Tonight,
the girls and I participated in our first St. Martin’s Day walk. For the past two weeks, Elle has been
creating her own paper lantern at school and learning songs about St. Martin
and the significance of her lantern (see a more thorough explanation of the
St. Martin celebration below).
Thankfully, the children’s lanterns had electric tea lights and not real
FIRE:). To my surprise, I learned that still
today many processionals have the children use real lit tea candles. The girls had a lot of fun. Elle enjoyed “leading the pack” and singing
with Mr. Bentgens. Britta enjoyed
carrying her lantern and playing with our family friend Will (Will is in Elle’s
class). The weather was beautiful and it
was so much fun walking the streets, with the colorful lanterns and hearing the
children singing. I am so happy we were
able to participate in this German tradition. Please excuse the poor picture quality, I used my lens that is broke- frustrating but the last picture is sorta cool looking:).
*Source of information:
http://www.thelocal.de/
What
exactly are we celebrating?
Martinstag is named after St. Martin of Tours,
a Roman soldier who became a monk after being baptized as an adult. He
eventually obtained sainthood from the Catholic Church for being a kind man who
cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm.
What
do the lanterns mean?
In many
parts of Germany it is traditional for children to participate in a procession
of paper lanterns in remembrance of St. Martin. Often a man dressed as St.
Martin with a long red cloak leads the parade on horseback.
So
this is actually a big deal then?
It's
officially a Catholic holiday, but in recent years the lantern processions have
become widespread even in Protestant areas of Germany. So just like Santa Claus
has little to do with the birth of Christ, these days St. Martin Day's is
probably better known for the luminous procession than the saintly history.
So
what do I do on St. Martin’s Day?
If you
have kids, you’ll probably spend the evening outside with a bunch of other
parents and their children. You’ll be busy frenetically relighting the tea
candles in those fiddly little lanterns with cold, stiff fingers and drying
tears because, as upsetting it is for the kids, paper lanterns lit by candles
tend to catch fire quite quickly. Who would have thought...
Heavens!
That sounds dangerous.
Well,
definitely worrying for the parents, forced to prevent their little ones from
accidentally setting each other on fire during the procession.
But on
the other hand, it wouldn’t really be a proper St. Martin’s procession without
someone stamping out a flaming lantern, or a sad-faced child clutching to a
charred stick.
What
do I do if I don’t have children? Is there anything else to it?
Like most
holidays, St. Martin's Day is also about eating food. The traditional victuals
are goose with red cabbage and dumplings.
Yummy!
But why goose?
According
to legend, Martin was reluctant to become a bishop as an honour for all his
good deeds, so he hid in a stable filled with geese to escape from Church
officials. Martin might have been a very kind and gentle man, but he apparently
wasn’t the smartest. Otherwise he would have considered a better hiding place
than a pen filled with gabbling geese - who ended up giving away his location.
And
the geese had to pay for that?
Perhaps,
but the more likely reason is that November 11 is the beginning of Advent
fasting and hardcore Catholics get a last chance to feast before they abstain
from greasy food and booze until Christmas.
And if
I am not Catholic, don’t like goose and have no children?
Then you might
want to huddle around one of the many Martin bonfires, eat something else or
simply celebrate the beginning of carnival, as it starts on November 11 as
well.
