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Carnival in the olden days: 150 years ago people in Freising celebrated with punch and wigs

2023-02-20T07:25:27.748Z


Wreaths and redoubts: how "Carneval" was celebrated in Freising more than 150 years ago. Wreaths and redoubts: how "Carneval" was celebrated in Freising more than 150 years ago. Freising - Now they have taken place everywhere again: the carnival balls, one bigger and more colorful than the other - with medals being awarded and guard contortions, with show dances and acrobatic intermediate numbers. But how were the foolish days of the past celebrated in the district? Already more than


Wreaths and redoubts: how "Carneval" was celebrated in Freising more than 150 years ago.

Freising

- Now they have taken place everywhere again: the carnival balls, one bigger and more colorful than the other - with medals being awarded and guard contortions, with show dances and acrobatic intermediate numbers.

But how were the foolish days of the past celebrated in the district?

Already more than 150 years ago, the carnival was an important part of the cultural life of the cathedral city - only in Bavaria at that time it was still called "Carneval" and instead of an Aperol Spritz, people tended to grab punch.

Schützenball went “in the greatest joy”

An advertisement from March 3, 1859 in the Freisinger Wochenblatt provides information about what was once offered during the carnival days in Freising - namely so-called "Redoubts", i.e. masked balls with games and dance and other performances.

Something like that in early March 1859 in the theater hall: with orchestral music, dances in "old-fashioned costumes" and a magic pantomime show during the breaks.

For those who wanted to shake a leg, there was already a list of the dances that would be popular that night, including waltzes, gallopads and polka mazurkas.

The review in the same issue also reveals something about the other balls and events that were once put on in Freising during the carnival season.

It says something like this:

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Knights and Black Dominoes were denied access to this masked party.

© reproduction: Lorenz

However, the reporter at the time was less enthusiastic about what was perhaps the first major carnival parade in Freising, described here as a masked parade, in 1859. The parade through the entire city initiated by the theater director Ferdinand Krägel was clearly “lacking in cheerfulness”.

Wigs as a recycling model

The end of the parade with a social get-together and the performance of a “clog dance”, which allegedly caused the people of Freising to cheer, made the journalists feel milder.

The reporter was also pleasantly surprised by the “Joppenball” of the oak plantation’s rifle club – above all because it was surprisingly informal.

The only point of criticism at this ball: Instead of the announced music artists, "at most just usable" appeared.

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Theater director Müller promised "funny pantomime scenes" at this ball, which took place in Freising more than 160 years ago.

© reproduction: Lorenz

But how did Freisinger, who was willing to party, actually disguise himself for the carnival?

The local hairdresser Eduar Haager had good advice at the time, who advertised the following in his ad: "For this carnival, I recommend completely new beards, curls and wigs for various costumes." and lost hair” – as an early recycling model, so to speak.

Supposedly "cheapest" it was also possible to produce complete mask suits according to the respective drawings - these could possibly have been so-called harlequin costumes or something similar.

So-called Venetian masks were also in vogue for a short time, but after that people often only talk about “decent” masks without going into detail about them.

"Black dominoes" were undesirable

What is striking, however, is that nobody wanted to see people at their ball who snowed in as "Black Dominoes" - these were even strictly denied entry, as were citizens in Benitian cloaks.

The domino robe, at least according to research, is black clothing with a wide hood pulled low over the face, which used to be part of the clothing of the clergy in southern Europe.

This costume later evolved with the addition of a plague mask.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

By the way: Carnival balls often went hand in hand with "punch parties".

In general, people seemed to like drinking this drink during the colder months, as evidenced by numerous invitations in the daily and weekly press.

Unfortunately, what was once available at the balls apart from the classic carnival donuts has not been handed down.

However, the delicacies from back then could well have hit the line.

It was not for nothing that there were "gymnastic exercises" during the break at the ball of the Freising gymnastics club in 1878.


By Richard Lorenz

You can find more current news from the district of Freising at Merkur.de/Freising.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-02-20

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