The custom of blessing Easter food can generally be traced back to the 7th century through the Benedictionale. In the Frankish region, the blessing of Easter lambs is mentioned from the time of Charlemagne and under the title Benedictio ad agnum benedicendum in Pascha, accompanied by a special formula of blessing (Benedictionale, 1978, Vol. 1, 577).
In Germany, the blessing of food on the altar took place somewhat later, with Abbot Walafried Strabo of Reichenau (810–849) stating, “With the exception of bread, wine, grains, grapes, oil, and incense, no other food may be blessed by priests on ordinary days or at any time with a few pious customs to be brought to the altar and thus receive a special blessing in regard to consecration (the transformation of bread and wine at the Lord’s Supper)” (Benedictionale, 1978, Vol. 1, 578).
A significant source that illustrates the meat blessing is the Vita of Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg († 973), which reports that in the 10th century lamb and ham were first brought to the altar for blessing at Easter, and these were consumed by the faithful during Mass. Bishop Ulrich’s table talk recounts something about this blessed meat, indicating the festival began with this meat (Fuchs, 1997, 28). An interesting detail concerns the “Kren” (horseradish), a new blessing fruit that first appeared in Catholic dioceses in Erfurt and later also in Bavaria (Benedictionale, 1978, Vol. 1, 602).
From the 12th century, it is known that Pope Innocent III, in accordance with the Jewish Passover, blessed a “blessed lamb” during a Passover Mass with five deacons and five cardinals (Benedictionale, 1978, Vol. 1, 581). Easter lambs are well-known in a strong relationship with the Jewish Passover feast, already celebrated by early Christians based on the Jewish Passover. For the Jews, it commemorates the Exodus from Egypt, and for Christians, it commemorates Jesus Christ, who celebrated his last supper with his disciples on Passover. The Passover feast, based on the lunar calendar, varies with the weekday, established by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD and by introducing the Gregorian calendar (1582), Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. Orthodox Christians did not adopt the Gregorian calendar reform, hence celebrating Easter later.
Generally, sources indicating the meat blessing in the Middle Ages are sparse. Of particular interest are monastery records from the time of monastic foundation, and also library records of basic lordships. In these, interesting references can be found about Austrian natural tributes and deputations.
First sources from the 12th century and later up to the middle of the 15th century repeatedly mention the legal, ecclesiastical, and folk customs of Austria and the eastern Zinser area. Besides eggs, both white and dark bread had to be handed over to the lords, often preserved in church libraries.
But also monasteries, parishes, and later estates claimed this customary right of collecting natural tributes, with the latter sometimes buying their share.
In this way, the loaves and Easter bread received by the Zinser from the Austrian east were blessed in monasteries and then distributed to monks, lay administrators, poor people, and beggars. Secular and church authorities gifted these loaves to professions like priests, teachers, and gravediggers. The Easter loaves received by shepherds and community children in exchange for their work as altar boys and altar boys (Weber-Kellermann, 1985, 69).
“Custom, where the altar servers, who usually stand at the church entrance or cemetery gate after the meat blessing, give Easter eggs as gifts, has continued to this day, although money is now sometimes given as a gift.
The “Zinsei” (interest egg) was thus early on turned into a “Schenkei” (gift egg) in the form of giving. It is assumed that this church tradition was also adopted and imitated by the rural population in the villages and countryside. Thus, it is possible that a custom emerged from a church ritual that still exists today, although in a modified form. From the 18th to the 20th century, it is documented throughout the German-speaking region that servants (farmhands and maids) also received Easter bread and Easter eggs as gifts from farmers and their wives at Easter – in Carinthia, it was the Reindling (a type of cake), which was also imitated as a “God’s gift” and was given by baptism and confirmation godparents to their godchildren during Holy Week, and sometimes still is.
The Salzburg ritual of 1657 gives more detail on the blessing of food in the Salzburg Archdiocese – parts of Carinthia, such as Friesach, were under the possession of the Salzburg archbishops until 1803. Lamb meat is the only meat mentioned for this period. Furthermore, there are formulas for the blessing of eggs, bread, and other fruits. The ritual of 1850 then already mentions meat in general. This means that it can be assumed that pork or beef in the form of sausages and beef tongue is a relatively recent addition to the Easter basket.
One of the earliest written sources that describe the custom of meat blessing in more detail originates from the Duchy of Carniola, which, as a neighbouring region to Carinthia, was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Baron von Valvasor, who described the customs of the neighbouring regions in six volumes, characterized the practice of meat offerings as follows: “Just as in other countries, wonderful customs of offering meat are observed, so it is also the case in Crain. The people, especially from the villages, bring eggs to church in small baskets on the first Sunday of Easter. The baskets often contain smoked pork ham and shoulders, occasionally salted beef, and in Brazil wood, a piece of veal, and a ring cake (or Reindling). Sometimes the clergy has to distribute the blessed meat among the poor. Each time, men and women hurry home as fast as they can, carrying these small baskets filled with meat offerings. This custom is common throughout the country. But the simple people believe, almost fanatically, that those who bring home blessed food first will be blessed in the coming year, as was the case on Easter Sunday in previous years.” (Valvasor, 1877, p. 471).
Interestingly, all records from the 19th century state that the Easter meat blessing custom began in the eastern part of Austria, especially in Styria. (Perhaps Easter is also meant here.)
On Good Friday, a silent day of fasting and meditation on Christ’s grave is observed. In Tyrolean sources, it is noted: “Early in the morning on Easter Sunday, the head of the household in town and country takes a beautiful white cloth-lined basket with a piece of ham, bread, butter, dyed eggs, and a piece of Kren (horseradish) to church for blessing. Just as much ‘consecrated food’ as necessary for the pre-feast meal is provided.” (Easter in Tyrol, 1957, p. 82).
In Carinthia, a detailed description of this custom is only found at the beginning of the 20th century, although it was practiced on Good Friday earlier.
The Germanist and folk scholar Georg Graber reports the following about the meat offering: “Every household has its hands full. The ‘Weich’ reindling (ring cake), the so-called ‘Goat slices,’ must be prepared, the pork, the sausages and other goodies, and the eggs are dyed, which are then taken to the butcher in the afternoon and the feast of the resurrection begins.” Soon after noon, the firing of cannon shots announces the start of the celebration and thus begins Easter Sunday. In most areas, afternoon meals of resurrection and Easter feasts take place in the church itself. The women bring their baskets into the church, filled with eggs, ham, sausages, Reindling, dyed eggs, and pure, consecrated Kren for blessing. Butter cake and pastry slices are also prepared. In long rows, the women line up, and in some areas, white-clothed girls bring the baskets into the church and lay them in rows at the altar. Sometimes an altar boy or the priest with the sprinkling brush moves through the rows to let the blessing of the Easter feast flow into them. For the meal, a sausage is placed on the cloth and eaten on the spot. It is sometimes the privilege of the oldest girl to bring the sausage to the altar and take it back to the house. Everywhere, one sees how the baskets are removed from the house, and while some return home with the Weich or ring cake, in the Upper – and Lower Carinthia areas, girls take the baskets home on foot or in carriages in a festive manner.
After the blessing, young girls accompany the basket in a festive carriage, the so-called ‘Spitz journey,’ where they return to the villages with whips cracking. Every arrival in the village is celebrated with cannon fire.
Every arrival in the village is celebrated with cannon fire. People believe that the first girl to return with the Easter basket will be the first bride in the village. This journey is known as “Weichobfahrt” (“Easter ride”), and it is the custom for a small part of the crop from the fields to be donated to her for the sowing.
For days beforehand, the young men and boys are busy preparing for this “Spitz journey,” and they accompany the girls with whips, which they crack during the procession. In many areas of Middle Carinthia, the carriers of the Easter baskets are often brought to the church in a cart. After the blessing, girls carry the basket back in a festive procession, and they are greeted with cheers upon arrival, symbolizing their acceptance as brides.
In the Rosental region, it is believed that the first girl to return with the Easter basket will also be the first bride of the year. At this time, they sing “Weichob,” until all cornfruit has been taken from the fields, where it grows especially well.
During Easter week, young men bring palm branches to every house where a rooster is kept, giving their “Spitz” and demanding that a piece of sausage be given to them. They go from one house to another, where they are entertained with bread and wine and are treated to all sorts of food and drink, wandering from house to house with the song “Palm visit.”
“The difficult time of fasting is now over. Meat dishes may be enjoyed again. The special Easter dishes are blessed by the Church to avoid the harmful effects of long-term indulgence. The Easter blessing is fortunate. For each farmer and townsman, on the two new feast days, ‘Gewichtes’ (blessed food) is pardoned and made available to every guest.” (Graber, 1934, 261)
Further, Graber notes: “Although the church’s observance of the suffering of Christ and his resurrection has imposed a festive touch on the entire festival, the people have preserved many old customs, especially those directly connected with the evening of the Easter feast.” (Graber, 1934, 241)
Graber follows the view of certain scholars of the 19th century, who assert that numerous customs, described as “ancient,” still have heathen roots, and that many of these ancient customs had initially adopted mystical forms, which were later overtaken or covered by Christian customs and ceremonies. Albrecht Dietrich even goes so far as to identify in the folk customs: “that the lower folk custom once had a high cultic ceremony.” (Amtmann, 1986, 294)
Whether the Easter meat blessing reflects an ancient custom, that is, one that goes back to Celtic or Germanic spring and fertility celebrations with the theme of abundant food (with meat and eggs), remains unanswered, as no written sources are available for this!
Hans Moser, a German folklorist, put it this way: “Only a few depictions are historically documented; thus it seems that the grand research into the intricacies of comparison materials will be useful for the time from the end of the past centuries (i.e., 19th century) onwards, which offers little value for earlier times.” (Moser, 1985, 169)
Hans Moser, unlike Cerny, who follows an entirely different approach to folklore, writes that paradoxically, the Church… (translation missing)
People consecrate the meat placed in baskets in front of houses. For blessing and consecration, each family receives a sausage and egg. In mountain regions, the farmer himself often performs the blessing of the Easter meal. He gathers his family, prays aloud with them, blesses them with a boxwood branch dipped in holy water, placing the branch on a white linen cloth that carefully arranges the food items in a round basket. A few strong shots from a musket accompany the event. ‘Gewichtes’ is consumed at Easter in no ordinary house.
Therefore, it is said that as long as it lasts, every meal must include a piece. It is said to be particularly beneficial for health. The consecrated meat may not be touched with a fork, but should only be touched with fingers. They are not to be cut, only broken, and the shells should be spread over the fields or buried in the field borders as a blessing for the coming harvest. ‘Weichasen’ (Gurktal dialect) refers to these consecrated foods, which do not appear anywhere in church life before the Resurrection, but only from Easter Sunday, or sometimes from Karsamstag (Holy Saturday), until the strict fasting periods before Ascension. Every house has its tradition of adding sausage, ham, and bacon, and the number of roasted eggs is usually high.” (Graber, 1934, 253–255)
Easter food blessing, the “consecration of the meat”
On Holy Saturday morning, smoked meat and sausages are cooked in the houses, fine white bread is baked, eggs are boiled, before the whole thing is placed in a straw or wicker basket with horseradish root and brought under a consecration blanket to the church or to a consecration site in nature – a chapel, a shrine or a wayside cross – where it is blessed after a service of the word. So that the “consecrated meat” does not have to be hidden in the church pew or placed in plastic bags at the altar, woven baskets and artfully embroidered or printed doilies are used. These consecration basket doilies show Easter symbols in cross-stitch or patterns applied with fabric prints. In earlier times, women still carried the Easter food wrapped in linen cloths on their heads for the consecration of the meat.
In the past, the fire for cooking the holy meat had to be lit with the glowing fire sponge that was consecrated in front of the church on Holy Saturday morning. Children, the holy fire bearers, bring this fire into the houses:
Carrying the holy fire
The first in the morning are the children who go to the fire consecration for the subsequent “soft fire carrying”. The blessed holy fire is given to the holy fire bearers in their tin cans in the church square in the early hours of the morning, and the smoldering is maintained by constantly swinging the cans. Small holes are made in the sides of the tin cans, and a long wire is attached to them as a handle, which enables the holy fire can to be swung. The holy fire bearers carry tree sponges and dried wood (“rotten wood”, i.e. slightly rotten fruit tree wood) to feed the embers. Large, dried sponges that are attached to a wire about 1 m long are also lit in the holy fire.
The preparatory work for the children consists of finding suitable sponges early enough and drying them out a little. The can must be kept moving constantly so that the fire does not go out. After reciting a spell and for a small fee, the bearers pass the fire on to the households they visit so that they can light the ovens with the smoldering and blessed pieces of wood or sponges. On the night before, Good Friday night, which is the only night of the year when the oven fire is allowed to go out, all oven fires are extinguished, only to be lit again with the consecration fire on Holy Saturday. The stove fire is reheated or the sponge is at least held in the burning oven so that the consecrated fire is taken over by the flames and the blessing is passed on to the food cooking over it and the entire house. The fire from the sponge and the old palm broom from the previous year is then used to cook the smoked meat for the consecration. The house is also properly smoked. This is intended to protect the residents from storms.
The saying for Holy Saturday for the “holy fire bearers” in Styria goes something like this:
We bring the fire,
we bring the light.
Christ is risen!
Do not be afraid!
Holy meat meal
From Holy Saturday evening onwards, the contents of the Easter baskets are eaten again and again over the Easter holidays and passers-by are also entertained with it. In the past, the servants were given a large portion of it as supplementary food for the next few days. On Holy Saturday evening, the family gathers around the table and eats this Easter snack together for the first time. The holy food is placed in layers on several large plates. The smoked meat, cheese, eggs and pickled gherkins are cut into bite-sized pieces and piled up until a tower is formed. Freshly grated, spicy horseradish is placed on top. Everyone at the table can take some of the holy food with their fork as often as they want and for as long as they like. The whole family comes together to eat the holy meat, and often up to 30 people are present. Several large plates have to be laid out, and two or three people eat from one plate at a time. Eating together from one bowl or plate is also meant to strengthen and symbolize family unity.
In the Bavarian-speaking area (Austria, Bavaria and South Tyrol), the blessing of Easter food has been documented since the 7th century. Foods such as meat and eggs, the consumption of which was forbidden in the strict medieval fasting order, gained special significance and power in popular belief through the Easter blessing. A very interesting source concerning the blessing of meat is the life of Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg (d. 973), who lived in the 10th century and who is reported to have first served lamb and ham at Easter, which were then blessed during the mass.
The custom is particularly cultivated in Carinthia and Styria, where the blessing of food is ironically called the “eighth Styrian sacrament” because many people take part in it who are not otherwise regular churchgoers.
New translation
On the Easter Custom of the Blessing of Meat
The custom of the blessing of meat is one of the most widespread and, in terms of popular piety, most deeply rooted religious customs in the Catholic population of Carinthia. Although this rite, which is carried out on Holy Saturday or Easter Sunday, has lost something of its original religious character in some places and has increasingly taken on a social, folkloric component, it still enjoys unbroken popularity. The participation of wide circles of the population in this blessing demonstrates that this custom is not only regarded as a matter of personal piety but also as an expression of communal Christian life.
The Easter food, consisting of meat, sausages, eggs, Reindling (a type of cake), horseradish, and salt, is placed in a basket, usually lined with a white cloth, decorated with sprigs of greenery or flowers, and taken to the church or another designated place for blessing. After the solemn blessing by the priest, who sprinkles the food with holy water and incenses it, the baskets are brought back home. The blessed food forms the first festive meal after the end of the Lenten fast. This Easter meal, the ‘Gewichtes’ or ‘Weihfleisch’, has a special significance and is consumed in a solemn family gathering.
The custom of blessing food at Easter is not a recent phenomenon, but one deeply rooted in the history of the Christian Church. The earliest evidence of such blessings can be found in the early Church, where the faithful brought food to be blessed, especially at Easter. However, the blessing of meat as part of the Easter celebration has its own development, which is closely linked to the liturgical and theological understanding of Easter as the feast of the resurrection and new life.
The first mention of the blessing of Easter food can be traced back to the 10th century in the ‘Benedictiones ad mensas’, a collection of table blessings. The actual custom of blessing specific Easter foods, including meat, is documented from the 12th century onwards. In these early centuries, the focus was primarily on the blessing of lamb, which symbolized Christ, the Lamb of God. Over time, other types of meat and foodstuffs were included in the blessing.
In the Salzburg Ritual of 1657, the blessing of lamb meat is explicitly mentioned. The text provides a detailed formula for the blessing, which demonstrates the high importance attached to this practice. By the 18th century, the custom of the Easter blessing of food had become widespread throughout the German-speaking Catholic regions. Alongside lamb, pork, sausages, bread, eggs, and other foods were commonly blessed.
In Carinthia, the blessing of Easter food, particularly meat, is first clearly documented at the beginning of the 20th century, although it can be assumed that the custom was practiced earlier. The exact origin of the custom in this region cannot be precisely determined, but its similarity to practices in neighboring regions suggests a common tradition.
The baskets prepared for the Easter blessing often display a rich variety of foods. Ham, smoked sausages, eggs dyed in various colors, the traditional Reindling, butter, and horseradish are carefully arranged and decorated. These baskets reflect not only the piety of the participants but also their joy in the Easter celebration and their gratitude for the gifts of creation.
A special feature of the Carinthian custom is the ‘Weihfeuer’, the blessing of the Easter fire, which often takes place in connection with the blessing of the Easter food. The faithful gather around the fire, which is lit and blessed as a symbol of Christ, the light of the world. From this fire, the Easter candle is lit, and often the faithful take home embers or a flame to light their own hearths.
The solemn procession to and from the place of blessing, often accompanied by the ringing of bells and the singing of Easter songs, underscores the communal character of this custom. In some regions, young girls in traditional costume bring the baskets to the church, and after the blessing, the baskets are carried back in festive processions.
The belief that the blessed Easter food brings health and protection to the family and the house is still alive today. The remains of the blessed food, such as eggshells and crumbs, are often carefully collected and spread over the fields or buried in the garden as a blessing for the crops.
The custom of the Easter blessing of meat and other foods thus combines religious, social, and agricultural elements. It reflects the deep connection between faith and everyday life and shows how religious traditions can take root in popular culture and be preserved through generations.
Even today, the Easter blessing of food is an integral part of the Easter celebrations in Carinthia and many other regions. It continues to be a living expression of Christian faith and community, bringing together young and old in a shared celebration of Easter joy.