Afterwards they carry about a summer garland or branch and collect
gifts of eggs and bacon from house to house. Sometimes the champion
who acts the part of Summer is dressed in leaves and flowers and
wears a chaplet of flowers on his head. In the Palatinate this mimic
conflict takes place on the fourth Sunday in Lent. All over Bavaria
the same drama used to be acted on the same day, and it was still
kept up in some places down to the middle of the nineteenth century
or later. While Summer appeared clad all in green, decked with
fluttering ribbons, and carrying a branch in blossom or a little
tree hung with apples and pears, Winter was muffled up in cap and
mantle of fur and bore in his hand a snow-shovel or a flail.
Accompanied by their respective retinues dressed in corresponding
attire, they went through all the streets of the village, halting
before the houses and singing staves of old songs, for which they
received presents of bread, eggs, and fruit. Finally, after a short
struggle, Winter was beaten by Summer and ducked in the village well
or driven out of the village with shouts and laughter into the
forest.
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