The Germans retain many of the annual customs peculiar to themselves
before the Roman conquest. Whether a ceremony described in the
“Athenæum,” as having been observed in Germany of late years, is derived
from the victors, or from the ancient nations, is not worth discussing.
The approach of spring was there commemorated with an abundance of
display, its allegorical character was its most remarkable feature. It
was called _Der Sommers-gewinn_, the acquisition of summer; and about
thirty years ago was celebrated at the beginning of spring by the
inhabitants of Eisenach, in Saxony, who, for that purpose, divided
themselves into two parties. One party carried _winter_ under the shape
of a man covered with straw, out of the town, and then, as it were, sent
him into public exile; whilst the other party, at a distance from the
town, decked _spring_, or, as it was vulgarly called, summer, in the
form of youth, with boughs of cypress and May, and marched in solemn
array to meet their comrades, the jocund executioners of winter. In the
meanwhile national ballads, celebrating the delights of spring and
summer, filled the skies; processions paraded the meadows and fields,
loudly imploring the blessings of a prolific summer; and the jovial
merry-makers then brought the victor-god home in triumph. In the course
of time, however, this ceremonial underwent various alterations. The
parts, before personified, were now performed by real dramatis personæ;
one arrayed as spring, and another as winter, entertained the spectators
with a combat, wherein winter was ultimately vanquished and stripped of
his emblematical attire; spring, on the contrary, being hailed as
victor, was led in triumph, amidst the loud acclamations of the
multitude, into the town. From this festival originated a popular
ballad, composed of stanzas each of which conclude thus:
Heigho! heigho! heigho! Summer is at hand!
Winter has lost the game,
Summer maintain’d its fame;
Heigho! heigho! heigho! Summer is at hand!
The day whereon the jubilee takes place is denominated _der Todten
sonntag_, the dead Sunday. The reason may be traced perhaps to the
analogy which winter bears to the sleep of death, when the vital powers
of nature are suspended. The conjecture is strengthened by this distich
in the ballad before quoted:
Now we’ve vanquish’d _Death_,
And Summer’s return ensured:
Were _Death_ still unsubdued,
How much had we endured!
But of late years the spirit of this festival has disappeared. Lately,
winter was uncouthly shaped of wood, and being covered with straw, was
nailed against a large wheel, and the straw being set on fire, the
apparatus was rolled down a steep hill! Agreeably to the intention of
its inventors, the blazing wheel was by degrees knocked to pieces,
against the precipices below, and then--winter’s effigy, to the
admiration of the multitude, split into a thousand fiery fragments. This
custom too, merely from the danger attending it, quickly fell into
disuse; but still a shadow of the original festivity, which it was meant
to commemorate, is preserved amongst the people of Eisenach. “Although”
says the writer of these particulars, “we find winter no longer sent
into banishment, as in former times, yet an attempt is made to represent
and conciliate spring by offerings of nosegays and sprays of evergreen,
adorned with birds or eggs, emblematical of the season.” Probably the
latter usages may not have been consequent upon the decline of the
former, but were coeval in their origin, and are the only remains of
ancient customs peculiar to the season.
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