It was Martinstag, which celebrates the feast day of St. Martin. Traditionally, German children make paper lanterns, light them up, and walk from house to house, singing. The owners of the house are supposed to give them candy. It's a Catholic holiday, but one that the Protestants have adopted too (since they don't have as much fun).
St. Martin was a knight in Roman times, who is famous for cutting his cloak in half in order to share it with a beggar who was cold. The holiday also coincides with harvest time here, so there is a traditional family meal of goose or pork also.
Also happening on November 11th, starting at 11:11am, is carnival. This happens, again, mostly in Catholic towns where people have fun. But Hannover tries a little, and you can find more on Hannover carnival on my friend Kaska's blog.
I am a little confused about why carnival happens in November AND in February. I get the Mardi Gras/last day before fasting/Lent is about to start carnival. But November? The Germans are obviously not celebrating Armistice day on November 11th, which didn't work out so well for them in the end. As far as I can understand, it's the pre-game for the real carnival season. It's when the people who plan carnival events get together and, as carnival people must like to do, have a parade. What happens after that? They probably go to a bar in their funny hats to drink beer and do their planning, maybe while eating green cabbage and pork. I have no idea whether that's correct but this is Germany, so it's a pretty good guess.
So even though there's not a lot of trick-or-treating in Germany, at least the kids have a chance to horde candy. It just requires singing, crafts, and a little fire safety.
No comments:
Post a Comment