Frontier Dreams: The spirit of Martinmas

Monday, November 12, 2012

The spirit of Martinmas

The true spirit of Martinmas!

My little angel in the Martinmas Pageant (looking like a football player due to this Mama making her wear a jacket in the 40 degree weather. Mean Mama!)

Lantern walk after the pageant

Discovering what a tough job squirrels have trying to open our warm roasted chestnuts after the walk

Our Martinmas dinner set up

The warmth of the fire after our family Martinmas walk

We had quite a Martinmas weekend. On Friday K's school had their Martinmas pageant in the amphitheater at Reed college. Such a picturesque setting for it. After the pageant we all went on a lantern walk around the beautiful campus and ended with some warm roasted chestnuts to heat us up. It was darker out than my pictures make it appear. I am in between shooting in aperture priority mode and manual right now. It was too dark for my aperture priority settings so I decided to try only manual that night. As I am sure you can tell - there was a lot of trial and (mostly) error.

Our family celebration for Martinmas involved lots of lanterns glowing with candlelight around our home, a family lantern walk in the rain and telling Saint Martin's story by the fire. I somehow misplaced my Saint Martin story that I have read to my children over the years so I took pieces from the stories in All Year Round and Festivals, Family and Food and made them into one. No complaints were made so I guess it worked.

Today made me think of what Martinmas means. It reminded me that I need to be doing more service for our community and being a better example for my children. I would like to look into soup kitchens around here to see if any of them might allow little ones to serve along side me. I don't think C is ready for that yet, but K is without a doubt. She tells me that she wants to help others her whole life. It's my job to nurture that desire and help her fulfill it.

I hope you all had a warm and meaningful Martinmas today (as well as Veterans day - an important day of remembrance).

Comments (14)

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Nicole · 641 weeks ago

What a lovely celebration, certainly one of my families favorites!
Nicole, would you share how your lanterns were created?

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3 replies · active 640 weeks ago

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FrontierDreams 111p · 641 weeks ago

Sure! Which ones were you looking for in particular?

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Nicole · 641 weeks ago

I was looking at the ninth photo down of your little one holding the (looks like paper) lantern on the end of a dowel.
Thanks Nicole!! : )

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FrontierDreams 111p · 640 weeks ago

K made that one in class but she said it was really simple - a piece of watercolor paper folder in to thirds and glued closed. Then the windows were cut out and kite paper attached to the back of them. A triangle was cut out of cardboard and attached in the bottom.

That's all I got out of her... does that help at all?

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Marcy:A Simple Life · 641 weeks ago

We were a bit lantern crazed this year! They're so beautiful and invoke a lovely spirit of reverence. We made several lanterns this week including the one you posted a few days ago! Thank you for sharing it (and your beautiful blog) with all of us xo

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1 reply · active 640 weeks ago

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FrontierDreams 111p · 640 weeks ago

Oh how fun!! So glad to hear you made ours.

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jeanene · 641 weeks ago

Your little ones have grown! A sweet little celebration - so precious.

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1 reply · active 640 weeks ago

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FrontierDreams 111p · 640 weeks ago

Yes, indeed! XO

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Amy Caroline · 641 weeks ago

I think we are going to have to go on our Martinmas walk late this year since we are all so sick. Your day looked so lovely!

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Cynthia · 641 weeks ago

How magical! I love seeing how Martinmas is celebrated in different areas of the world. We also had a beautiful Martinmas filled weekend and my little ones woke up today singing the chorus of "I go outside with my lantern" Boom Boom! It makes me think they must have dreamt about their walk last night and woke up with the song still in their little heads, they are too young to understand what Martinmas is but they know they did something special, walking in the dark with the older children bringing their special lights with them. It really is such a beautiful holiday!

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Jennifer · 641 weeks ago

Lovely celebrations. We lucked out in that both nights of our lantern walk were beautiful and clear.

As for community service, our local food bank in the city has a garden just outside of the city that farmers have given pieces of their land to grow food so that the food bank can have fresh affordable veggies. Anyway, the last few years, they put a call out to harvest and we have gone carrot picking. It was tremendous fun and all ages were welcome. Maybe look to see if something like that exists there? I found it a wonderful way to help out, but gentle enough for the littles. My oldest still asks when we can go again.

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gabriela · 641 weeks ago

Lovely!!! I found your blog only recently and have loved reading about everything you do. Keep up the inspiration :).... Wishing you a lovely week.

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Sarah · 641 weeks ago

Lovely! Thank you for sharing. Our Martinmas here: http://sarah-ourislandhome.blogspot.ca/2012/11/ma...

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Kathy · 641 weeks ago

I'd like to invite you to join me at the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week! http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/11/clever-c...

I hope to see you there!
Cheers!
Kathy Shea Mormino
The Chicken Chick

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