Tonight was the celebration of St. Martin here in the tiny German town I'm in. It's similar to the American Halloween. Children carry self-decorated lanterns on a stick and go from door to door singing about St. Martin. In exchange they receive candy or treats.
I've heard various stories in connection to it having seen a bit last year and then researching it. I've heard it's the 11th at 11 AM (tomorrow) and it is the kick-off of carnival. Although it seems similar to American Halloween, in that each community can celebrate closest to the date as they best see fit. Also, it's a celebration of the end of the collection of the harvest. It's connected to St. Martin who gave his coat to a beggar and it reminds the children of humility--that's the version the six children and two adults gave me tonight when I asked.
I had heard them singing in the building, but it seemed that only one or two people were home to open doors for them. Fortunately I had a box of candy on standby so I opened the door and they came to my door to sing and then to explain the tradition after I asked. It was probably the only time they received such a question tonight, but they were very kind and easer to try to explain in simple terms.
It's probably better than last year when I was baffled as to why Kristallnacht (Nov 9-10) would receive such a commemoration when I first saw one of the children groups wandering the streets and I was too afraid to ask the question lest I offend my German colleagues and I spent the days after looking online for "November 9 + lantern + Germany + children + singing."
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2 comments:
We sang lantern songs in my German language classes as a kid, but I would never have remembered anything about it, if they hadn't had a special meal planned in the cafeteria at work. I think goose and roasted chestnuts are traditional (and rotkohl - yuck!)
Thanks for the laugh re: your concerns of last year. It's so heartening to see other people struggling to make sense of it all just as I do.
Many thanks for the comment, Ann_ona_moose. Goose and roasted chestnuts--that's one heck of a meal from a work cafeteria. I had thought such a thing would only be done in the home. In my cafeteria it was just another day of fried food and a wilted salad bar. :-(
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