Traditions
The most important bearer of the mining tradition in the former mining towns of Fell and Thomm are the Miners’ Orchestra Fell and the Miners Orchestra Glück-Auf Thomm 1927 e.V., both established in 1955, but with a traceable history going back to 1871.
The Fell Buglers have maintained the tradition of bugling for the hunt for years. If the weather and their time are permitting, the buglers practice Sunday mornings at the Fell Exhibition Mine and signal for the hunt. Anyone interested in listening to the Hubertus March, the Jäger aus Kurpfalz (Hunter from Palatinate) or the Parforce March is welcome to join the morning pint Sundays at the Fell Exhibition Mine. The traditional airs Sau tot! (lit. Boar Dead!), Hirsch tot! (lit. Stag Dead!), Hase tot! (lit. Hare Dead!), Begrüßug (lit. Welcome), Sammeln der Jäger (lit. Gathering the Hunters), Jagd vorbei (lit End of the Hunt) and other melodies from the hunt are part of the Fell Buglers repertoire.
Every year on the second Sunday in Advent (the Sunday following the Saint’s Day of Saint Barbara on the 4th of December) a traditional parade of the Fell Miners’ Orchestra, the Bergparade, takes place.
Every two years in the time leading up to Christmas the Friends of the Exhibition Mine organise a matins in the mine for their members. Solely by the light of candles and pit lamps the participants descend into the mine. At individual points in the mine, former miners describe their hard work while contemporary witnesses talk about their wartime experiences. They relate to a time, when the mines were bunker and home for the citizens of Fell and Thomm. Musical contributions, prayers and poems are presented in honour of St Barbara.
Read more about this topic: Fell Exhibition Slate Mine
Famous quotes containing the word traditions:
“... the more we recruit from immigrants who bring no personal traditions with them, the more America is going to ignore the things of the spirit. No one whose consuming desire is either for food or for motor-cars is going to care about culture, or even know what it is.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“Napoleon never wished to be justified. He killed his enemy according to Corsican traditions [le droit corse] and if he sometimes regretted his mistake, he never understood that it had been a crime.”
—Guillaume-Prosper, Baron De Barante (1782–1866)