St. Martin's Day

These past weeks have been a flurry of activity to prepare for the annual St. Martin's celebrations. These are a big deal for the little kids, who spend hours preparing paper lanterns (with varying degrees of help from the mothers). The children will meet after dark (i.e. 4:45pm at this time of year) for a procession through the village. In the olden days these lanterns would be lit by candles; but as every adult can remember the heartbreak of a friend's lantern engulfed in flames, everyone uses specially purchased battery powered lantern rod & light combinations.

After the parade, in which the children sing the traditional St. Martin's songs about his generous exploits to the accompaniment of a small marching band, there is a bonfire. St. Martin, who's been shadowing the parade the whole time on this horse, comes to the front and re-enacts the famous St. Martin-and-the-Beggar story (see picture). Then he hands out to all the children a kind of slightly sweet pastry in the shape of a man carrying a clay pipe, called a Weckmann. I've read this is supposed to represent Martin, who was a bishop, and the clay pipe is an inverted Bishop's crook.

After this activity (which is usually accompanied by Glühwein, or mulled wine, for the grown ups), the kids go door to door with their lanterns, singing for the homeowners and collecting candy. This has been going on for generations though, so unlike a lot of things here the Germans can't blame an American cultural trait (here: Halloween). And I must say: the kids' haul was much bigger, for less "work", than in the U.S.!

St. Martin is apparently a popular saint throughout Europe. It's always pointed out that the festival is a good chance to teach the kids the power of sharing, but splitting of a cloak in half to share with someone who has NOTHING seems a rather shaky platform on which to build an entire festival! I'm also not sure what the significance of the lanterns is; probably descended from some pagan ritual.

In my more cynical moments I wonder: If Valentine's Day is a "Hallmark Holiday", and Christmas is encouraged by the toy and luxury good industry, then is St. Martin's Day pushed by the paper products industry? Somebody has to buy all that construction and transparent paper!

But it's still really cool.

Interesting note: at 11:11 a.m., on Nov. 11 (11/11), Karneval season officially opens. New royalty is named, and slowly, very slowly, Karneval activities begin, like Sitzungen (literally: A Seating), which is sort of a series of corny stand-up comedy acts in a beer-hall type setting.

Picturs of the lanterns to follow.

Peter can drive a pen.

Well, the boy passed trial number 2 this week, successfully obtaining his Fountain Pen Driver's License. His teacher felt his chicken scratching was real handwriting. How am I supposed to know - I can't read this (*&$%@($ "simplified" handwriting the kids have to learn. In my defense, other parents I talk to (including my German teacher) can barely decipher it either.

P. insists on having the License with him in class, to prove to the other children that he is worthy. Although, he did point out the down side - now he MUST use the fountain pen, whereas before he might choose his implement.

Now onto trial number 3: Judo.

Ein Hattrick.

Big week for Peter.

Monday we met his swimming teacher for a swimming test. He passed and is now the proud owner of a 'Seepferdchen' - or little sea horse - certification. Thursday at swim class he will get his patch, which I, or someone who actually knows the sharp end of a needle from the dull, will sew onto his swim trunks. To achieve this he had to jump into the water, swim the pool end to end, and back (25 meters each way), and dive down to retrieve a ring.

I believe the certification is called little sea horse because of the way Peter swam - only a little offset from vertical, with his feet doing little else than providing a little upward force. Reminded me, in fact, of a sea horse's style. His arms did all the work. But he never gave up, and even did an extra set of laps just to show off (ok, maybe because his teacher told him to).

The next test of the week was to get his 'Füllerführerschein' - or fountain pen driver's license - in school. The German schools still encourage the use of fountain pens because it's believed that it encourages the children to be more careful in writing. Indeed, his handwriting with the fountain pen is better than with a pencil, but he always has blue splotches on his hands as a result. He has a special 'beginner' fountain pen, suitably colorful. After weeks of agonizing, Peter finally finished up the last few sentences of the text he was supposed to copy 'error free'. This means only that he had to catch and correct all his errors before the teacher did.

Friday: We'll see if he manages to go from his White belt in Judo to his White-Gold belt. Nowadays they have intermediate steps for the little ones so they don't have to wait years between promotions. Wouldn't it be nice if real life was like that?

Btw: The title's not a typo; it's Denglish for Hat Trick.