I didn't think we would manage it but somehow we pulled off a pretty nice Martinmas this year. We tied our celebration in with C's 2nd grade Saints and Heroes main lesson, which worked out quite nicely. I had plan to make wool lanterns but then we decided to scratch that idea when we remembered how strong the wind was on last year's lantern walk. We went with simple watercolor painted lanterns instead. They seemed a bit sturdier and up to the challenge. Little L decided he didn't want to make a lantern this year so he used his one from last year instead. Nara was the dog of choice for this Martinmas and she wore her SAR blinking light on her harness as her lantern.
The children all donned St. Martin cloaks for a couple of photographs but then changed into some winter coats for the actual walk. The weather was much more agreeable this year and we actually became quite hot on our walk. Even so, the children still wanted their traditional hot apple cider and roasted chestnuts when we returned home (by lantern light, of course!).
K serenaded us with Martinmas songs on her flute before we all headed off to bed. I thought I would share one of them with all of you:
Laterne, Laterne
Laterne, Laterne
Sonne, Mond und Sterne Brenne auf,
mein Licht, Brenne auf,
mein Licht Aber nur meine liebe Laterne nicht.
I can't speak or sing German but K sings this quite beautifully.The English version is known as My Lantern and can be found in the Wynstones Press Autumn book.
