Last year we went to the Bonfire of the Christmas trees and I thought it was probably a pagan festival and I found this description on the net. We didn't go this year as it was pouring with rain but we watched the fire works from the apartment. Here is a picture from last year.
Burgbrennen in Luxembourg
On the first Sunday in Lent (Invocabit), fires are lit on the hills at the fall of the night. This tradition is called "Burgbrennen", the burning of the "Burg", where the word Burg has nothing to do with the German word "Burg" (castle, fortress), but is derived from the Latin verb "comburere", (to burn), the first syllable being dropped and the second one corrupted to "Burg".The burning of this fire is the only remaining one in Luxembourg of the four fires which were burnt traditionally over the year, and the original meanings of which are no longer remembered : the Lent fire (Burgbrennen) symbolizing the victory of the sun over winter, the Easter fire representing the rebirth of nature, the St. John's fire evoking the summer solstice and finally the St. Martin's fire standing for the autumnal fading away.These pagan traditions and symbols which also existed in neighboring countries were taken over and changed by the church at the christianization of the country. A very wordly celebration where exuberance coexisted with the pious hope and prayer of the farmers for the sucessful growth of the coming harvest. The burning of the Burg, which the adults in former centuries used to consider as a duty, has more and more become an amusement for the adolescents, and is nowadays organized by some village associations: boy-scouts, music society, fire brigade. On Burgsonndeg (this word is used in Luxembourg to designate the first sunday in Lent) the young boys used to go from house to house, begging for straw and wood and faggots. On top of a hill, on the waterdivide a big pole with a wooden cross, (one clearly sees here the christian imprint on this pagan fire tradition), the whole wrapped up with straw, was planted into the earth, and all the combustible material heaped around it. The Burg was then set afire by the last married man (probably a reminiscence of an old pagan fertility ceremony). The Burgbrennen was sometimes accompanied with a torchlight procession. Other ceremonies were possible and varied often from village to village.
