!!!Blochziehen

Blochziehen, popular custom to celebrate the end of the carnival 
season  Fasching  in the South East of Austria and in the Tyrol 
(Oetztal Valley). After the twigs of a conifer trunk ("Bloch") have 
been removed, the trunk is decorated and then pulled through the 
village by unmarried women. On the trunk sits a "bridegroom" dressed 
in a top-hat and tail-coat. The custom is usually interpreted as a 
substitute wedding ceremony. In former times, the  Burschenschaft 
(village fraternity) used to organize the Blochziehen, today it is 
mainly in the hands of associations which sell the tree at an auction 
after the ceremony.

!Literature
S. Walter, Bloch- und Pflugziehen, in: Oesterreichischer 
Volkskundeatlas, 4%%sup th/%  instalment, 1971.


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