Biographical note: Bernd Seidensticker, Freie Universität Berlin; Martin Vöhler, Freie Universität Berlin.

Hymnic poetry needs inspiration. In the ›Feiertagshymne‹, Hölderlin differentiates several historical stages (night, dawn, holiday), degrees (deficiency, favour, rapture) and representations of inspiration or enthusiasm. The poetological reflexion includes mediating figures (Semele, Dionysos, Christus) and models (Pindar, Klopstock). While the poem turns away from eschatological inspiration it projects, by the simile at the beginning, a gesture of exploration which is followed up later by Hölderlin’s last hymns. For those this poem is of fundamental significance.