{"id":2710,"date":"2018-07-20T15:12:35","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T19:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/?p=2710"},"modified":"2018-07-23T07:15:17","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T11:15:17","slug":"lets-celebrate-holidays-unique-to-schwabisch-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/2018\/07\/20\/lets-celebrate-holidays-unique-to-schwabisch-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Celebrate! : Holidays Unique to Schw\u00e4bisch Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before living in the Schw\u00e4bisch Hall, I never knew salt could be so important! Schw\u00e4bisch Hall is often referred to as “die Stadt des Salzes” or “the City of Salt.” In fact, in old German the word “Hall” means salt! Salt has been critical to the development of Schw\u00e4bisch Hall for the past 2,000 years. Salt was the “white gold” of the Middle Ages and Schw\u00e4bisch Hall’s easy access to a nearby salt spring allowed it to become a wealthy, free imperial city during the Middle Ages. Now, most of the town’s traditional holidays reflect the importance of salt to the community!<\/p>\n

Kuchen und Brunnenfest: The Chicken Saves the Town!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Legend has it that without the cockcrow of a chicken, the town of Schw\u00e4bisch Hall would not exist. In 1316, the town mill unexpectedly caught on fire. But thanks to cockcrow of a chicken trying to escape the burning mill, the saltstimmers nearby were able to immediately take action to save the mill and Schw\u00e4bisch Hall. Out of gratitude for their courageous acts, it is said that the miller baked the saltstimmers a 100 pound cake. The saltstimmers decorated the cake with garland and carried it to the fountains of Schw\u00e4bisch\u00a0Hall to dance and sing traditional songs around them. This was especially significant because all the fountains in Schw\u00e4bisch Hall were, and still are, fed by salt water.<\/p>\n

Since 1785, more than 500 people participate in the annual reenactment of this story on Pentecost. This reenactment is called “Kuchen und Brunnenfest” or “Cakes and Fountains Festival.”<\/p>\n

The following are photos of the festival provided by my teacher Ulli Blogas at Goethe Institute:<\/p>\n

\"\"
Townspeople reenacting the rush to save the salt mill from the fire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Dancing traditional Swabian dances in the main town square.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If are interested in seeing a video of this historic festival, please click on the link below. This video was\u00a0made by a Schw\u00e4bisch Hall Unicorn football player from Portland, Oregon, of whom I had the opportunity to meet at Goethe.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3CjqvmiqWjA<\/a><\/p>\n

After the historic reenactment, visitors enjoy the festival’s amusement park, city tours, exhibitions, and live music.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Salztage<\/strong><\/p>\n

On October 14th, Schw\u00e4bisch Hall celebrates salt! This day is called “Salztage” or “Day of Salt” and offers a live demonstration of how salt was produced by the Celts in Schw\u00e4bisch Hall during the Middle Ages and of course, lots of food and drinks.<\/p>\n

During the Middle Ages, salt water was drawn from Haalbrunnen spring on Haalplatz (Salt Square) in town and then transported to a mill nearby, such as the outdoor mill pictured above. The salt water was then boiled in iron pans until most of the water had evaporated, leaving the salt behind.<\/p>\n

\"\"
This is the historic Haalbrunnen fountain. It is now in the middle of a parking lot in the center of Schw\u00e4bisch Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Salt water flowing from Haalbrunnen fountain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Site of outdoor mill where saline water boiling demonstrations take place during Salztage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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In the Middle Ages, iron pans such as this were used to boil salt water, forcing the water to evaporate and leaving the salt behind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This salt was then sold in large markets in Speyer, Germany; Strasbourg, France; and Basel, Switzerland for great profits. In 1924, salt production in Schw\u00e4bisch Hall stopped as the town transitioned into a salt spa and resort town.<\/p>\n

\"\"
This is Hohenlohe Hotel, where the town resort’s salt baths and caves are located.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before living in the Schw\u00e4bisch Hall, I never knew salt could be so important! Schw\u00e4bisch Hall is often referred to as “die Stadt des Salzes” or “the City of Salt.” In fact, in old German the word “Hall” means salt! Salt has been critical to the development of Schw\u00e4bisch Hall for the past 2,000 years. … Continue reading Let’s Celebrate! : Holidays Unique to Schw\u00e4bisch Hall<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2996,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33399,290963],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-germany","category-sla-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2996"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2710"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2768,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2710\/revisions\/2768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}