Sundays in My City

This year we celebrated our first St. Martin's Tag in our new neighborhood.







This is a holiday that has a horse in its history. The legend is St. Martin rode through the town on his white horse, and came across a beggar with no clothes.









Since it was wintertime, St. Martin took his sword and sliced his robe in half, giving half to the beggar.







For hundreds of years, this scene has been re-enacted, with children following the horse through the town, singing.














They all carry home-made lanterns, really a beautiful sight.















My man can sing the song, I didn't understand all of it. It was about lanterns and St. Martin. If I had a childhood in Germany, I'd be singing about the horse he rode. The children go door to door, expecting candy just like Halloween.

My first winter here, I witnessed a re-enactment, with a friend wearing a red robe and riding her horse through the streets, followed by about 200 children with lanterns. That was really something! Afterwards, at the riding stable, there were pony rides for the kids, a fire, and gluehwein to keep us warm. Wish I had photos from that year!

For this holiday in My City, homes have homemade lanterns hanging in the windows, and candles burning on the front steps.





This year, my man had a PTA meeting on that night. Bad timing! I had a huge amount of candy, and I was excited about giving it out! What to do...

He phoned the neighbors (with the terrier) and said, "My wife doesn't know what to expect on her first St. Martin's Tag in this town. Can she come over?" They agreed.

At 5 pm the phone rang, it was Petra, saying, "The coffee's ready!" so I fed Baasha dinner right then and ran over, with my huge supply of assorted candy. I sat down to a fine china coffee experience, and ate my first Weckmann.

That is a big man-shaped donut....kind of a mix between soft white bread and a Krispy Kreme. You can only buy them around this holiday time. I couldn't really put my finger on it, so is the case often with new foods. (You try to categorize the taste by what you have in your "food memory", and often come up with nothing!) The coffee was typical knock-you-down variety, love it.

From the window we could see kids, and the singing got closer and closer and we all ran down the steps to give out candy. I noticed Norbert, Petra's husband, had a fancy tray of shot glasses and a bottle of something. That was for the grown ups.


How sweet, the kids got their bags filled with candy, and the grown ups got to sample liquer from each house! See, I would have missed that if I had been home. These two little girls' lanterns were emitting a dim pink light, that you cannot see thanks to my camera flash. They were precious. The ladies seemed to like the schnapps Norbert handed them.

Petra told them, "Don't bother stopping at (lytha's) house, she's here with us tonight."

Little Nils from next door was surprised to see me there, and he said hello to me. He was the only kid who knew me, I think.

What was that strange liquer, I was so curious. After the coffee was gone, they proudly poured me a tiny shotglass (it had a picture of the Alps on it, quaint!).

It was homemade blackberry liquer. I found it incredibly sweet. They said, "Too sweet?" and ran down to the cellar to get more. Lots more. There were about 7 bottles of varying colors, with dates stuck on them. I tried their homemade raspberry and thought it was the best. I am very leery about homemade stuff, I never know if I will survive the tasting experience.

There was also walnut liquer! Peach, plum, anise (jagermeister?) and currant liquer. Isabel brought a bottle of champagne to share with us (she's 18). I asked them how they made the liquers, curious about the fermenting process. It turns out they just add berries and sugar to schnapps. *chuckle* OK then.

I asked if they had a nutcracker cuz I have so many walnuts from our trees, and I don't know where one gets a nutcracker around here. Norbert brought out his nutcracker and my mouth fell open.

I said, "That's OK, nevermind! Take it away, please!" Petra laughed and laughed at what a shock he had given my American sensibilites...it's true. I was horrified.

My man joined us later (they enjoyed telling him about my reaction to the nutcracker), and he had them laughing as he quoted some of his cabaret skits. Petra said, "I knew it, that is why your man is always so funny, he is part of a cabaret!"

We probably overstayed our welcome, but they are such good company. What a fun night. Next year, we may just repeat the experience!

You can read about other Sundays in people's cities here.