St.Martins Day in Germany

St. Martin getting ready to lead the procession down the street

Ready with their lanterns...Thanks Erin!

The procession: During the procession there is a brass band that plays songs and the people sing along to it. It is really fun and I really wished I could understand and sing them too. I recognised somewords and some of the songs were about thanking St. Martin for the deeds had done. They march through town and up the hill where they light a HUGE bon fire and the hill across from that is where they role wagon wheels on fire down the hill. After that everyone goes to the community center and here's talks given by St. martin and towns people, they sing more songs, have soup (goose soup probably) and juice and then Sugared pretzles at the end for the children. Germany is famous for these. YUMMY!

Ken Preparing the "tall" bon fire in their backyard

Bridger digging in Vole holes... By the way we saw one the other night in Bitburg crossing the street..Kinda cute! :)

Yes this is a picture of a wagon wheel on fire being rolled down a steep hill

The boys having fun with their lantern lights

all the kids joining in now

There are 6 different wagon wheels rolled down the hill in the back ground

Joseph and I getting rained on
The sweet little bon fire stand Ken made

Some friends... Erin Lancaster with her son and daughter then Ashley Olsen and her husband Mark with their two daughters.

Me and the boys after they recieved their sugar pretzels...1/2 of Bridgers is in his coat trying not to get too dirty. They were HUGE!

Bridger, Anna, Seth and Gideon


The back ground for St. Martins day
(Insert from the Local newspaper on line)
Celebrating St. Martin's Day in Germany
Each November 11, Germans celebrate St. Martin's Day. But what exactly are we celebrating and why are there kids with paper lanterns in the streets? The Local has the lowdown.
What exactly are we celebrating?
Martinstag is named after St. Martin of Tours, a Roman soldier who became a monk after being baptised 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. They make their own little lanterns in school or kindergarten and then gather on city streets to sing songs about good old Marty and their lanterns. 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. (we had flash light lanterns)(courtesy of ERIN lANCASTER)

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? (OK SO WE SAW A GOOSE IN A CAGE COMING INTO THE COMMUNITY CENTER AS WE WERE LEAVING.....I AM NOT SURE IF THEY WERE GOING TO KILL IT AND EAT IT OR IF THEY BROUGHT IT FOR THE KIDS TO SEE.??!!)

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.