Sankt Martin

St Martin's is a holiday celebrated on the 11th of November.  This year, as St Martin's fell on a Tuesday, the holiday is being celebrated a few days early in order to take advantage of the weekend.  

St Martin was a Roman soldier (knight) in the fourth (I believe) century.  St Martin was riding his horse when he spied a beggar alongside the road.  Seeing that the beggar was cold, St Martin removed his cloak and used his sword to cut it in two giving the beggar half.  Later that evening, St Martin had a dream in which Jesus appeared to him wearing the cut cloak.  After this dream, St Martin chose to be baptized and devoted his life to the church.  Notably, St Martin was not martyred, so there are no gloomy undertones.  The holiday feels much like Halloween without the costumes.

To celebrate, children all over Germany (especially in the Rheinland) make lanterns out of transparent paper.  At nightfall, the children carry their lanterns through town singing songs. Littlest's Kindergarten hosted a Laternefest this evening.  Each child carried his/her lantern in a procession led by a 'knight' on horseback.  Our procession led us along the canal and looped back to the Kindergarten by way of a cobbled road.  A brass band accompanied the children as they sang traditional songs.  Littlest learned the following song:  

Ich geh' mit meiner Laterne

Und meine Laterne mit mir.

Dort oben leuchten die Sterne

Hier untern, da leuchten wir

Mein Licht ist aus

Wir geh'n nach Haus

Rabimmel, rabammel, rabum

which translates as...

I'm going with my latern

and my lantern goes with me.

Up above the stars are glowing,

and glowing, too, are we.

My light is out

We're going home

Rabimmel, rabammel, rabum.

After completing the processional route, we went round the back of the Kindergarten where a bonfire was lit.  The children ate Schmalzbrot (rye bread spread with pig fat and bacon), Wurstchen (sorry to leave off the umlaut, but I've forgotten the keystrokes), Brezeln (pretzels rolled in sugar), and Weckmann (a sweet bread shaped to look like a gingerbread sort of man with raisin eyes and a fondant white pipe).  We drank hot chocolate and sat around the bonfire. In some villages, children go house to house singing as they receive treats.  Our village's Catholic church will host a special service on the 11th.  Typically, roast goose is eaten on St Martin's as he killed a goose on the day he was made a Bishop.  

Lanterns.  Some lanterns were quite elaborate.

Log eating his Wurstchen.  It was a foot long and doubled over into the brotchen.

Littlest

Bop

Our Sankt Martin!