Martini

Posting this on 11th November 2017. 60 years late.

Last night (10th Nov. 2017) a friendly soccer match was held at Wembley between England and Germany. Not sure how the British press categorises these "arch-rival" games, the German press simply call it a "Classic" event.

I ought to know better and not be annoyed but it got to me. A reporter from SkyNews interviewed a young, perhaps late teens, German supporter clearly of Asian background and a good English speaker. They asked if he knew what the poppies were that the English supporters were wearing. No, he replied and then in an indignant tone the reporter said "You don't know? Don't you have these in Germany?". As if to say don't you want to remember the world wars?. I just hope he was only doing "his duty" for the "camera" and thus the typical sensationalism required of "journalists" in modern Britain.

The Blip is me in Weinheim, near Heidelberg, Germany. Now I don't have any information as to my social diary that year and so have to try and piece it together from photos. I wish there had been Blip back then. On the reverse of many photos, my father has written in pencil a year but that's it and in fact on this one he has shown "58" but from the other photos around that time, all the others in Germany are dated 1957 and there is no doubt in my mind it was a mistake.

Being in Germany was not a normal event and not even an annual one. From what I can make out, after my birth in 1954 in Trinidad, my parents had their biennial leave in Europe in 1955 then 1957, 1959 - I am still working on further years. It looks from the other photos that my Mum and I spent several months and my father must have returned early after the normal 8 weeks.

On the back of the photo, my mother has written a note which was clearly for my father and she would have sent it to him by post. It simply says " George with his St Martin's lantern and pastry man around his neck".

Today the 11th November is for many countries in continental Europe, St Martins Day, Martinstag or in Bavaria and Austria "Martini" (being so scholarly they use the Latin - (Festum Sancti) Martini. The Roman soldier who turned Catholic in France and involuntarily Bishop of Tours after geese had given away his place of hiding - he didn't want to be Bishop!

The main tradition for which St Martins is known for is the very young children parading at dusk with lanterns after a church service to a central place, led by a horse and rider in Roman uniform with a red cloak (symbolises St Martin when still a Roman soldier giving a poor person his cloak to warm himself). There follow a warming drink and a small snack.

In line with the tradition, today is also a literal feast day - of roast goose - and fits well with it also being the traditional last day of the farming year when all the annual rents and overdue bills are paid. Geese also slaughtered as they were too expensive to keep alive over winter and no freezers back then.

And if that isn't enough, once the goose had been devoured, the ancient Advent started and lasted till 6th January - Fasting, quiet, reflection, no dancing or celebrating. In the 7thC, Advent was reduced to the period of the four Sundays before 25th December and in 1917 the church even officially abandoned the fasting requirement - presumably as the believers were dying of starvation in WWI.

Now hold tight - 11th November at 11:11 am, Carnival officially starts and is celebrated in the Carnival enclaves of Cologne, Duesseldorf, Mainz as well as parts of Switzerland, Austria, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg ....even in our nearby Memmingen, not that usual for very catholic Bavaria.

And in various other countries, it is a special day - independence in Angola, Columbia and Poland and so on.

The German Volkstrauertag (Remembrance day) is on Sunday, two weeks before first Advent Sunday - usually, Sunday closest to 16th.

Geotag is in my grandmother's garden where I assume my uncle Jochen took the photo. He was a keen photographer and I doubt my mother owned a camera.