A few decades ago, Lisi hanged herself in a border village. Everything had probably become too much for the farmer’s wife. “D’Lisi hod sich ghengt!”, all the villagers whispered to each other in shock, but eyewitnesses to the tragedy also knew that Lisi was still alive. Because the worn calf rope that she had attached to the edge of the silo tore off during her venture. Lisi still had the rope around her neck, but she came to a stop on the wooden floor almost unscathed. The fire department rescued her from her plight and gave her a long life.
Calf knitting is usually given little attention, but it is still characteristic of them that they fatefully steer the course of life. In urban circles they are generally viewed as a symbol of both the light and dark mysteries of rural life. In March 2018, the village club TSV Buchbach played TSV 1860 Munich in the Grünwalder Stadium. His fans repeatedly provoked the guests from the Mühldorf district with the question: “I’m coming to Kaibeziang, ha?” Anyone who once played soccer in an amateur league has experienced in many an encounter that one or two ball artists suddenly ran off the field because someone had called out to them that a cow was calving at home. Raising calves, Kaibeziang, that was now more important than the best shot on goal.
If the calf, i.e. the calf, is wrong before birth, its legs, dripping with mucus, are often tied to a calf rope in order to then pull the animal out into the world by hand while the cow is pressed.
It is pleasing that a Kaibe is born gender-neutral – it can be a bull Kaibe or a cow Kaibe. The only important thing is that it drinks. Ludwig Thomas’s play “The Bridal Show” is legendary, in which the cuddler (trade broker) Palser accuses his rival Elfinger of selling him a cow with a calf belonging to someone else. “Is Kaibi gsuffa hot?” asks the Palser penetratingly, in order to express that the competitor is a fraud and a scoundrel.
Years ago, at a sports club’s gala evening in the Passau region, the phenomenon of raising calves was highlighted. After the then district administrator Franz Meyer had finally entered the festival tent as the very last guest, nodding and greeting eagerly on all sides, the cabaret artist Martina Schwarzmann reacted mildly and understandingly on stage: “In the country, you just have to do Kaibeziang a lot,” she said.