Celebrating St. Martin’s Day

Yesterday was St. Martin’s Day (Martinstag in German).  It was a day rich with European culture and feasts.  Because it was also my husband’s namesake day, St. Martin’s Day was a huge deal in his family.  It was more important than his own birthday!

Traditions in Germany and Austria

St. Martin’s Day was thought to be the last feast day for Catholics before Advent begins.  Children carried paper lanterns and candles.  They paraded with a man on a white horse dressed as St. Martin and sang a song about their paper lanterns in exchange for candy.  Try as I might, I couldn’t get Martin to sing them for me now!

It was generally believed that St. Martin was a kind and quiet man who led a simple life.  The greatest legend was the story of the day he cut his cloak in half.  He gave half to a beggar during a snowstorm and thereby saved the beggar from freezing to death.  That night, he dreamed that the man he’d given the cloak to was actually Jesus.  St. Martin was often associated with ducks, geese, and white horses.  People in Germany ate goose; in the Czech Republic, they had duck.  We had leftovers.

Traditions at Home

St. Martin’s Day was a great day of celebration; it was also a day I completely forgot about.  We could have been eating some adorable Weckmänner (sweet bread men) that my husband remembers eating as a kid.  I found this recipe for them by a German expat, and we are totally having them next St. Martin’s Day! We saw one little boy and his dad carrying a paper lantern the other evening.  It was too cute!  But thinking like an American, I just thought they was carrying around a school project the boy was particularly attached to since I didn’t recognize the holiday.

The day would have completely passed us by if Martin hadn’t been receiving so many phone calls wishing him, “Happy Martinstag!”  We quickly dubbed an apple spice bread I’d made as The Namesake Day Cake.  (I was trying a new recipe for our upcoming Thanksgiving party.)

Future Traditions at Our Home (yes?)

Then I went to Wikipedia where the St. Martin article had a rather fascinating bit of information, at least to me:

Hehe.  St. Catherine’s Day is November 25th.  My Namesake!  It’s the holiday predominately associated with women while St. Martin’s celebrates men, so the two go hand-in-hand.  Aww.  St. Catherine’s Day is honored mostly in Estonia… but I’m kind of thinking there’s room for celebration in one little Berlin apartment with Weckfrauen that I know of…

Happy Namesake Day, Martin.

Want to see more German holidays… the ones we remembered?  Check out this autumn farmer’s market and the Christmas Markets!

(Images from The Local, Green Living, and Wikipedia)