Читать книгу Wanderlust: A Tiny Isle in the Northern Sea - Katja Just - Страница 9

21 February is traditionally a special day or night in North Frisia. On this night the so-called Biike burning takes place.

This custom is an integral part of North Frisian community life and is very popular with locals and visitors alike. So also at the coast on 21 February the big Biikehaufen are to be found, that are ignited with entering darkness. The rituals vary from place to place, as do the stories about them. For some it was a children's festival, which in its meaning was equivalent to a birthday or even Christmas, for others it was always the festival with which seafarers were bid farewell. They should keep in touch with the fire as long as possible before going on a whaling or big voyage for several months. God Wotan is also said to have played a role among the heathen. He may have been asked to protect the seafarers. Maybe the Biike Fire was just created to drive winter away - you just don't know it anymore. Actually it's not that important, because after all it doesn't matter why you come together and party, sing, eat or just enjoy the time. It's not that difficult on a warming fire.

Already the preparation has become a tradition in its own right. It's usually the same helping hands that make the biike pile high and compact at the end of the land. Larger islands or mainland communities usually have several piles, on Hooge there is only one. Everyone has put on warm working clothes and is armed with a pruning shear or saw. Here and there you can also hear an electric chainsaw. All trees and bushes are cut back. This happens almost simultaneously on the terps. The work begins in your own garden and extends into the middle of the mound. At the assembly points, tree and bush pruning, the so-called Biike, quickly grow to considerable heaps spread over a week. The children used to collect the biike. This was always a wild hustle and bustle and a welcome change, because the students even got a day off from school. Today they are still there after school, sometimes more, sometimes less, but the fun is still the same today. Big and small.

In the last week before the 21st some farmers and employees of the community drive with their tractors and volunteers to the collection points and take everything with them. Sometimes there are half trees there, because if you clean up, you do it right. Sometimes there are also pallets or fence remains that have become unusable and a total of about fifty Christmas trees, of course without Christmas tree decorations. Biike burning is a good thing just to dispose of the old Christmas trees, because in the first week of January the Hallig does not have a garbage collection service to collect the Christmas trees.

When the meeting place at the Ockenswarft is empty, there is always someone here who spontaneously conjures up a basket of hot drinks filled in thermos flasks, cups, a few snacks or nibbles. A short break before going to another terp for picking up is accepted by everyone.

The 21st will finally be the day. With my guests and with friends from Lübeck, who have been coming to biike burning for more than ten years, the evening in my kitchen starts with an in-house tradition. We call it "The Great Anointing." A Nivea pot is handed around, everyone reaches deep into it and lubricates their face until it shines beautifully greasy. In addition there is a small drink and thus we prepare ourselves for a special evening and usually also a cheerful and long night.

At 19 o'clock the Biike is lit by the volunteer fire brigade at the bathing place at the Landsende. So we don't have to go far to the place of the event, don't need a car either, but start comfortably shortly before 19 o'clock. No matter how dark it is, the fire shows us the approximately two hundred meter long way. Residents and guests have gathered around the fire and the stand with the tea punch has already been set up. In recent years our pastor has played one or the other well-known song on the Schifferklavier and most of the time almost everyone sang along. There was even a Biike burning where a young man from the Hallig played on his didgeridoo. That was also something special and created a homely atmosphere around the fire. I like it when people sing by the fire. On Hallig Langeneß this has long been a tradition, on Hooge there are different opinions about it. Some people want celebrations to be celebrated as they have always been, and preferably only among the locals themselves. Others are happy to see that Biike Burning has been so well received by friends and guests alike, with a few more people coming to Hooge every year to do so. But this is often the case: some people want nothing to change, everything to stay the way it is, and others open up and enjoy the fresh wind. Some changes come and some disappear with time. Nothing is more constant than change.

In the case of a change, it is no longer entirely comprehensible when it took place and who is responsible for it. But the fact is that this "new custom" only takes place on Hooge. As soon as the first stems are devoured by the flames, the children and the young at heart become active. They pull the charred pieces of wood out of the heap, rub their hands against the sooty logs until they are pitch black, and then go hunting for white faces. They sneak up on you and suddenly ambush you. There's no escape. Everything that is not covered by a cap or scarf is rubbed in relentlessly. The soot sticks in all pores and wrinkles - unless you have creamed yourself in before! Then no curd soap is needed to wash off the sticky soot before going to bed. It doesn't matter if you look stupid with soot or not! You don't see yourself. And we always tell the guests that the blackened face is the ticket to the two restaurants that are open for the occasion. In the summer months there are four more restaurants and a café, for which of course there is no need for blackened faces or the like.

When the fire has burned down, the long Biikenacht is not yet over. Traditionally, people come to eat kale together. Biike brandy and kale belong together like Easter and chocolate eggs! Kale is traditionally served with cooked sausage, smoked pork and pork cheek as well as salt, fried or sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes are a highlight for me. They are turned in the pan with sugar until caramelized. However, these sweet potatoes were only available in the inn where my group sat at the Biike a few years ago. However, this no longer exists, so we have changed and now have to do without this speciality. Some hosts choose the simple alternative and put a pot of sugar on the table. Many people sprinkle these directly on the cabbage - but that is not the same thing.

Everyone is very welcome in the restaurants to kale and good mood and accordingly it gets fuller and fuller. Depending on how the organisation, i.e. the seating and reservations, is handled in the individual inns, it can also happen that guests who did not know that it would have been better to make reservations on the occasion of the major social event do not get a seat and have to leave the restaurant with a growling stomach. Or that the service staff in the confines of the full parlour cannot keep up with the richness of the food. Then it can be helpful to have talented musicians among the guests who provide a good atmosphere. There are two people who have been fulfilling all the guests' musical wishes at the Gasthaus Zum Seehund for years, as long as their vocal chords hold out and their fingers can grasp the strings of their guitars. Whatever is desired, their repertoire is inexhaustible, they know everything, can do everything, play and sing fantastically. So the others join in and we sing together about the "girl in the car in front of me", about the "Ring of Fire" and the "Mountains in West Virginia". We sing longingly of the places we dream of and those where we were once at home, and know exactly: Time was so beautiful.

If you celebrate such a festival year out, year in, year out with a firm group around you, you grow together quite closely. Above all, however, one can also indulge in wonderful memories together. We like to think back to the Biikebrand 2005, for example. A journalist from Deutschlandfunk took part in this event. Actually, he had "only" come to Hooge because of the UNESCO award for the biosphere reserve. But if you find your way to the Hallig in mid-February, you won't be able to avoid Biikebrennen. You should be prepared for that. It wasn't him! We saw that as soon as we first met him. That was right after the fire, when we all entered the restaurant Königspesel with blackened faces, in a cheerful mood and hungry stomachs. The differences couldn't be bigger. Our group, who entered the guest room in a noisy and quite excited mood, and he, the quiet man sitting at the table, waiting for us. At first glance, he seemed very British to us. Shirt, sweater, jacket. Everything coordinated, lots of checks. Earth colors. The shawl in casual elegance around the neck swung. Unobtrusive and chic he sat there, in front of him a recording device and a glass of hot tea.

We can't exactly understand it anymore, but it didn't take very long for the jacket to hang over some chair back, the pullover over another. The shirtsleeves were rolled up and the scarf hung around another neck. The tea had long since been drunk and forgotten, instead a full glass of beer stood in front of him. And as with all the others also two, three or even four empty shot glasses. For a long time he had been infected by the exuberant mood. He couldn't have done otherwise. In the middle of it instead of only thereby - otherwise he also would not have been able to take up the mood or even reproduce it, which prevailed on this evening. The report on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site "Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea and Halligen" was transformed into an atmospheric on-site report in which the reporter willingly tried out the traditions of the Biike Festival on his own. However, you should be aware of two things beforehand: your own drinking strength and the upcoming appointments the day after. This journalist hadn't thought about either in advance. In addition, he had probably completely underestimated the weather conditions in February on a Hallig and above all the size of such. He and I were supposed to meet at 11:00 the next day. He wanted to talk to me about tourism on Hooge. Sometime after 1:00, he showed up at my place. He couldn't tell me where he had stayed in the meantime. He assured me that he had started on time at the cheeks throw. On foot. You can actually do that in thirty to forty minutes. Okay, with an icy headwind, maybe in fifty minutes. Maybe he just needed an extra portion of fresh sea air after the merry evening. But he could still remember the specialty of the restaurant the evening before, the marble-sized sweet potatoes. A real treat! He also knew that we had sung extensively, especially the landlady's favourite song. As a thank you for her great kitchen we walked for her and with her at least three times over the seven bridges of Peter Maffay. Every time from the bottom of my heart and with complete devotion.

After this review we finally concentrated on the interview and with several cups of strong coffee I gave him an insight into the tourist offer in the Halligen biosphere. Tourism is becoming increasingly important here. There used to be several farms, but now almost all locals offer holiday accommodation and live from and with the approximately 46,000 overnight guests who spend their holidays on Hooge every year. In addition, around ninety thousand day trippers visit our island every year.

Normally, the day after, i.e. 22 February, there is something quite different to an interview. Then there is another culinary tradition in the house at Landsende. Since the night was mostly quite short, there is a late breakfast. For the guests of the house and good friends the table is set around eleven o'clock. At the sight of the richly stocked table, it is now clear to everyone at the latest where my roots lie: A Bavarian snack is served. In the middle of the table is a large pot of white sausages, to the right and left of which are bowls of meat loaf, sweet mustard and, of course, obazter, sausage salad and pretzels. Some people go for wheat beer, others prefer apple spritzer, I mix a cyclist. At eleven thirty o'clock at the latest, everyone is sitting in their seats, because the twelve o'clock church bell ringing is no longer allowed to experience the white sausages - says a Bavarian rule of thumb, which we are only too happy to adhere to. So in my Döns, eight to twelve people sit around the big table and enjoy it. The Döns is, so to speak, the antechamber of the pesel. This is where the family used to sit together on special occasions. Today the Döns stands for the simple living room.

So the Biikebrennen on 21 February and the Bavarian Brotzeit the day after found well together. Biikebrennen is for me one of the most beautiful festivals of the year. And I don't care how the custom came about or why. Basically, I don't care whether we sing or not. The main thing is that I have loving people around me who enjoy this festival, this tradition and celebrate together. Being together, the lightness, the good mood and a burning biike are the most important things for me.

The fact that I also have a full house in the so-called tourism weak season is existentially necessary for me. This combination of "living tradition" and "opening doors for guests" is a wonderful opportunity to combine what is good and what is necessary and thus secure my existence on Hooge. This is a point that, in addition to all the love of tradition and the deep-rooted desire of some inhabitants to have the Hallig belong only to the Hallig people in winter, must be taken into account if there are to be long-term businesses on the Hallig that make a living from tourism.

As I said before, nothing is as constant as change. That goes for a Hallig too. Even if change is sometimes slower there, it is still unstoppable. But if you have the chance to shape this change yourself, then the chances that you can influence it positively are simply better. Of course it is easier to leave everything as it always was, but in the long run it brings with it the opposite. Because if we're going to keep saying goodbye to the whalers with the Biike Fire or appease Wotan in the long run, then the fire has somehow lost its justification today, hasn't it?