LL-L "Traditions" 2009.04.11 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

===========================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 11 April 2009 - Volume 02
===========================================


From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Traditions

Hanne share with us a tradition of her region of Mecklenburg, which I
summarized:



What Hanne is asking above is if other Lowlands cultures have traditions
similar to that of her Mecklenburg area's "Fetching Easter Water".

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".

Hanne also mentions that in many areas this tradition is nowadays followed
in a humorous manner.



In the meantime I found a few references, among them the following:

*L’eau de Pâques* among the Arcadians of Canada:
http://www.museeacadien.ca/argyle/html/ecomm13.htm

Among the Low Saxon speakers and Kashubians (Eastern Pomeranians) of
Northern Poland:


*Easter Water*

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.

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.

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.

[Translated by Joel Streich, New York, 1999, from the book "Der Kreis Wirsitz"]

http://kaszuby.bytow.pl/radde/EasterWater.html

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.

The German Wikipedia describes the custom without geographical references,
but it is not unusual for German sources to omit references to Slavic
substrata:



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.



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.



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.



Der Brauch stammt aus heidnischer Zeit, das Wasser gilt als Ursymbol des
Lebens und der Fruchtbarkeit.

„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.
S. Fahner' s Magazin der populären Arzeneykunde. I. 16.
Keller' s Grab des Aberglaubens. 5 u. 6tes St. S. 294. “

– *Oekonomische Encyklopädie von J. G. Krünitz, 1773 bis 1858*



An article in the *Tagesspiegel* refers only to eastern regions, in and
around Berlin, in this connection:
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/zeitung/Sonderthemen;art893,2761923

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 *BÅ‚ota*)
south of Berlin is the heart of Lower Lusatia, the home of the Lower Sorbian
language.

http://www.spreewald-info.com/de/land_leute/braeuche/ostern/osterwasser.php

Once you visit Sorb-specific sites you find this custom mentioned within a
rich array of Slavic Easter customs; e.g.
http://www.cottbus-und-umgebung.de/a2s0i96si253.html
http://www.panschwitz-kuckau.de/box/brauche/
http://tinyurl.com/ddvdwj


Easter water is known as *jatšowna wóda* in Lower Sorbian, as *woda
wielkanocna* in Polish.


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.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

==============================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.

*********************************************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20090411/8968fc2c/attachment.htm>