Through the hole at the axle with a banner and a partisan

Spatial and ritual characteristics of Burgfried processions in the market town of Šoštanj

Abstract

Drawing on three descriptions (the land register of 1575, the parish chronicle of 1872, and the memoirs of 1905), the article analyses the route and the ritual content of the procession along the Burgfried borders of the market town of Šoštanj. Starting from the market town, the procession was held every seven years on 1 May. It was performed by youth and market townsmen carrying the market town’s insignias (the banner, the partisan) accompanied by the market town’s representatives (the judge, the syndic, councillors) as well as drums and flutes. The participants headed in the “right” direction (from the market town westwards to the boundary, which they circled clockwise). The procession was perhaps associated with the symbolic collective rebirth of the market townsmen (given the tradition of crawling through the hole at the axle of the blacksmith’s water wheel). The participants knocked against the boundary stones and renewed the letters inscribed in them. After the procession, the market townsmen admitted the youth into their midst by raising them three times on the boundary stone. The ceremony ended with a feast.