St. Martin's Day

Last night we celebrated the traditional German St. Martin's Day Lantern Walk. St. Martin lived in the 4th century and was a soldier in the Roman army. The story goes that St. Martin met a shivering beggar in Amiens and gave him half of his cloak. That evening Jesus appeared to him in a dream wearing the half cloak. He then decided to be baptized and two years later committed his life to the church. It was fascinating observing this tradition in Germany. We first gathered in this beautiful church with other families with young children. The Story of St. Martin was read (and of course being in German, we understood only a small portion). The kids sang a few songs and then all of the adorable handmade lanterns were lit. We then all left the church and Marched back to the school (where they served Pretzels and kinder punsch) with Lanterns and all. On the way we were surprised with the appearance of a white horse (which is part of the tradition). You can imagine it was quite neat to our kids - walking in the dark along the river with all of the lanterns lit and a mysterious white horse appears - Camden even whispered to me "Mommy, it feels like Christmas" It was a fun night and really neat to observe this well known tradition.