The Johannisnacht (St. John's Night) was celebrated in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

, Germany, first in 1968 in its extended form. Besides

Mainz carnival The Mainz Carnival (''Mainzer Fastnacht'', ''"Määnzer Fassenacht" or "Meenzer Fassenacht"'') is a months-long citywide carnival celebration in Mainz, Germany that traditionally begins on 11 November but culminates in the days before Ash Wednesd ...

and it is one of three big

Volksfest A ( ; German for "people's festival")Cognate of "folk festival" in English is a large event in German-speaking countries which usually combines a beer festival or wine festival and a travelling funfair. Attractions may include amusement rides, g ...

events in Mainz. The feast was initiated to commemorate the

Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who invented the movable type, movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's inven ...

who died 500 years before Gutenberg died in 1468 and was buried in the Franciscan church at Mainz, his contributions largely unknown. and to improve the image of Mainz as a town of the art of

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

. The Johannisnacht takes place annually during four days around Johannistag (St. John's Day, 24 June). It is attended by more than 500,000 people each year.

History

Besides the sophisticated academic celebrations to Gutenberg's 500th anniversary of death in 1968, Karl Delorme, also a printer and then head of the Mainz social affairs department, picked up an old printers' tradition: to perform a public printer's "baptism", the so-called "Gautschen". This act is supposed to cleanse all sins during the apprenticeship, and to wash any remaining lead dust. Designed as a Volksfest, this was intended to foster Johannes Gutenbergs commemoration. The "Mainzer Johannisnacht" developed its own distinct character over the 50 years since. It is celebrated in the heart of the Old Town and on the banks of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

Litérature

* Günter Schenk: ''Die Mainzer Johannisnacht''. in: ''

. Vierteljahreshefte für Kultur, Politik, Wirtschaft, Geschichte''. Nummer 2. Jahrgang 1981. Verlag H. Schmidt Mainz, p. 48–51, ISSN 0720-5945

References

{{reflist Events in Rhineland-Palatinate Culture in Mainz Johannes Gutenberg