Austria: Customs - Easter Rattles

The Ratschenbuam – mostly altar-boys and girls – roam the streets from Maundy Thursday to Easter Saturday, announcing the times of prayer with their rattles and cries, at a time when the church bells are silent. According to an old tradition, the church bells in Catholic regions are not rung on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturday. The cheerful nature of the sound of bells does not fit the mood of mourning on these days, during which the liturgy focuses on the memory of the suffering and death of Christ. The bells stop ringing after the Gloria in the mass on Maundy Thursday, and are said to fly to Rome. They are replaced by rattles that call the faithful to prayer at the times when the bells are usually rung. It is only at the Gloria of the Resurrection Mass that the bells once again ring out with their festive sound.

The rattles were already in use at the time of Charlemagne in the 8th century, and in fact date back to the sixth century, before there were any church bells. The rattles were used not only for purposes of announcements, and the "walking with the rattle" derives from a Germanic religious practice. This "heathen noise" was intended to waken sleeping nature, and the louder the rattling, the faster spring would return, or so it was believed.

There are different types of rattle according to their design. The basis is a resonance body made of wood. Turning the rattle causes sprung boards or wooden hammers to hit against a ribbed cylinder, making lots of noise. The exception is the flapper mostly used in church, where a wooden hammer is hit against the resonance body by the movement of the hand.

Rattling, today practically only to be found in rural districts, also involves the right cries intended to remind the faithful of the need to pray. The most popular cry is: "Wir ratschen, wir ratschen zum Englischen Grub, den jeder katholische Christ beten muss."

On Easter Saturday, according to an old tradition, the rattlers ask for eggs or Easter gifts. The donations raised by the rattling are often used to finance a trip, an additional motivation for the children to go rattling whatever the weather.