Groundhog Day More Than A Weather Forecast For This Faith

"Some Pennsylvanians look forward with unusual intensity to Groundhog Day, but not for frivolity in Punxsutawney.
Adherents of Urglaawe, a recently founded religion based in Bristol, regard the day as one of the most important in a calendar crowded with festivals that connect them with natural cycles through practices honored by time, if not by monotheistic creeds that replaced old ways."

The complete article by Gwen Shrift may be read at The Intelligencer.

Hollebeer Haven, Summer 2012 Now Available

Thanks to Rob Schreiwer for posting this to the Hexenkunst list on Yahoo! The Summer, 2012 edition of Hollerbeer Haven: The Journal of Urglaawe, Braucherei, and Deitsch Wisdom is now available in .PDF form and may be downloaded for free at:
http://urglaawe. com/uploads/ 15_Hollerbeer_ Haven_Summer_ 2012.pdf

Pennsylvania Dutch cooking gets an advocate in chef who makes scrapple appetizer, hog maw sauce

"Little develops menus with new twists on Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine. He adheres to a simple philosophy — whatever produce is plentiful, makes the plate. One week diners might find a roasted cauliflower dish on the menu, the next week a carrot salad."  This article by Sue Gleiter may be read in its entirety at PennLive.

Lebanon Valley College analyzing Colonial-era Deitsch/German documents

From the Hexenkunst Yahoo Group:

Students are assisting the Lebanon Valley Historical Society in translating and archiving documents from the colonial era written by the early German and Swiss settlers in Pennsylvania, many of which were written in dialects and scripts of German which are no longer used. WGAL has a report on the students's work, the video of which can be viewed here.

PA Dutch Braucherei

"On this site you will find my thoughts and experiences with the faith healing and folk magic of the Pennsylvania Dutch culture; a fascinating blend of religion, superstition, magic, healing, astrology, charms, folklore and faith.  I hope you enjoy your visit!" On this blog by braucher Rob Chapman, you will find much useful information regrading the traditions of braucherei, hexerei, pow-wow, etc. His site also includes sample charms and recipes, and also links to his YouTube videos. His blog may be found here.

Der Butzemann

Among practitioners of Urglaawe and other Germanic paths of Northern Tradition, the time of year we are now approaching, the beginning of February, is the traditional time of creating and activating the Butzemann, a type of scarecrow, the practice of which was brought to America by German and Swiss settlers whose descendants are known as the Pennsylvania Deitsch. But rather than scaring crows, the Butzemann has the more important task of blessing and protecting the crops, making them grow large and fruitful and keeping away blights and other maladies.  The Butzemann serves as the corporeal shell for a spirit of the land which fulfills this task and to which offerings are made of flowers, food, or coffee. He has his counterparts in the Alraune which may be used to protect the home in Northern European systems of magic, and also to the Utu and similar dolls used in the African diasporic systems. Wikipedia cites a Burtzefraa as a female counterpart, set up opposite the Butzemann as his wife, though I have heard the refutation that the Butzemann is already married to the Earth. For this reason, our Hearth, which incorporates some of the Pennsylvania Deitsch and Urglaawe customs into our practice, only puts out a Butzemann. Most of what follows is how we perform this task and ceremony. Others may do it differently.

The Butzemann is activated in the Ceremony of the Corn, in which he is called to life by a name which he has already told us, and shown the land that shall be his domain and responsibility in the coming season. This is traditionally done on February 2, Groundhog Day, - or as close to it as possible, - which is also the time for Charming of the Plow. Our Butzemann is composed of the usual old clothes, but rather than the usual straw or hay, which we do not grow, we stuff ours with remnants of the previous year's crops, - bean, tomato, and squash vines, corn stalks, leaves from our fig and pear trees,  - which we wish to grow in the coming year. The corn stalks come from the Last Sheaf gathered and put out for Sleipnir at Winter Nights. As this also marks the time that the Wild Hunt returns home, we're fairly certain Sleipnir has had his fill.

At Halloween or some time before that, - but no later, - our Butzemann is retired in the prescribed method, by burning. As this comes close to the time for Winter Nights, it is usually incorporated into the observances for that time. The Butzemann is thanked for his hard work and bid farewell, and is burned facing the Last Sheaf, which, because it will be incorporated into next year's Butzemann, is referred to as his son. The ashes are then gathered and scattered upon the garden beds as a final blessing for fertility.

Burning the Butzemann before the start of Winter is important because it releases the spirit and destroys the shell. If this is not done, the spirit may still leave of its own volition, but may be replaced by a more malevolent one. Per the temperamental nature of land wights, the original spirit may alternatively remain in the body and become angry at what it sees as neglect and disrespect. Either way, the Butzemann may take on the characteristics typical of his name's more common translation in modern German, that of  "boogeyman." Farms with this type of angry spirit may find themselves with blighted crops, poltergeist activity, skittish animals, or children suffering nightmares.

This is probably the source for living scarecrows being a motif in so many horror stories. The Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz is said to have been inspired by childhood nightmares author L. Frank Baum had of being chased by a scarecrow. Baum also once spoke of the "mystical feelings" scarecrows inspired in him as a boy, and how they seemed to move of their volition.  He also noted that the scarecrow on his father's farm hung up for many seasons before being blown away in a storm. The Nathaniel Hawthorne tale "Feathertop," which is about a living scarecrow, probably  played a great influence on Baum also, as he was an avid reader of Hawthorne's work. Being of German ancestry himself, Baum may have been aware of the Butzemann legend as well. Ruth Plumly Thompson, in her Royal Book of Oz, gives an alternate origin for the Scarecrow in which he becomes alive as he is placed on his bean pole and a spirit races up the pole out of the Earth and into his body. Actor turned novelist Thomas Tryon, author of the horror novel Harvest Home, may have also been aware of the Butzemann legend or some variation thereof, as the inhabitants of the town in that novel and the 1979 television mini-series adaptation with Bette Davis also burn their scarecrows in a large communal bonfire and scatter the ashes on their fields. Though in the case of Tryon's novel, one of the scarecrows is an actual human being who dared curse the crops and the Earth. Stories of the Butzemann may also be the source for the taboo against taking clothes from a scarecrow and wearing them, as this brings much bad luck.

Our Butzemann for this year has not let us know yet what his name shall be, but his clothes are being gathered ad the crop remnants are waiting to be gathered.