Dancing procession of Echternach
The Echternach Dancing Procession is a religious procession that takes place every year on the Tuesday after Pentecost in Echternach in Luxembourg. Participants will "jump" to polka tunes in rows through the streets of the city. Until the grave of Saint Willibrord in Echternach Basilica
UNESCO has added them to its meeting of 16 November 2010 in Nairobi for the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
History
The present form of the dancing procession dates back to the 19th century, however, can be traced sources of their creation to the Middle Ages.
The oldest source is the sequence " Laudes Christo" of Abbot Berno of Reichenau ( 1000 ), in which the faithful are invited to celebrate the praise of Christ in honor of St. Willibrord " magno tripudio " ( with a big triple jump ). Thiofrid Abbot († 1110) tells of a pilgrim procession to the grave of Saint Willibrord, but in this case there was no question of a dance or the "jumping". In the Middle Ages, the communities that were part of the imperial abbey of Echternach had to pay in the Whitsun week their tithes to the imperial abbey. This was called spell procession. 1497 are mentioned in one source " jumping saints." The first pictorial representation of the dancing procession goes back to the year 1604.
How it came to dancing or jumping, is still not fully understood. St. Willibrord, as John the Baptist and St. Vitus, were saints who were called in nervous diseases, convulsions, chorea or epilepsy. Expressions such as Echternach illness or disease of Saint John were often associated with the dancing procession. One can assume, therefore, that patients took part in the procession, or the faithful have moved in procession as the sick, not to get these same diseases. Other explanations see in the procession of thanksgiving to St. Willibrod, is said to have freed the people of the area from St. Vitus's dance. Another theory suggests that the dancing procession has evolved from a civilized form of Flagellantenprozession, which were common in the 14th century as a tool against the plague. Several pieces of evidence have suggested that the dancing procession going back to the time of Willibrord and emerges from a Christianized pagan ritual. This is also the view of most commentators on the procession in the 19th century. Spring processions there has been in other regions of the Eifel, eg the Prüm dancing procession in Prüm, which originated in the 13th century.
In the 18th century, the century of the Enlightenment, diving and secular from sacred page has increasingly criticized. The part held for a term of obscurantism and superstition, others regretted the lapses when the faithful too fell into ecstasy. 1778 the Archbishop and Elector of Trier, Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony prohibited Echternach Dancing Procession and Prüm, because these " not reasonable" are. The Emperor Joseph II of the Holy Roman Empire has had 1786 ban all processions, but this prohibition soon took back, probably because nobody ever thought of it. With the French Revolution and the French occupation following the procession was again prohibited. Under Napoleon they were then allowed back in 1801. Now, women were given the right to participate.
1825 should be moved from the Tuesday after Pentecost on Pentecost Sunday even the dancing procession of William I. According to a decree so as to not lose a day's work. The Grand Duke had thus apparently not much success, because in 1830 the decree was lifted. The only period in recent history in which the procession could not take place, the time of the German occupation of 1940-1944 during the Second World War.
The shape of the Dancing Procession
The dance step is not defined anywhere. The Echternach " pilgrim step " - 2 steps forward, one back - is a popular cliché. Already Düsseldorf priest Anton Joseph Binterim leaned 1848 described in this literature he step sequences (3 front, 2 back, [ dicunt ] salt antes Progredi passus tres regredique dui, so P. Bertholet, 3 front, 1 back, [ scribunt ] post tertium quemque passum retrocedere passu dumtaxat uno, PFC de Feller, 2 front, 1 back, [ ajunt ] post binas tantum esse passus unum retrogradum, Encycl Univ germanica) from. .; he himself did - as described by Michael Muller for the period 1790 - observed in Echternach, that the " Springer " continues moving by three or four steps to the right and then just as many went to the left, but not zurücksprängen ( [ affirmat ] saltatores non regrederentur, sed ut vel ut triplici quadruplici passu, dextrorsum totidemque passibus sinistrorsum procedendo sese move rent); the impression of the recoil arises at most congestion of the procession, when a crowd prevents the progression ( densior turba sequentes Progredi vetet ).
Occupy the first footage of the procession that at the beginning of the 20th century only a few groups of pilgrims who felt a supposed tradition bound to be some steps forward, then jumped back. Very often there were three steps forward and two back. The scheme, which always made for a real mess, was definitely abolished in 1947. Since then you jump only with lateral steps forward, alternately to the left and to the right. The whole thing by just lingers at every step on each foot and then attaches the other foot to the next step, always in rhythm with the processional march.
Today the procession from Willibrordus - Building Association asbl organized. It also specifies the order of the pilgrims and music groups, the processional fixed etc..
The procession begins in the courtyard of the former imperial abbey of Echternach. This gives rise to five pilgrims in a row, everyone adheres to its neighbors using a white handkerchief. Usually, the pilgrims are dressed with white shirt or T-shirt and blue or black pants. Is bound to the rhythm of traditional polka - way. This was given in writing at the beginning of the 20th century, however, is of older origin. Pilgrim groups alternate with musical groups, including many music clubs from all over Luxembourg and the nearby border area, from. The procession runs from Abteihof to Sauer Street, past the Peter and Paul's Church across the square towards the Bahnhofstrasse, the Krämergasse until it arrives at the basilica and thus at the grave of Willibrord.
The motivation to participate in the procession, is both a religious as well as from a sense of tradition. 12,000 to 14,000 pilgrims each year participate in the procession. Among them are 8,000 to 9,000 Springer. The pilgrims come from all over Luxembourg, but also from the Netherlands and Germany, especially from the border places the Eifel. An example is the annual pilgrimage on foot from Prüm and Waxweiler, which is organized by the so-called brother masters volunteers. For many students Echternach schools, there is still something special to take part in the procession.
In the literature, the dancing procession was, among other things mentioned by Guillaume Apollinaire and Clara Viebig ( The Cross in the Fens, Berlin 1908).