They're Baaaaaccckkk!!
A year later and I'm wiser on this whole Osterbrunnen thing. The tradition originates in northern Bavaria in the Fränkische Schweiz region. A little history on the Osterbrunnen (Easter Wells):
This custom has its origin in the fact that years ago people realized how important it is to have good water. Water that was blessed on Easter was believed to hold special powers. Children baptized with it would grow up to be especially smart, drinking it would protect you from sickness, and spraying some in your house would keep the bugs and mice away. (quoted from a website on Easter Fountains).
I love to drive through the countryside here and look at the Osterbrunnens. They are beautiful and it amazes me the patience it must take to decorate these eggs. In the Fränkische Schweiz all fountains are decorated with real hand painted eggs. The further you get area from this region it is more likely to see fountains with plastic eggs which can not even compare to the beauty of those with real eggs.
To kick off the pictures I wanted to share with you the Osterbrunnen in Bieberbach. It has been documented as the world's largest Easter Fountain with close to 12,000 hand painted eggs since 2000. You can get an idea of how large this fountain is by the man standing next to it. I would say he was roughly 6 feet tall.
You can see how stinky our weather has been lately. Look at the ice forming in this fountain:
This is a real plant hanging from this fountain covered in snow. This fountain is made with the plastic eggs. It is pretty but not nearly as impressive as those with real eggs.
A few more pictures of Osterbrunnens. Get ready for picture overload:
No comments:
Post a Comment