Sankt Martins Tag (Elfte Elfte)

The eleventh of November is St. Martin's Day in Germany. It is now our third November in Germany, and I was determined to finally experience this traditional event. The only problem is that it is mostly for children. So I had to convince my work colleague Caroline and her 1-year old son to join me.

St. Martin's day is a Catholic holiday celebrating a saint who gave have his cloak to a poor man during a snowstorm. We went to the local church and saw a re-enactment of this saintly event by men dressed as Roman soldiers. This part was fun, but then there was some religious message and kids were getting antsy and louder by the minute. Then, we went outside, and Roman soldier St. Martin on his horse led us around the neighborhood. We were accompanied by a brass band and we periodically stopped to sing:

"Laterne, Laterne, Sonne, Mond und Sterne..."

Because the most important part of St. Martin's day are the lanterns!

So before we went out, Caroline and I improvised some lanterns. Mine was a giant pickle jar with golden leaves glued onto it. Unfortunately the little guy pulled off the biggest leaf, and so at some point it became just a giant pickle jar with a tea candle inside.

All of the children make their lanterns in school, and some are quite elaborate. However, I think if we put more than 20 minutes effort in next time, we could really show those kids up, because Caroline's partner is an art teacher. The festivities ended with Kinderpunsch and Bretzeln back at the church.