Store Magleby School’s alcohol policy has led to a nearly 500-year-old shrovetide tradition is being broken.
the Tradition dates from 1521, where the Dutch came to Dragør on Amager.
It tells the president of the association ‘circle of Friends’, Gert Schmidt, to Ekstra Bladet.
Every shrove Tuesday, the red riders around between different places in the city, where they eventually met at the town square and tore the head of a goose.
Since the tradition start is the however, become a bit more family-friendly. The goose has been replaced by a standard shrovetide-barrel, which must be turned in to kindling with a bat while riding a horse.
circle of Friends has been in charge of the event since 1886.
part of the tradition is that riders knight past the Large Village School, where they receive a glass of punch and sings a skålesang.
But when the Store Magleby School has introduced alcohol prohibition in the school, so can the riders this year did not come by for a glass of punch.
– We get an email from the School and culture branch within aalborg municipality, who shall communicate, that we should ride past the school and do not check – in as it is in violation of the school’s alcohol policy, says Gert Schmidt.
– We will respond them that we respect their wish. But we think it is a wrong attitude, that we can not get by for a glass of punch, when the children also must have a reasonable relationship to the tradition.
Ekstra Bladet has spoken with the chairman of the board of Store Magleby School, René Bomholt, telling you that it’s all a big misunderstanding.
– In the mail between the association and the School – and culture branch within aalborg municipality, it seems as if the riders are not allowed to be here. It is not true, says René Bomholt.
– We just can’t give anything with alcohol on school grounds, and the decision backs the board of directors.
the Association circle of Friends tried to make contact with the employee, who had written to them, but the employee was supposedly not at work to respond, so the riders decided that they would not ride past the school, since they could not get a punch.
– It is a part of the tradition, that we knight around, get a glass and sing a skålesang. We can, after all, not the bowls, when we don’t get something to drink, tells Gert Schmidt.
– But can’t you just do it without drinking alcohol?
– Yes, but we have not taken a position on the board yet. Now we have put it from us, and so we must look to the next year, says the president.
the Riders need to beat the cat of the barrel to the horse on Monday.
