This is a good day to talk about the first day of February, a cold, snowy day in Bad Eisenkappel,
where the "Carrying of the little churches" ( Kirchleintragen ) is practiced.
Ante pante populore, kocle vrate cvilelore.
This is the little rhyme ( part Latin and part bastardized Slovenian ) which is chanted by the citizens of Bad Eisenkappel, an Austrian community situated close to the border with Slovenia, during their slow procession from the local church to the river Vellach. The chant is repeated at high volume again and again,until it begins to sound a little like a church litany.
Children from Eisenkappel and surrounding communities had made miniature images of a church, carried on long sticks from the local church to the river Vellach, where these works of love and art are carefully deposited into the rushing water.
Why do they do that ?
Because, back in the late Middle Ages the river Vellach escaped its shores, flooding much of the town, forcing the citizens to flee to higher ground, where they sought refuge in the church.
Having escaped the water, they prayed in the church and promised to fabricate miniature images of the church to float them down the river, if they and their homes should be saved from the raging waters.
See there, no sooner had they made this promise, the waters stopped rising, in fact, they receded and returned to their proper bed.
(And Bertstravels claims, and has in fact stated in a previous Blog entry, that praying is a useless endeavor. That should teach him.)
It was 7PM dark and it snowed heavily.
The model churches, lit from within by candles float almost ghost like down the main square.
The large white circles are, in fact, out of focus snow flakes.
Large and small churches, all hand made
by children from the public school
are being carried to the river.
Big sister helps in the carrying of the model church.
The waters of the river Vellach play havoc with the paper and cardboard models.
The promise and the annual keeping of this promise
quite obviously was and is effective.
There hasn't been a flood in Eisenkappel since.
fotos: Bertspix, 2009
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