Christkindlmarkt

Saturday

We got off to a really late start this morning. I had woken at about 5 am, but then gone back to sleep, and the next thing I knew it was about 9.45! Oh well, I guess we needed the sleep, and tomorrow we’ve got to be up pretty early! It was a gloomy and extremely blustery day, though reasonably mild. We finally got off to the gym towards noon, then afterwards we went to the Germania Society’s Christkindlmarkt over on the west side of town. There is a strong German heritage in Cincinnati and the Germania Society exists to “maintain and perpetuate the German heritage (in the cultural, educational, and social life of the German people)”. They sponsor several events throughout the year, MaiFest, Oktoberfest, Christkindlmarkt and two Volksmarch. There was German food, German music and various imported German things to buy, such as Christmas ornaments, advent calendars, cuckoo clocks, linens and beer steins. We left soon after 4 pm and at that time the rain was really starting to come down. All the food and shopping etc was under cover in big heated tents, but at 7pm they were supposed to be having a lantern procession in honour of Saint Martin. The feast day of Saint Martin is celebrated in many European countries on November 11th. Saint Martin lived 317-397 AD. and was a Roman soldier. He was always very generous, even giving away some of his military earnings to needy farm families. He is best remembered however for one special deed. One day he was returning to his home on his military horse when a beggar stepped into his path and asked him for alms. Martin had just given away his last coins, but he did not think it was right to just ride past the beggar, who he felt was in need of his help. So instead he chose to share his warm wool cloak with the beggar. He took his sword and cut the cloak in half, and gave half to the beggar. When we were living in France when our children were young, the school our two eldest went to, which had a German and an English section, used to celebrate this event. The children would make paper lanterns, and after school as it was getting dark, we would all process across the road and into a section of the forest, where the incident of Saint Martin and the beggar would be re-enacted. This was something I had almost forgotten about, until reading about it on the website stirred the old memory cells! This evening’s event was supposed to culminate around a bonfire, but judging from the weather at home around 7pm, I don’t think that would have happened! Maybe they would have postponed it till tomorrow!