German Holiday in Germany

St. Martin's Day was Sunday, November 11th.
"What is St. Martin's Day?" you may ask. As of two weeks ago, we can tell you!

BRIEF HISTORY: Martin was a Roman soldier from the 300's and one cold night he noticed a very poor man begging who was starving to death. Martin had no food or money to give him but decided to use his sword to cut his own military cloak in half and put the other half over the beggar. He later became a Christian and in 370ish, Bishop of Tours, France, but it's Germany that still embraces his feast day. Martin Luther was born November 10th but named on the 11th after St. Martin. Because of the connection between the two Martins, both Catholic Christians and Protestant Christians in Germany celebrate the day.

HOW THE HOLIDAY IS CELEBRATED: It's really celebrated by families with younger children (to about 4th or 5th grade). The Kindergartens here teach the kids the songs and story for a few weeks prior to the holiday and help them make St. Martin's lanterns (Laterne) and got them ready for the Martinsumzug (St. Martin's Day Parade). Ian didn't want to make a lantern, but the Monday before the holiday his sweet teacher Miriam "gentled" him into making one by getting him to tell her his "Lieblingstier" (favorite animal). And the cutest Elephant Laterne I've ever seen came to life. He's very proud of it! Ian's Kindergarten had their own Martinsumzug on Wednesday Nov 7th. We met at his school yard, Laterne in hand, with all the other kids and they sang for the families. Then the kids Ian's age (going to 1st grade next year) re-enacted the story for everyone. After that, the school's director (Schulleiterin) led the whole Kindergarten, families and all, through some of Altstadt on the Umzug (parade). The parade doesn't start until it's dark. That's not so bad considering it gets dark around 5:15 p.m. right now! Most of the kids have electric candles in their lanterns so they glow. I say most, because some have real candles. Scary to think of 2 to 10 year olds running around with lit candles inside laterns made out of tissue paper. And yet, it works. Until just a few years ago all lanterns were with candles and friends of ours have told us how only a couple would catch on fire every year and parents were good at stomping on the laterns to put out the fire while the poor kid would sob because their beautiful lantern was burned and flattened. Ah, memories...At the end of Ian's parade, all the children were given a St. Martin's Menschen, which is a man made out of yeasty bread with raisins for eyes and buttons. Dominic's not a fan of the bread, so Ian got two until he decided he was full. Then Steve and I got to share it and thought it was yummy.

The City of Heidelberg had their Martinsumzug on the 11th. That's a good thing, because after walking in Ian's parade Dominic really wanted to participate, too. The next day he designed and made his own lantern with a kit and was all ready for Sunday. He and Ian are both into Webkinz [thanks to The Brewsters, Cupps, and Jordans!:)] so he took pictures of his panda, Ian's elephant, and two others that we have here that we're giving to cousins for Christmas, printed them out and glued one picture on each of the four sides. The City's parade had a woman on a horse acting out St. Martin, and a patrol behind her carrying a huge Laterne on posts followed by parade people. At the end of the parade, they acted out the story, too, then the kids got more St. Martin's Menschen. A neat thing about this holiday is that it's so familiar and loved by people here. Parents who have raised their kids still know all the songs and talk about how they miss not doing it anymore. Grown-ups who haven't been since they were kids still will warmly tell you about it and even sing some lines from the songs. And the German homes we have visited still have a least a few Laterne on display somewhere in their home. It's fun to be a part of something so intregral and well known in their culture that I have never been a part of before. It's really special.

Ian loved it so much (Child that refused to make a lantern til the last minute!!) that he wants his 6th birthday to be at dinner and wants his American friends to make laterns then have a parade. It's kind of a bummer that his birthday's in July when it stays light for so long, but we've bought Laterne kits and the plastic Laterne sticks (they look like short fishing poles to me) with bright lights on the end. We figure if nothing else we can put the kids in the garage and turn out all the lights for a mini Martinsumzug. And if Ian changes his mind, one of the activities will still be lantern making!! When I bought the supplies the woman asked if it was for a Kindergarten and I told her about Ian's idea and she thought it was really neat (she said "Toll!" which is kind of the German "cool!") that we would take Laterne to America. She probably also thought we were crazy, but she's probably right!