Here in the 1960s the Döllnitz children, mostly girls, got together and marched through the village masked, among them also the long-standing Lichtblicke patron Elisabeth Wittmann and the former district councilor Sieglinde Schärtl.
Image: Archive sl
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Mardi Gras, Fosnacht, Carnival and other terms are used for the fifth season, which are not taking place this year. Also in 1991 many carnival events were canceled because of the Gulf War, including the Döllnitz women’s group, the women’s gymnastics group and the KDFB Leuchtenberg.
In Döllnitz there used to be a lot of celebrations. Hausfosnacht was the name of the events in the former inn Plecher, then Hutzler, later in the former schoolhouse, today’s Schützenhaus. Usually they lasted until the next morning. Also at the landlord in Wittschau and Preppach or at the Maier in Leuchtenberg, hearty carnival events and balls were held by associations from the Leuchtenberg market. The creativity of the masks was enormous and sometimes also kept very simple. On Shrove Tuesday after midnight, the expulsion began with the digging in of the carnival and with it the 40-day fasting period. The dance was stopped.
The children were also allowed to go to school masked. It was fatal that on Shrove Tuesday after the masked lesson at 12 o’clock in the church, the prayer hours began. The girls and boys had to change. Back then, as a child, you absolutely didn’t understand that – but there was no way out. So the carnival robe was not put on straight, but over the usual clothing so that one did not go to church in carnival costume. In the afternoon, it was Mardi Gras again and the offspring went through the village in costumes. It was not until the 1980s that children’s carnival afternoons were organized in the Schützenhaus as well as in Wittschau and in the kindergarten and primary school in Leuchtenberg.
During the Fosnacht, the sausage soup also took place, as they were slaughtered in winter. Once people were on their way with the Bulldog to get to the next village to the farmer who had slaughtered. One drove and the rest set off in the evening when the work in the stable was done. They were all masked. A musician was also there. So they knocked at the farmer who had slaughtered a pig or two and were let in. They performed their requests musically and only when the table was set did the sausage soupers identify themselves. Sausage soup, kettle meat, blood and liver sausages with cabbage, potatoes and bread were served. Beer and schnapps were a must for digestion. Then we went back home via fields and forest paths.
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