St Martin's Festival

So sadly I am at home today, too sick to go to work. I have a horrible throat infection which started on Friday when I lost my voice at work, and probably wasn't helped by working yesterday, but there was no way I was going to miss out on work yesterday. Why? Because it was St Martin's Festival.

One of the best things about working/living in another country has got to be the ability to experience a different culture. Even better is working with kids in another country as I get to experience these special cultural events at a much deeper level, learning the entire history and participating in all the activities that go with it. And the Germans are so passionate about celebrating everything. You would have seen this in my earlier blog about Oktoberfest at school. For the Germans, it is not just about beer. It is about celebrating all that Bavaria has to offer, food & drink, music, family and a sense of coming together with complete strangers for fun. Children are included in all of it and thus, I truly loved experiencing Oktoberfest both with my students, and as an adult.

Michael and I first learnt about St Martin when our German Language school hosted a St Martin's festival back in June this year in Brisbane. It was honestly a huge disappointment due to bad organisation and lack of social togetherness. That and everyone just wanted to eat dinner already. One thing I have learnt here is NEVER come between a man and his Bratwurst!

So when I was told that St Martin's was approaching here in Munich, I was wary at first. But over the weeks leading up to it, I discovered the real story of St Martins, and I was also given the task in my classroom to create the lanterns with my students. Now the lanterns (Laterne) play a huge role in the evening event, as the students each create their lantern and carry it through the streets while singing St Martin's songs. I sat in consultation with each of my students and we discussed exactly what they wanted to make. I then helped them by drawing outlines for everything, but left them to do the cutting out for each body part. It might help at this point to say that my students all made an animal lantern.

So once all the cutting out had been done, and any cold gluing was done, I had to do the final joins with the hot glue gun, along with sticking on google eyes. But once they were finished, they looked amazing. I have included a selection of finished lanterns for you below! (I will add that they look even better lit up!)

 All the laterne lined up....

We made owls, frogs, penguins...

These are supposed to be lady bugs....

My personal favourite - elephants!

Some fish...

Snails....

And a hedgehog! (Ps: confusion central for me... these are called Egel - when I call a bird an eagle, my kids give me a strange look!)









So after weeks of creating lanterns, practising St Martin's songs and discussing the story of St Martin (who saved a beggar from death by cutting his cloak in half and giving the poor man one half, and was later made a Saint), we finally came to the official day. November 11 is St Martin's day and it all kicked off at 5pm.

All the parents arrived early and headed outside with their child and their child's lantern. We then gathered in our class groups and started our procession from the kindergarten down to the Englischer Garten. We made several stops along the way to sing a song. It was really lovely to see all the parents there to share the special night with the children. You can tell it is something that these families have celebrated themselves as kids and it is really important to them. We all came together and really enjoyed the experience.

Our procession of laterne through the gardens

 
We then made our way back to the kindergarten where there was a pony waiting outside with a miniature St Martin on his back. This excited the children no end, but the parents were more keen to get inside the garden for the final part of the celebration - and the nice hot cups of Gluwein!

At the end of the celebration, a special sweet bread in the shape of a man was handed to each student and they were encouraged to share it with their family, as St Martin had shared his bread and cloak with the beggar. It was a really lovely end to the night, with most children happily sharing and breaking bread with their family. Then there was the occasional child who looked at the bread, looked at mum and dad, looked back at the bread, then took a huge bite out of the man's head!

But by the end of the night, singing out in the cold frosty air with all my kids, already sick, of course I cam home and collapsed. Today I have no voice, I feel like I'm swallowing fire, and that fire keeps bursting out of my ears as well. Hoping my day of rest at home is enough and that I will be fighting fit by tomorrow.




 I took so many amazing photos but I have had to stick to the obscure photos as I cannot post my kids, obviously. But you should get an idea of how amazing it all looked.

Now I really cannot wait for the next big celebrations. December 6 is Nikolaus, and then we get ready for Christmas! The discussion at last week's staff meeting of how many Weinachtsbäume to purchase was met with sighs by most, except for me who was jumping up and down in the corner squealing 'Real Christmas Trees?!?' My staff either think I'm hilarious and cute, or else very sheltered!