"Liebstatt" Sunday 2025
Let the hearts speak -
A festival of tradition and customs
The special thing about Liebstatt Sunday in Bad Goisern on Lake Hallstatt is that it is celebrated as a heartfelt spring festival, where gingerbread hearts in particular are exchanged as a symbol of love and appreciation. Originally it was a religious custom to affirm the "love" of the poor of the community, but over time it has evolved into a celebration of giving and affection.
The custom goes back to a brotherhood in Gmunden, which invited the poor to a meal on the fourth Sunday of Lent in order to "confirm" or "pay" them brotherly love. The name "Liebstatt Sunday" originated from this term. Later, "giving love" developed into giving gingerbread hearts, which was often the beginning of a love relationship. Today it is a joyful spring festival where people express their affection for each other by giving gingerbread hearts.
The ornately decorated gingerbread heart is the central symbol of this custom and is given to all those you love. The day is often celebrated with music, parades, markets and children's programs that take up the heart theme. Today, Liebstatt Sunday is an important living cultural heritage in the Salzkammergut, which preserves the traditions of the region. And now more information about this very special event in the Salzkammergut....
"Liebstatt" Sunday in Bad Goisern
To show your love is true, give your loved-one a „Liebstatt“ heart! The tradition of love is celebrated in the Salzkammergut on the fourth Sunday in Lent. Sweet, spicy„Lebkuchen“ hearts are traditionally baked throughout the region and given away to loved ones. This very old custom began on 19th December in the year 1641. It was then a symbol of „Corpus-Christi-Brotherhood“ introduced by Bishop Leopold Wilhelm of Gmunden. It was his aim to develop a deeper religious faith in the town. The name „Lieb b`statten“, which originally symbolised brotherly love, continues today.
A day of joy ...
The arrival of spring and summer, after long, cold winters, is a time of celebration. In the past, winter was much harder than it is today as the people who lived in the valleys of the Salzkammergut had poor transport connections, and often had to clear vast amounts of snow by hand. And so this is a day of great celebration.
Throughout the centuries the „Lieb b`statten“ has become a chance to declare your love by presenting loved ones with these lovely gingerbread hearts. A very festive Sunday for which the ladies would always dress in traditional dirndl skirts and receive lots of „love hearts“ from the men! „Lovers‘ Sunday“ - a fun and festive occasion.
Historical background
What is Liebstättl Sunday?
A warm spring festival
Giving a person a token of love is independent of holidays or occasions. On Liebstättl Sunday, however, you can do this in a special way. Where does this spring festival, which is also celebrated in the inner Salzkammergut, come from?
The 4th Sunday in Lent or the 3rd before Easter is the Sunday "laetare".
Laetare means "rejoice" in German. Supposedly, people were looking forward to the arrival of spring, which would soon put an end to the long winter days and the cold. Our ancestors perceived the cold season differently than we do. Instead of having fun on tracks or railways, they hoped to have enough food and firewood to get through the winter. Lent, which today seems to us to be rather old-fashioned, soon came of its own accord, as after the lavish holidays, when the fattened sow was slaughtered, the supplies became less and less.
So it happened on this joyful Sunday in the 1640s that a pious community invited the poor of the city of Gmunden to a meal.
In brotherly harmony, rich and poor sat together and assured each other of their solidarity, "confirmed" their love. From this "Liab b'statten" (=confirm), the term changed to "Liab abstatten" as we understand it today.
The old custom
Soon it became customary to confess or prove one's love to one's confidante with a heart made of gingerbread. Young men courted the love of girls; Lovers who had met and fallen in love appeared in public for the first time on this day. The lad visited relatives with his chosen one for the first time, then went with her to the gingerbread stand and hung a gingerbread heart with a beautiful saying around her neck as a visible sign of his attachment. Now that the relationship was official, the day ended in a nearby inn or excursion destination. However, this was only part of the mutual confirmation of love. Because at Easter, when the young woman was sure of her cause, she prepared an "Oapackl" (egg pack) for her "boy".
Woman's dexterity
This oapckl, which was presented on Easter Monday, usually contained the following things with which the future housewife proved her skill: a pfoad (shirt), a bindl, embroidered trouser collars (suspenders), knitted socks, an embroidered tobacco pouch, a sackcloth and eggs. The whole thing was wrapped in a cotton headscarf and given to the sweetheart. This sealed the bond of the heart. It didn't always work out
then also with the wedding. An old woman told me that her "Bua" had taken her Oarpackl, "but not me". This custom persisted until the interwar period.
A heartfelt spring festival for Liebstatt Sunday
In Bad Goisern, the local history association took care of this forgotten tradition in 1980 and revived it. In the following years, a cheerful event often took place on "Liabstattl Sunday", where people sang and played music.
In 1981, the then Governor Josef Ratzenböck was even welcomed, who paid his respects with his wife. In the time before the feast day, the kitchens of the active ladies from the local history association and the gold bonnet and headscarf women are bustling with activity.
All gingerbread hearts are home-baked, provided with a saying and lovingly decorated. Every year about 4000 hearts make the hearts of the recipients beat faster and the hearts of the manufacturers faster. In over 500 hours of work, the more than 40 women (now also joined by a man) produce their works of art. They also provide the material.
A few days before Liabstatt, the ladies are seen dressed in traditional costumes and go from house to house, where they distribute their products. People are already looking forward to the visit and choose the heart of their choice from the baskets to give it away. Many kilometers are covered in this way until even the last house has been equipped with a heart. Especially in the old people's homes, the home inmates are very pleased about the gift of love. The donations received from the population for the hearts are usually made available for a charitable purpose. For example, the Landlerhilfe, the Lebenshilfe Bad Ischl, retirement homes, kindergartens, or families in need have often been able to look forward to a considerable amount, which was personally handed over by the worker bees of the Goldhauben- and Kopftuchfrauen and the Heimatverein. Also this year - Liebstättl Sunday falls on March 15, 2026 - the ovens will soon be preheated and the glazes mixed so that everyone can "pay the liab" to their sweetheart. A custom that goes from the heart through the heart to the heart and lies beyond all commercialization.
Old description
On Liebstatt Sunday, the lad had to give proof of his love, and this is done by leading his beloved to the nearest gingerbread shop and here with meth, gingerbread and "Busserln".
Then, in the course of the afternoon, the girls from the town and its environs came in neat garments and lined up in the town square, anxiously expecting whether the ardently longed-for one, who perhaps had something to do in the next hour, would come and lead them to the meth shop as the chosen one of his heart. Rarely did one stay behind, because those who feared such a mishap stayed at home.
Clothes stapled together
Not infrequently there were coarse jokes, for when the dainty girl figures stood in a long row close to each other and lost hearing and sight in anxious anticipation of the things that were to come, sometimes a joker crept up from behind and fastened several clothes together, and so it came about that the lad who had taken his beloved by the arm, to the hello of the bystanders had a whole procession of uninvited guests behind him and on top of that had to pay bitterly for his immodesty in the meth shop." (From: Leo Kegele "Das Salzkammergut, 1898).
VIDEO
Liebstattsonntag Bad Goisern on Lake Hallstatt
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Hotels and accommodation providers in Hallstatt, Bad Goisern, Gosau and Obertraun offer the ideal room or apartment for your holidays, no matter what your tastes. Aside from establishments rated according to the international "star" scale, you will also find around Lake Hallstatt in Austria businesses that have been awarded two to four "edelweiss". The more flowers, the greater comforts you can expect. Whether you eventually find your cozy nest in an elegant 5-star luxury hotel, at comfortable guesthouse, a family-friendly apartment, or on a traditional farm, the choice is always entirely up to you.