Culture
The culture of the Ore Mountains was shaped mainly by mining that goes back to the Middle Ages. The old saying, coined here, that "everything comes from the mine" (Alles kommt vom Bergwerk her!) refers to many areas of life in the region, from its landscape, to its handicrafts, industry, living traditions and folk art. The visitor may recognise this on his arrival from the normal everyday greeting Glück Auf! that is used in the region.
The Ore Mountains has its own dialect, Erzgebirgisch, which sits on the boundary between Upper German and Central German and is not therefore uniform.
The first important native dialect poet of the Ore Mountains was Christian Gottlob Wild in the early 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, Hans Soph, Stephan Dietrich and especially Anton Günther were active; their works have a lasting impact to this day in Ore Mountain songs and writings. Erzgebirgisch songs were later popularised by various local groups. The most famous include the Preßnitzer Musikanten, Geschwister Caldarelli, Zschorlauer Nachtigallen, the Erzgebirgsensemble Aue and Joachim Süß and his Ensemble. Today it is mainly De Randfichten, but also groups like Wind, Sand und Sterne, De Ranzn, De Krippelkiefern, De Erbschleicher and Schluckauf that sing in the Erzgebirgisch dialect.
The Ore Mountains are nationally known for their variety of customs at Advent and Christmas time. This is epitomized by traditional Ore Mountain folk art, in the form of smoking figures, Christmas pyramids, candle arches, nutcrackers, miners' and angels' figures, all of which are used as Christmas decorations. Above all, places in the Upper Ore Mountains decorate their windows during the Christmas season in such a way that they are transformed into a "sea of light". In addition, traditional Christmas mining celebrations such as the Mettenschicht and Hutzenabende draw many visitors and have made the Ore Mountains known as "Christmasland" (Weihnachtsland).
In addition to the Christmas markets and other smaller traditional and modern folk festivals, the Annaberger Kät is the most famous and largest Ore Mountain folk festival. Started in 1520 by Duke George the Bearded, it has been held annually since.
Also interesting is Ore Mountain cuisine, which is simple, but rich in tradition.
Since 1998 the Ore Mounains have striven to achieve UNESCO World Heritage status as the Ore Mountain Mining Region (Montanregion Erzgebirge).
Read more about this topic: Ore Mountains
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Culture is the suggestion, from certain best thoughts, that a man has a range of affinities through which he can modulate the violence of any master-tones that have a droning preponderance in his scale, and succor him against himself. Culture redresses this imbalance, puts him among equals and superiors, revives the delicious sense of sympathy, and warns him of the dangers of solitude and repulsion.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“One of the oddest features of western Christianized culture is its ready acceptance of the myth of the stable family and the happy marriage. We have been taught to accept the myth not as an heroic ideal, something good, brave, and nearly impossible to fulfil, but as the very fibre of normal life. Given most families and most marriages, the belief seems admirable but foolhardy.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
“What culture lacks is the taste for anonymous, innumerable germination. Culture is smitten with counting and measuring; it feels out of place and uncomfortable with the innumerable; its efforts tend, on the contrary, to limit the numbers in all domains; it tries to count on its fingers.”
—Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985)