Saint Martin’s Day celebration

On the evening of November 11, Mamta took to the streets to celebrate Saint Martin’s Day — Martinstag — with her cousins. Prior to the day, I was not familiar with Saint Martin or the celebration. When I asked my sister-in-law Doreen about Saint Martin, she gave me a one-sentence summary: “He was a Roman soldier who shared his cloak — by cutting it in half — with a beggar on a cold winter evening.”  It turns out that’s not all he did, but that act of generosity is re-enacted annually in Saint Martin’s Day celebrations across Germany.

Cousins with lanterns

Saint Martin approaches

Saint Martin with half a cloak

the Umzug

time to go home

According to Wikipedia, Saint Martin is remembered as a kind man who led a simple life caring for children and the poor.  To symbolize the light of hope that Saint Martin brought to these people, Mamta and the other children carried paper lanterns that dangled from the ends of what looked like short plastic fishing rods made especially for that purpose.

Mamta, Annette and I, along with Doreen and two of her children, gathered with a couple of hundred other celebrants at a churchyard not far from Doreen’s apartment. There brief speeches were made, songs were sung, and the sharing of Saint Martin’s cloak was re-enacted.

Our Saint Martin was a woman dressed as a soldier.  She rode on horseback up to the platform around which we were gathered, dismounted, and shared half her mantle with the thinly-clad beggar — also a woman — she found there. Saint Martin then remounted and led us all in a procession — the Umzug — to another church plaza several blocks away.

There a bonfire was lit, more songs were sung and remarks made, and — just as I was starting to identify closely with the cold, hungry beggar — we were treated to mulled wine and Martinshörnchen.  These soft, sugared rolls are shaped roughly like a crescent or half a pretzel, symbolizing the parting of Saint Martin’s mantle, or perhaps the hooves of his horse.

By the time the festivities wound down, both Jonas and Ellie were asleep. Mamta installed their lanterns on the stroller, and we headed back to Doreen’s to warm up.