4 thoughts on “St. Martin’s Eve / Vor Martinstag

  1. Is it celebrated in Germany, too? In Denmark, where it’s called Sankt Mortens aften (St Martin’s Evening), people eat duck. (It used to be goose, for obvious reasons, but nowadays it’s duck.)

    Well, it’s mainly the elderly who uphold the tradition. And school children are taught the story of the unwilling bishop-to-be, St Martin in France, who hid with geese – but they gave him away, resulting in him becoming a bishop against his will. And that’s why people eat goose. (Or duck, nowadays.)

    Rather unchristian and vengeful, if you ask me…

  2. Yes, they have it in Germany too – see Wikipedia. There are processions of children carrying lanterns on the evening of the 10th. There is also, in Franconia, a character called Pelzm

  3. Oh yeah, that’s when Hoppeditz wakes up, isn’t it?

    Just wanted to correct myself: here it’s called Mortensaften or Mortens aften (as one word or two, it seems), but without the Saint part. I didn’t want to leave that uncorrected!

  4. It’s called (non-liqueur) Martinigans in Vienna/Austria. Finding a crispy roast version with plenty of red kraut and dumplings is proving quite hard from year to year. A Czech restaurant last night came up with a passable version.

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