Festival of light.

[sister_luck]

It's the time of year for festivals of light. Ours focuses on Martin of Tours. There is a procession with lanterns and the singing of songs dedicated to the festival and St. Martin riding in front, dressed in Roman uniform and once the procession returns to the place it started from - usually a city square or as it was the case with the suburb I lived in as a kid to the school playground - there's a bonfire and St. Martin rides around and then shares his cloak with a beggar. The re-enactment of this act of kindness is very important. Then the kids get a Weckmann and other sweets and may go and ring at people's houses in the neighbourhood, singing more songs in return for more sweets.

Not our lanterns; we focussed our energies on the pumpkin lantern this year.