folklore - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2007 - 55 Euro Cent

From Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday, the Ratschenbuam - mostly boys and girls from the horde of ministrations - roam the streets and announce the prayer times with their ratchets and slogans, while the bells are silent during this time. According to ancient tradition, the church bells are not rung in Catholic areas on the Kartagen. The joyful nature of the bells does not match the mourning mood of those days, when the focus of the liturgy is on remembering the suffering and death of Jesus. The bells are silent from the Gloria of the Maundy Thursday Mass. They say, "The bells fly to Rome". In their place are the ratchets with which the faithful are invited to pray during the usual rituals. Only with the glory of the resurrection ceremony do the bells sound again with a festive sound. The ratcheting was practiced already in the time of Charlemagne in the 8th century and goes back to the 6th century, when there were no church bells. The ratcheting was not only for the announcement, in the "ratchet-go" hides namely a Germanic cult use: By the "heathen noise", the sleeping nature should be awakened. And one believed in a quicker return of spring, the louder the ratcheting turned out. The ratchets have different shapes depending on the design. There are wheel ratchet ratchets, box or crank ratchets, wing ratchets and hammer clappers. The basis is a resonator made of wood. Sprung boards or wooden hammers are raised by turning a knobbed or grooved roller and strike with much noise. Only with the rattle, which is mostly used in the church, is a wooden hammock struck by moving the hand back and forth. To ratchet, which is now almost only common in rural areas, includes the right sayings, with which the faithful are to be reminded to pray. The well-known saying is: "We ratchet, we ratchet to the English greeting, which every Catholic Christian must pray." On Holy Saturday ask the ratchet legacy for eggs or Easter gifts. With the donation money for the ratchet service is often a trip co-financed. This motivates the children in addition to be on the road in all weather.