Easter Wells and Passion statues
Apr. 6th, 2012 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIt's Good Friday, and due to one of my Aged Parents being away, holidaying with a related young one in need of a mentor, I and my other Aged Parent made the annual trip to visit the Easter Wells in Franconian Switzerland earlier than usual, which means you get my annual pic spam earlier as well. Also the weather after a sunny March decided to become absolutely frightful, and it's supposed to snow tomorrow, so we figured to visit the lovely wells with their self painted eggs as long as going was good. We also attended the early morning passion walk, which was a first for me (and having been to Jerusalem, I can assure you the hills of my hometown are just as tough; especially at 5 am at 2° Centigrade). The man carrying the cross up and down no less than three Bamberg hills must have trained the whole year for that one. But while the sun didn't shine, dawn over a sleeping city and three thousand or so people marching carried awe with it.
Bamberg, from the hills
And our cathedral
Where we weren't. The procession did end up in a church, but it was one that's usuall closed through most of the year, as it's next to a hospital. It has some wonderful medieval sculptures, so going to St. Getreu during the Easter holidays is always a treat.
After going back home for breakfast and a very hot shower, my mother and I suited up again and headed out for Franconian Switzerland and the Easter Wells. I'm not kidding about the whole suited up thing:
That's the well at Gößweinstein, by the way.
If you're new to my annual Easter pic spams, decorating wells for Easter is a Franconian habit and usually isn't done in the rest of Germany. Franconia is a pretty dry area, so this started as a hope for more water and fertility rite. The wells in question can even be sources of small rivers, like here, where the river Aufseß starts at Hohenlaiten:
Or it can be something on the main road of the village in question:
And you have to love the details, like here in Wüstenstein:
They usually go for a crown form:
Unless we're talking bridge, like here, in Aufseß:
Which has eggs painted with incredibly detailed Franconian buildings:
And bears:
Then there's your lonely well in the mountain scenere, like Beringersmühle:
And one of my all time favourites, the one at Tiefenpöllern, where my this year absent Aged Father usually loves to consume the eggs freely offered:
Have some more details of that one:
And three Grimm fairy tales, Hänsel & Gretel, Aschenputtel (Cinderella) and The Wolf and the Seven Goats:
Back to bridges again, at Drosendorf:
A bird appropriate for this April's climate:
And of course, no trip through Franconian Switzerland on Easter can be complete without the biggest Easter Well of all, at Bieberbach:
Until next year, the Easter Hare school bids you farewell:
Bamberg, from the hills
And our cathedral
Where we weren't. The procession did end up in a church, but it was one that's usuall closed through most of the year, as it's next to a hospital. It has some wonderful medieval sculptures, so going to St. Getreu during the Easter holidays is always a treat.
After going back home for breakfast and a very hot shower, my mother and I suited up again and headed out for Franconian Switzerland and the Easter Wells. I'm not kidding about the whole suited up thing:
That's the well at Gößweinstein, by the way.
If you're new to my annual Easter pic spams, decorating wells for Easter is a Franconian habit and usually isn't done in the rest of Germany. Franconia is a pretty dry area, so this started as a hope for more water and fertility rite. The wells in question can even be sources of small rivers, like here, where the river Aufseß starts at Hohenlaiten:
Or it can be something on the main road of the village in question:
And you have to love the details, like here in Wüstenstein:
They usually go for a crown form:
Unless we're talking bridge, like here, in Aufseß:
Which has eggs painted with incredibly detailed Franconian buildings:
And bears:
Then there's your lonely well in the mountain scenere, like Beringersmühle:
And one of my all time favourites, the one at Tiefenpöllern, where my this year absent Aged Father usually loves to consume the eggs freely offered:
Have some more details of that one:
And three Grimm fairy tales, Hänsel & Gretel, Aschenputtel (Cinderella) and The Wolf and the Seven Goats:
Back to bridges again, at Drosendorf:
A bird appropriate for this April's climate:
And of course, no trip through Franconian Switzerland on Easter can be complete without the biggest Easter Well of all, at Bieberbach:
Until next year, the Easter Hare school bids you farewell:
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