St. Martin's Day

    St. Martin's Day at the Landmark Center

 

      Typically celebrated on the 11th of November, St. Martin's Day is the feast day for Saint Martin of Tours. St. Martin was known as a friend of the poor and of children. The holiday originated in France and then spread to Germany and throughout Europe. The holiday coincides with the beginning of the harvest and thus the feasting of the fruits from the year's efforts. More modern traditions involved a pig roast, getting together with family and friends, and a procession of children with lanterns following "St Martin" on horseback.

    

       The Landmark Center Event held today was mostly focused on the German traditions with the holiday. The majority of the event was held within the Landmark Center itself and the sight of the mostly empty park was discouraging as we crossed Rice Park to enter the center, however upon entry we discovered the inside was packed! We opted to stand and listen to the speakers rather than to, fruitlessly I'm sure attempt to find a seat in the hall. I was also determinably avoiding the booths that were selling German lessons, etc.

 

     The speakers talked about some of the German traditions and why the event is held and whom helped organize it and so on and so forth, exciting stuff. There was a long list to the event which mostly involved children singing or putting on little skits. That being said, this most certainly was a family event and based on the amount of German being spoken around us, a very German-focused event. Needless to say, me and Todd without kids and without speaking a lick of German felt a tad out of place. Also, the children singing German got a little old and about half-way through the third song we ditched to go get tacos down the street.

 

    Yes, we ditched for an hour. I'm not going to say it was solely due to the children singing but... yea it pretty much was. I'm sure if your own child was involved it was interesting, adorable or tolerable but being that I knew none of them I just searched for the exits. I was mostly disappointed how long the events were inside. Yea, I know it was cold but the winter carnival is mostly outdoors and in January also this is Minnesota I might add. I was expecting "Sundays in the park "to actually be in the park and only some of it was.

 

    After a few tacos and a drink or two at Barrio we trekked back in time for the main event, the processional. This was pretty fun, although St Martin was a little late to the party. When he did show up, and by he I mean a kid dressed up as him on horseback the event really took off. St Martin trekked around Rice Park with all the children with their LED light up lanterns (authenticity over safety here) following him, singing in German again. Once he reached the front steps to the Landmark Center they turned on the lights in Rice Park. I wish the whole event had simply been this because it was rather fun.

 

 

 

   In short, it was a fun family event for young children with either a German background or an interest in German culture. I think it was a little too long to be sure and that the hour and half event list inside could have been shortened up to allow more time spent outside. Also our tacos were delicious, thanks Barrio :)  Final shout-out to the man who ran into me on the completely deserted street on our walk back and then suddenly walked away pretending he was jogging in his jeans and puffy jacket. Yea, I wasn't wearing a purse, sucker! Nice try, though, but you need to steal a pair of glasses first, there wasn't anything to grab!