Saint Martin's Day or Martinmas (obsolete: Martlemas), and historically called Old Halloween or Old All Hallows Eve, is the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours and is celebrated in the liturgical year on 11 November. In the Middle Ages and early modern period, it was an important festival in many parts of Europe, particularly Germanic-speaking regions. In these regions, it marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter and the "winter revelling season". Traditions include feasting on 'Martinmas goose' or 'Martinmas beef', drinking the first wine of the season, and mumming. In some German and Dutch-speaking towns, there are processions of children with lanterns (), sometimes led by a horseman representing St Martin. The saint was also said to bestow gifts on children. In the Rhineland, it is also marked by lighting bonfires.
Origins Martin of Tours (died 397) was a Roman soldier who was baptized as an adult and became a bishop in Gaul. He is best known for the legend whereby he cut his cloak in half with his sword to give half to a beggar who was dressed in only rags in the depth of winter. That night Martin had a vision of Jesus Christ wearing the half-cloak.
In his study Medieval English Martinmesse: The Archaeology of a Forgotten Festival, Martin Walsh suggests that 'Martinmas' had roots in a pre-Christian festival marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter. In the ancient Roman world, 10 November was reckoned as the beginning of winter, while among the Insular Celtic peoples, it was marked by the 1 November festival of or .
Customs
Traditionally, in many parts of Europe, St Martin's Day marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. The feast coincides with the end of the Octave of Allhallowtide.
Feasting and drinking Martinmas was traditionally when livestock were slaughtered for winter provision. It may originally have been a time of animal sacrifice, as the Old English name for November was ('sacrifice month').
Goose is eaten at Martinmas in most places. There is a legend that St Martin, when trying to avoid being ordained bishop, hid in a pen of geese whose cackling gave him away. Once a key medieval autumn feast, a custom of eating goose on the day spread to Sweden from France. It was primarily observed by the craftsmen and noblemen of the towns. In the peasant community, not everyone could afford this, so many ate duck or hen instead.
In winegrowing regions of Europe, the first wine was ready around the time of Martinmas. Although there was no mention of a link between St Martin and winegrowing by Gregory of Tours or other early hagiographers, St Martin is widely credited in France with helping to spread winemaking throughout the region of Tours (Touraine) and facilitating vine-planting. The old Greek tale that Aristaeus discovered the advantage of pruning vines after watching a goat, has been appropriated to St Martin.For instance, in Hugh Johnson, Vintage: The Story of Wine 1989, p 97. He is credited with introducing the Chenin blanc grape, from which most of the white wine of western Touraine and Anjou is made.
Bonfires and lanterns
Bonfires are lit on St Martin's Eve in the Rhineland region of Germany. In the 15th century, these bonfires were so numerous that the festival was nicknamed ('spark day').Miles, Clement A. (1912). Christmas in Ritual and Tradition. Chapter 7: All Hallow Tide to Martinmas. Reproduced by Internet Sacred Text Archive. In the 19th century it was recorded that young people danced around the fire and leapt through the flames, and that the ashes were strewn on the fields to make them fertile.
In some German and Dutch-speaking towns, there are nighttime processions of children carrying paper lanterns or turnip lanterns and singing songs of St Martin. These processions are known in German as .
Gift-bringers
In parts of Flanders and the Rhineland, processions are led by a man on horseback representing St Martin, who may give out apples, nuts, cakes or other sweets for children. Historically, in Ypres, children hung up stockings filled with hay on Martinmas Eve, and awoke the next morning to find gifts in them. These were said to have been left by St Martin as thanks for the fodder provided for his horse.
In the Swabia and Ansbach regions of Germany, a character called ('pelt Martin' or 'skin Martin') appeared at Martinmas until the 19th century. With a black face and wearing a cow bell, he ran about frightening children, and he dealt out blows as well as nuts and apples.
Eve of St Martin's Lent In the 6th century, church councils began requiring fasting on all days, except Saturdays and Sundays, from the day after Saint Martin's Day to Epiphany (elsewhere, the Feast of the Three Wise Men for the stopping of the star over Bethlehem)per on January 6 (a total of 56 days). An addition to and an equivalent to the 40 days fasting of Lent, given its weekend breaks, this was called (Saint Martin's Lent, or literally 'the fortieth of').Philip H. Pfatteicher, Journey into the Heart of God (Oxford University Press 2013 ) This fasting is rarely observed now. This period was later shortened to begin on the Sunday before December and became the current Advent within a few centuries.
In the Archdiocese of Milan, Italy, according to Ancient Ambrosian Liturgical usage, the feast of St Martin is followed by the First Sunday in Advent (the 6 week period is still used in this large Diocese and the Churches outside it, such as in Ticino (Switzerland) that do still use the Ambrosian Rite.(Missale Ambrosianum Federici Borromeo pubd. Venice 1609)
Celebrations by culture Germanic Austrian In Austria, St Martin's Day is celebrated similar to Germany. The nights before and on the night of 11 November, children walk in processions carrying lanterns, which they made in school, and sing Martin songs."November", Permanent Mission if Austria to the UN is celebrated as a collective festival. It marks the end of the wine-growers’ year. Events include art exhibitions, wine tastings, and live music. (roasted goose) is the traditional dish of the season.
As Saint Martin of Tours is patron saint of Burgenland, a federal state in Austria, November 11th is a holiday by state law in Burgenland.
Dutch and Flemish
is an old harvest festival that is celebrated in many European countries and precedes the fasting period of Advent. In the Netherlands, on the evening of 11 November, children went door to door with lanterns made of hollowed-out sugar beet. This has been replaced by paper lanterns, usually crafted by themselves. They sing songs such as "", to receive sweets or fruit in return."St. Martin’s Day (Sint-Maarten)", City Hotel, Amsterdam In the past, poor people would visit farms on 11 November to get food for the winter. In the 1600s, the city of Amsterdam held boat races on the IJ, where 400 to 500 light craft, both rowing boats and sailboats, took part with a vast crowd on the banks. St Martin is the patron saint of the cities of Utrecht and Groningen.
In Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, St Martin's Eve is celebrated on the evening of 10 November, mainly in West Flanders and around Ypres. Children go through the streets with paper lanterns and candles, and sing songs about St Martin. Sometimes, a man dressed as St Martin rides on a horse in front of the procession.Thomson, George William. Peeps At Many Lands: Belgium, Library of Alexandria, 1909 In Wervik, children go from door to door, singing traditional "Séngmarténg" songs, sporting a hollow beetroot with a carved face and a candle inside called "Bolle Séngmarténg";"Saint-Martin’s day", Hauts de Flandre Office de Tourisme they gather at an evening bonfire.
English and Scottish In Scotland, Martinmas became one of the legal ‘term and quarter days’ when rent had to be paid and farm leases were commonly terminated. Although 11 November, traditional Martinmas, was the quarter day for centuries, in the 20th century by statute the Martinmas term day changed to 28 November and this is now in the Term and Quarter Days (Scotland) Act 1990. The legal quarter days are different in England. Martinmas was widely celebrated on 11 November in medieval and early modern England. In his study Medieval English Martinmesse: The Archaeology of a Forgotten Festival, Martin Walsh describes Martinmas as a festival marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter. He suggests it had pre-Christian roots. Martinmas ushered in the "winter revelling season" and involved feasting on the meat of livestock that had been slaughtered for winter provision (especially 'Martlemas beef'), drinking, storytelling, and mumming. It was a time for saying farewell to travelling ploughmen, who shared in the feast along with the harvest-workers.
According to Walsh, Martinmas eventually died out in England as a result of the English Reformation, the emergence of Guy Fawkes Night (5 November), as well as changes in farming and the Industrial Revolution. According to folklore, if the weather is warm on St Martin's Day, then a harsh winter will follow."Martinmas", Historic UK Today, 11 November is Remembrance Day.
German
A widespread custom in Germany is to light bonfires, called , on St. Martin's Eve. In recent years, the processions that accompany those fires have been spread over almost a fortnight before Martinmas (). At one time, the Rhine River valley would be lined with fires on the eve of Martinmas. In the Rhineland, St. Martin's Day is traditionally celebrated with a feast of goose."St. Martin’s Day Traditions", Germanfood.org
The nights before and on the eve itself, children walk in processions called , carrying lanterns, which they made in school, and sing St. Martin's songs. Usually, the walk starts at a church and goes to a public square. A man on horseback representing St. Martin accompanies the children. When they reach the square, Martin's bonfire is lit and Martin's pretzels are distributed.
In the Rhineland, the children also go from house to house with their lanterns, sing songs and get candy in return. The origin of the procession of lanterns is unclear. To some, it is a substitute for the Martinmas bonfire, which is still lit in a few cities and villages throughout Europe. It formerly symbolized the light that holiness brings to the darkness, just as St Martin brought hope to the poor through his good deeds. Even though the bonfire tradition is gradually being lost, the procession of lanterns is still practiced.
A ('St Martin's goose') is typically served on St. Martin's Eve following the procession of lanterns. is usually served in restaurants, roasted, with red cabbage and dumplings.
The traditional sweet of Martinmas in the Rhineland is , a pastry shaped in the form of a croissant, which recalls both the hooves of St. Martin's horse and, by being the half of a pretzel, the parting of his mantle. In some areas, these pastries are instead shaped like men ( or ).
St Martin's Day is also celebrated in German Lorraine and Alsace, which border the Rhineland and are now part of France. Children receive gifts and sweets. In Alsace, in particular the Haut-Rhin mountainous region, families with young children make lanterns out of painted paper that they carry in a colourful procession up the mountain at night. Some schools organize these events, in particular schools of the Rudolf Steiner (Waldorf education) pedagogy.
German American