St. Martin's Day

St. Martin's Day is a holiday, celebrated in Southern Germany on November 11 and it is like our Halloween, but more religious.

The holiday is based off of a religious legend, and one version goes like this; Martin, a Roman Solider, was traveling by horse through a snowstorm. He saw a beggar while traveling dying from the cold, so he decided to save him, he took his sword and cut his cloak in half, and gave half to the beggar. He dreamed latter that night about Jesus, he was wearing half of his cloak; Jesus turned out to be the beggar.

To celebrate this holiday the German children make lanterns out of paper either in their school or at home. On the night of St. Martin's children reenact the legend and then put candles in their paper lanterns to light their way, as they walk to different houses and sing. They ring the door bells and sing songs about St. Martin to the people that answer, in return the children get given candy (just like Halloween)!

Here is one of the songs the children sing.
Ich geh mit meiner Laterne und                                                         I go with my lantern and
Meine Laterne mit mir. Dort oben Leuchten die                       My lantern with me. There above light
Sterne, hier unten, da leuchten                                                         the stars, here below, there
wir. Mein Licht geht aus, wir gehn nach haus.              we light. My light goes out, we go back home    La-bim-mel, la-bam-mel, la-bum                                             La-bim-mel, la-bam-mel, la-bum