Am Barbaratage holt' ich Drei Zweiglein vom Kirschenbaum, Die setzt' ich in eine Schale: Drei Wünsche sprach ich im Traum. Der erste, daß einer mich werbe, Der zweite, daß er noch jung, Der dritte, daß er auch habe Des Geldes wohl genung. Weihnachten vor der Mette Zwei Stöcklein nur blühten zur Frist; -- Ich weiß einen armen Gesellen, Den nähm' ich, wie er ist.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesConfirmed with Gedichte von Martin Greif, Zweite stark vermehrte Auflage, Stuttgart, Verlag der J. G. Cotta'schen Buchhandlung, 1881, page 207.
Note (provided by Johann Winkler): On Santa Barbara's day (December 4th), the custom in parts of Germany and Austria was to cut small branches from cherry trees and put them into water; if they blossomed on Christmas eve (as they usually did), that would be considered a good omen for the following year; unwed young women especially might identify different branches with eligible young men and expect the one whose branch blossomed first to marry them the following year.
Text Authorship:
- by Friedrich Hermann Frey (1839 - 1911), as Martin Greif, "Barbarazweige", appears in Gedichte, in Balladen und Romanzen [later, Romanzen und Balladen] [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Go to the general view
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Johann Winkler
This text was added to the website: 2004-05-09
Line count: 12
Word count: 65