St. Martin's Day Lanternelaufen

If there's one thing I really love about living in Germany it's partaking in all the customs and traditions with the locals that aren't normally celebrated back in the States. At the beginning of November we joined local Germans in celebrating Martinstag, or St. Martin's Day. The actual feast day is November 11 but it is commonly celebrated sometime during the first two weeks of the month with a lantern walk. Martin was a Roman soldier who, legend says, used his sword to slash his cloak in two to spare a beggar from freezing to death on a cold night. The story is often used to teach children about the value of sharing with others.

I'm not sure where the lantern procession figures into that story but children make their own lanterns (usually in kindergarten) or buy one pre-made from a toy store. Then the families gather in town where a man dressed as the aforementioned Roman soldier, usually on horseback, leads the procession. At the end there are snacks and something warm to drink. Our friends Heidi and Rocco invited us to join them and their son Kyle for Böblingen's annual Lanternelaufen on November 2nd. The night before we had them over for dinner and Heidi was kind enough to bring supplies to make our own, a pre-made lantern for Ellie along with a wonderful children's book explaining the tradition, to also include some German St. Martin songs. We are so lucky to have friends introduce us to these German customs!

It was a lovely, somewhat balmy evening and we were treated to a band playing some of those songs before the procession began.

St. Martin on horseback!

My homemade lantern!

Ellie and her lantern.

A few of the lanterns were very elaborate -- this one was on a hand-drawn wagon!

The pictures don't really do it justice, but what a memorable sight it was seeing all those little lights bobbing along into the distance.