians) of Northern Poland:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Â </span></p><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><b style="font-family: courier new,monospace;">Easter Water</b><br style="font-family: courier new,monospace;">
<br style="font-family: courier new,monospace;"><span style="font-family: courier new,monospace;">In earlier times there was a custom to put away Easter Water (for use) against skin and eye ailments. One had to scoop the water from a pure, flowing brook in the earliest Easter Sunday hours before sunrise and one may meet no one and speak to no one. Whoever washed himself on Easter Day with such water remained protected from skin and eye ailments.</span><br style="font-family: courier new,monospace;">
<span style="font-family: courier new,monospace;"></span><br><span style="font-family: courier new,monospace;">One saw young girls wending their way to the nearest clear stream in the gray early moring hours to gather the water which was susposed to bestow beauty and virtue. The way there and home again had to be paced silently. That wasn't easy, for young boys and envious women attempted to hinder them with that, to startle them and to tempt them into idle conversation. If they were successful, the Easter Water would turn to desecrated "Schladder-water" and the maidens would become the scorn of all.</span><br style="font-family: courier new,monospace;">
<br style="font-family: courier new,monospace;"><span style="font-family: courier new,monospace;">The earlier one made the pilgrimage to the spring, the fewer tempters one would meet. This Easter event had another purpose that the children and adults pursued. In the rising sun, just when the sun's red ball appeared and spread itself to its full might, one saw the Easter lamm jump. A beautiful custom, that, with the power of belief, the jumping of the Easter lamm actually let itself be seen in the sun's ball during the awakening of spring and in the early mist of the steaming earth.</span><br style="font-family: courier new,monospace;">
</div><br style="font-family: courier new,monospace;"><pre style="font-family: courier new,monospace;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span>[Translated by Joel Streich, New York, 1999, from the book "Der Kreis Wirsitz"]</pre>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://kaszuby.bytow.pl/radde/EasterWater.html">http://kaszuby.bytow.pl/radde/EasterWater.html</a><br>
<br>
I have a strong feeling that Mecklenburg's custom belongs to a continuum of
West Slavic culture which in the far west has lost its (Pomeranian and/or
Polabian) language. I don't know if it is independent from or connected with
various Roman-Catholic-based or Christianized customs.<br>
<br>
The German Wikipedia describes the custom without geographical references, but
it is not unusual for German sources to omit references to Slavic substrata:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Â </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 40px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Als Osterwasser wird Wasser bezeichnet, das, einem alten
Volksbrauch nach, in der Osternacht oder am Ostermorgen, vor dem Aufgang der
Sonne aus einem Fluss geschöpft wird. Dem Volksglauben nach soll dieses Wasser,
ähnlich wie das Märzwasser, besonders lange halten und nicht verfaulen. Es soll
zudem, wenn man sich damit wäscht, besonders feine Haut geben.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 40px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Â </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 40px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Das Wasser wurde vorwiegend von jungen, unverheirateten
Frauen geschöpft. Der Weg zum Fluss und zurück musste stillschweigend und nach
einigen Quellen auch unbeobachtet zurückgelegt werden, damit das Wasser nicht
seine Wirkung verlor.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 40px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Â </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 40px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Die belebende Wirkung des Wassers sollte auch dadurch zum
tragen kommen, dass man sich in diesem Wasser im Fluss wusch. Sogar Vieh wurde
am Ostermorgen in die Bäche getrieben, damit es sich wasche und von Krankheiten
verschont bleibe. Alternativ besprengte man Personen und Vieh mit dem Wasser.
Heute bezeichnet man das Taufwasser, das in der katholischen Kirche während der
Feier der Osternacht geweiht wird, auch als Osterwasser. Mit diesem Wasser wird
die Gemeinde vom Pfarrer besprengt und es wird das ganze folgende Jahr für
Taufen verwendet.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 40px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Â </span></p>
<p class="zitat" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 40px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Der Brauch stammt aus heidnischer Zeit, das Wasser
gilt als Ursymbol des Lebens und der Fruchtbarkeit.<br>
<br>
</span></p><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="" lang="DE">„Osterwasser, Wasser aus
einem Flusse, welches in der Nacht vom Osterabende auf den ersten Ostertag,
besonders des Morgens vor Aufgang der Sonne, stillschweigend geschöpft wird,
und welchem die abergläubischen Leute die Eigenschaft beylegen, nicht nur sich
lange gut zu erhalten, sondern auch eine feine Haut zu geben. S. im Art.
Märzwasser, Th. 85, S. 156. Hierbey ist noch zu bemerken, daß man die
Entdeckung gemacht hat, daß jedes an sich reine süße Wasser, welches vor
Aufgang der Sonne aus einem Flusse geschöpft wird, nicht in Fäulniß geräth,
sondern trinkbar bleibt; jedoch muß dieses Wasser an schattigen Orten verwahrt
werden.</span><br><span style="" lang="DE">
S. Fahner' s Magazin der populären Arzeneykunde. I. 16.</span><br><span style="" lang="DE">
Keller' s Grab des Aberglaubens. 5 u. 6tes St. S. 294. “<font size="2"></font></span></div>
<p class="cite" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 80px;"><font size="2"><cite style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="" lang="DE">– </span></cite><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="person"><i><span style="" lang="DE">Oekonomische Encyklopädie von J. G.
Krünitz, 1773 bis 1858</span></i></span></font><span style="" lang="DE"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="DE">Â </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">An article in the <i>Tagesspiegel</i> refers only to eastern
regions, in and around Berlin,
in this connection:<br>
<a href="http://www.tagesspiegel.de/zeitung/Sonderthemen;art893,2761923">http://www.tagesspiegel.de/zeitung/Sonderthemen;art893,2761923</a><br>
<br>
This custom is described at a site dedicated to the region of Spreewald, but
again there is no reference to Slavic people. This region (Sorbian <i>BÅ‚ota</i>) south
of Berlin is the heart of Lower
Lusatia, the home of the Lower Sorbian language.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.spreewald-info.com/de/land_leute/braeuche/ostern/osterwasser.php">http://www.spreewald-info.com/de/land_leute/braeuche/ostern/osterwasser.php</a><br>
<br>
Once you visit Sorb-specific sites you find this custom mentioned within a rich
array of Slavic Easter customs; e.g.<br>
<a href="http://www.cottbus-und-umgebung.de/a2s0i96si253.html">http://www.cottbus-und-umgebung.de/a2s0i96si253.html</a><br>
<a href="http://www.panschwitz-kuckau.de/box/brauche/">http://www.panschwitz-kuckau.de/box/brauche/</a><br><a href="http://tinyurl.com/ddvdwj">http://tinyurl.com/ddvdwj</a></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
Easter water is known as <i>jatšowna wóda</i> in Lower Sorbian, as <i>woda
wielkanocna</i> in Polish.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
Please bear in mind that Slavic-speaking communities used to dominate in what is
now Northern Germany as far west as Eastern Holstein
and the eastern part of the Lunenburg Heath.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron<br>
Seattle, USA</span></p>
•
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