The People of Christmas: St. Martin

St. Martin? Has he something to do with Christmas?

 

Well, peripherally!

 

St. Martin of Tours was originally a soldier, and it is ironic that his feast day falls on November 11, the anniversary of the Armistice that ended the first World War. Martin was a cavalryman, well mounted and well clad, but when he came upon a ragged man shivering for lack of clothing in the snow, he sliced his voluminous cloak in half and gave it to the man. That night he dreamed of Jesus wearing the half cloak and saying to a contingent of angels, "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is now baptized; he has clothed me." Martin converted to Christianity and later became a bishop.

 

His association with Christmas is that the preparatory season of Advent used to be forty days, the same as old Christmastide and the same as Lent, and began on his feast day, Martinmas.

 

In European countries, Martinmas marks the end of the harvest season. Livestock that had multiplied during the summer and which could not be fed during the winter was butchered and preserved by salting or smoking, and farmers would provide cakes and ale for the harvesters. Now that farm work was over, the laborers would attend Martinmas hiring fares to find positions for the winter.

 

Waterfowl are also involved in Martinmas celebrations. As at Michaelmas, a goose is usually eaten as part of the feasting. This alludes to the part of Martin's story where he did almost everything to avoid becoming a bishop, prefering to spread the gospel his own way. Martin hid in a pen of geese as a last resort, but the geese raised such a racket that he was given away. Weather forecasting is associated with the holiday, as it is on Candlemas, or, as it's known in the US, Groundhog Day. According to folklore, if Martinmas is cold and icy, the winter that follows will be milder, all through Candlemas. This is alluded to in a poem:

 

"Ice before Martinmas,

Enough to bear a duck,

The rest of winter,

Is sure to be but muck."

 

In other words, if the water is frozen over so that a duck cannot break through the ice on Martinmas, the remainder of the winter will be mild.

 

Snow on St. Martin's day is greeted with the exclamation: "Here comes St. Martin on his white horse!"

 

St. Martin of Tours 

 

Martinstag and St. Martin 

 

Historic UK: Martinmas

 

Slovenia Incognita: Martinmas 

The Tudor Society: The Feast of Martinmas

Martinmas

Celebrated on November 11, "Martinmas" is the feast day of St. Martin of Tours, a Roman shoulder who showed kindness to a barely-clad poor man by giving him half of his voluminous Roman cloak. In a dream, Martin found out the "beggar" he had helped was Jesus Christ in disguise, who had baptized him as a Christian. He later became a bishop.

Martinmas was originally the beginning of a fasting season that lasted from November 11 through the Epiphany (forty days, like Lent, with Saturday and Sunday as free from fasting). This period has been known as "Old Advent." Later, Advent was shortened to the four-week period it holds now, although some Christian churches are calling for a return to the forty-day fasting period as in Lent.

A traditional food for Martinmas is roast goose. It was said Martin, a modest man, did not feel himself worthy to be a bishop, so he hid from the elders sent to inform him of the appointment by secreting himself in a goose pen. However, the honking and chattering of the goose gave him away.

St. Martin is traditionally shown riding a white horse (probably a dapple grey horse that has grown white with age), and the saying "St. Martin is coming on his white horse" is used in some European countries to indicate that it is going to snow. Agriculturally, St. Martin's Day represents the first day of winter, so the saying is very apt.

Martinmas is still celebrated extensively in Europe, especially Germany and eastern European countries. The Germans light bonfires in his honor. Beef can also be a traditional meal on Martinmas since, as the beginning of winter, you would have to dispassionately calculate how many animals you could support during the cold season, so cows, pigs, sheep, and other livestock might be slaughtered and preserved at Martinmas so others would survive and so the humans would have food to eat during a time of year when crops did not grow.

St. Martin's Day

St. Martin's Day, also known as "Martinmas" or "Martinstag," is a celebration based around St. Martin of Tours, a soldier who later became a saint. He is best known for having given half his cloak to a beggar who was thinly clad on a freezing day. He later left the military and devoted his life to helping the poor. In Europe the holiday is celebrated with lanterns and roast goose.

Back when the season of Advent, like Lent, was forty days and involved fasting, Martinmas was a last feast before November 15. In some parts of Germany, "Here comes St. Martin on his white horse," means it's about to snow.

More about Martinmas:

About St. Martin of Tours

St. Martin's Day Traditions in Bavaria

Martinstag

Fish Eaters: Martinmas

St. Martin's Day in Ireland

St. Martin's Day (mouse over the photos to see the full images)

And appropriate for a Martinmas Day:


Christmas 1914: The First World War at Home and Abroad, John Hudson
I found this book in a discount book catalog and ordered it thinking it might be another book about the Christmas Truce, judging by the soldiers on the cover, and was pleasantly surprised to find it addressed Christmas in Great Britain (specifically in England) in all its aspects, including the Christmas Truce and also about the famous Princess Mary box, a gift that was sent to all of the soldiers serving (I was surprised on finding out after all these years how truly tiny it was!). In the process, it covered aspects of World War I that I had never heard of before, including zeppelin raids on the famous British beach Scarborough and other North Sea sites. Chapters are devoted to members of football/cricket clubs and military schools who joined up together only to have their ranks decimated by the war, the efforts of British women and girls (and even elderly men and invalided males) to knit items to keep their "boys" warm in the trenches (this includes a discussion of "trench foot" that would have horrified females of that day), Christmas fêtes given for the soldiers, Belgian refugees on British soil, meeting Germans who had once been employed in England, and other memories wistful (families celebrating without a son or slon-in-law or father) or terrifying (early, uncensored reports of the carnage). Vintage postcards and photographs fill out this unique little book. As a history buff I enjoyed this.