Lace up your hiking boots on Three Nail Friday: From midnight to 4 p.m., there are not only five masses and three prayers on the program, but also a 52-kilometer march.
Thousands of pilgrims set off on the second Friday after Easter, Three Nail Friday – named after the three nails with which Jesus was nailed to the cross: Four Mountains Run, Three Mountains Run, Three Mountains and Children’s Pilgrimage are on the program on April 21st. The most strenuous foot pilgrimage is the Vierbergelauf: 52 kilometers have to be mastered, over four mountains, in a time when the body usually rests, because the pilgrimage begins on Friday night at midnight on the Magdalensberg. Five Holy Masses and three prayers are on the pilgrimage program. It is said that anyone who has completed the Four Mountain Run three times has opened the door to paradise. The 16-hour hike is intended to bring about complete forgiveness of sins. That’s what thousands upon thousands have hoped since 1500, when the pilgrimage was first written about, and even before that. The Protestants fought against the Vierbergelauf, Joseph II and the Nazi regime even banned it, but the Carinthians always went! The mountaineering permit also has a tradition: a small branch for hat and cross is to be taken from each mountain: from the Magdalensberg Bärlapp (“Krahfuaß”) , from Ulrichsberg ivy, from Veitsberg spruce, from Lorenziberg juniper. Before and after the five services, the “Vierbergler” go around each church three times. In Karnburg, Zweikirchen and on the Lorenziberg you put a fistful of grain in a basket and take from the blessed “Troad”. The children are already waiting for the custom to be made: they sit and stand by the wayside and are given sweets. “6 to 7 degrees can be expected at night and a maximum of 14 degrees during the day,” according to the Ubimet meteorologists. With such ancient traditions, the origin can often no longer be reconstructed. Some assume that the Four Mountain Run already existed in pre-Christian times, specifically in Celtic times. The four mountains are also often associated with the four seasons and the four elements: Ulrichsberg – fire – spring. Veitsberg (also Gösseberg) – earth – summer. Lorenziberg – air – autumn. Magdalensberg (Helberg) – water – winter. The Jauntaler Dreibergelauf, which runs from Lisnaberg via St. Luzia, Heiligenstadt to Heiligengrab, starts at the same time as the Vierbergelauf. The St. Paul Three Mountains Pilgrimage starts at 6.30 a.m. in the Weinberg Church in the Lavant Valley and goes via the Josefsberg Church to the Johannesberg Church. The children’s pilgrimage (7:45 a.m.) leads from the elementary school in Prebl to the church in Gräber.
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