The Aeroe tradition

By Manager of Aeroe Museum Karen Margrethe Fabricius

The Twelfth Night and Shrovetide

In the western part of Aeroe the Twelfth Night is celebrated. Three to four days and nights around January 6th where you are disguised are needed to end the time of Christmas.
Almost 150 years ago this tradition came to the island by a tailor journeyman from Bregninge. He had been inspired by a custom from Als.
On Twelfth Night in 1860 he came to the farm in Leby, where old Maren owed him money.
The taylor who was in disguise, almost frightened the old woman to death, she shouted: That is the devil himself!
From this time on many people started to feel like walking around disguised wearing masks. The tradition is still alive today. In many houses there are wardrobes filled with »Disguise material», which is only used once a year at this occasion. If you don’t have a ”dress up garment” you can use anything possible.
The only thing that matters is that you are not recognizable. Very often, for example, a young man hides behind the mask of an old woman. In a high, disguised voice the disguised revellers play pranks on people and move from house to house. Their identity must not be revealed. The rules of everyday life might be violated to a certain degree. But true craftmanship is to allude to things. In order to open a conversation when you enter a house, you must have some subject and be inventive. You might sell seeds for aebleskiver (a kind of pancake). Oh yes, the seeds must be sown at the end of September to be ready for Christmas.
Others are having a good time with the demonstration of an eternity machine they have “invented”. The hosts are as important players of the game as those disguised and their jokes. They bring along straws to use for the drink offered at each visit. And many drinks will be involved in the course of the evening.
When those disguised have left to see the next neighbor, the guessing game starts about who hid behind the masks. Those who are truly ambitious appear twice an evening in difterent disguise.
In Aeroskoebing and Marstal this mask tradition is known as well. But here it happens on Shrove Monday . While children "go mask” during the day, the grown-ups do so in the evening.
The mask traditions of the Twelfth Night and on Shrove Monday are very similar, but there the difference is, that in Marstal the mask must fall and one’s identity must be revealed before you leave the house.
If, being an outsider, you feel like sharing in this game, you can have this experience at publicly announced masquerades.