The year is drawing to a close, which for most people means a combination of the following: holiday stress, one or the other row with the family, making New Year’s resolutions and breaking later, melting fondue cheese and drinking mulled wine. Beyond these well-known, semi-contemplative events, however, something completely different and unfamiliar is taking place these days – if one can believe old legends. In the Rauhnächten, optionally four or twelve and counted either from Thomas’s Night from December 21st to 22nd or from Christmas Eve from December 24th to 25th, the worlds of spirits and people come closer than on any other day in the Year, so it is said.
“In our region you count from December 24th. The rough nights, which are also called rough nights, smoky nights or lottery nights, always end on December 6th, ie on Epiphany,” says Robert Bauer. He is one of the city guides of Ebersberg, organized by Thomas Warg, and is doing the Rauhnacht tours of the city for the third time in a row this year. “This is a scary tour, they are very popular, especially with women,” say the two of them with a smile. During the tour, Bauer reports on the history of the Rauhnächte, the etymology and the various superstitions and legends that entwine around the nights.
The number of rough nights results from the lunar year, which only knows 354 days
“The number of rough nights comes about when you count the days not according to the solar year, but according to the lunar year. A lunar year only has 354 days, so there are eleven days or twelve nights missing. These ‘dead days’ then often have the Imagination stimulated “, reports Robert Bauer. The imagination was surely further stimulated by the cold, the idleness – the servants were forbidden to work at this time – and above all the darkness. It is not for nothing that the winter solstice is seen as the beginning of the rough nights in some regions.
The origin of the name is controversial, but “rough” has nothing to do with “rough” in the sense of rough weather. Two etymological theories are dominant here: Either the term goes back to “smoke”, since it is one of the customs to smoke out house, yard and / or stable in the rough nights, for example with juniper bushes, in order to drive away bad luck and evil spirits. Or it goes back to the Middle High German word “rûch”, which means something like “hairy” and is related to the furry demons who are supposed to be up to mischief in the rough nights.
During the “Wild Hunt” Odin, demons and also Frau Holle are up to mischief in the human world
The latter come to earth during this metaphysically uncertain time as part of the “wild hunt” and cause trouble for people. Sometimes they are portrayed as pagan, sometimes as Christian, and they are often led by Odin. “Odin races around with his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, accompanied by his other animals and also by Frau Holle,” explains Bauer. Ms. Holle isn’t just there to make snow and distribute gold or bad luck to girls. “In the wild hunt, she looks for the children who were lazy and not well-behaved and slits their stomachs open … Somewhat brutal, but that’s the way it is in our fairy tales,” explains Bauer.
Ms. Holle is better known in the Alpine region and also in the foothills of the Alps as Ms. Percht, who has two faces.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
Fortunately, there are antidotes against both the wild hunt and Mrs. Holle’s quackery: Odin and his entourage can be appeased if you put cake or legumes in front of the house. The firecrackers on New Year’s Eve, which is canceled this year, also goes back to the idea that you can use it to drive away ghosts. “And Ms. Holle’s knife ricochets off your stomach if you’ve eaten enough Schuxen beforehand, that is, a kind of pulled out rye flour,” says Bauer and laughs. Ms. Holle isn’t just angry anyway. In the alpine region and also in the district it is better known under the name “Perchta” – and is therefore related to the Perchten runs, which also fall during the Rauhnachtszeit. The terrible masks are used to drive away evil spirits and also the cold darkness. The name “Perchta” is probably derived from the Old High German word for “bright” or “shiny”.
There is a lot to consider in the rough nights if you want to get away with it
There are other customs and legends surrounding the Rauhnächte. Associated with the wild hunt, for example, is the idea that you shouldn’t hang white laundry in front of the house during this time, as Bauer explains: “Otherwise the demons could get caught in it and become angry or the laundry would be taken straight away by the riders of the hunt to sew your shroud out of it. ” And Thomas Warg adds: “You should also avoid playing cards, you have to tidy up your house nicely, return what has been borrowed and reclaim what has been lent back, smoke everything out – put your household in order before the new year starts.”
In addition, the time of the “dead days” is also ideal for various oracles. The lead and wax casting on New Year’s Eve is probably well known. Perhaps less well-known is the “onion oracle”, in which twelve layers of an onion are considered, which should allow a prognosis for the twelve months of the next year – the thicker, the better. And since there are already twelve nights, an attempt was made to make a similar forecast for the next year from each of the nights: the same as the weather is at night, so will it be for the corresponding month. How exactly this works is not entirely clear and Bauer also says: “You shouldn’t be too specific about it, you have already laid it out the way you needed it.”
At midnight the animals speak
This is also the case with the once common dream interpretations that hardly followed any system. On the other hand, the rules for the – almost absurd – multitude of methods for young women to find out where their future bridegroom will come from were clearer. Warg and Bauer report various approaches that could lead one to believe that women would otherwise have had no worries: “For example, you can say a spell and then lie on the side of the bed that you normally don’t sleep on, and it appears to you the future in a dream. Or you take off a shoe in bed and throw it with your foot into the room – where the tip looks, that’s where it will come from. Or you shake a fruit tree at night and from the point of the compass, from where the first dog barks, from there the chosen one will be. Of course, at that time you knew immediately whether it was in the direction of Zorneding or Poing … And then one or the other self-fulfilling prophecy would certainly have turned up. “
If you want to know exactly something about your future, you should go to a stable at midnight or possibly get a terrier. “The animals speak at midnight,” says Thomas Warg. “But be careful: it often happens that shortly after hearing the oracle you have to die.” Warg’s own dog, however, has never spoken to him, he admits with a smile.
The answer to the question of belief in these legends and customs is complex
When asked how far belief in these customs and legends is still widespread, Thomas Warg replies: “Well, of course, nobody really believes in them, aaaaaber … We are not that far removed from such ideas, many have a lucky charm or perform certain rituals that they hope will be successful. Whether or not you really believe in them may then no longer be so important. ” And Richard Bauer adds: “It is no longer possible to distinguish well between history and customs, Christianity and paganism. The boundary between what is believed and what is dismissed as superstition is fluid.”
If you fancy a scary tour of the Rauhnächten, you can book it with Thomas Warg for six euros per person: [email protected]. There will be another tour on Tuesday, December 28th and one on Tuesday, January 4th. The start is always at 5 p.m.