Laterna,Laterna~!

I had no school today although it was an official first day of school. I had the opportunity to stay in bed until the sunlight woke me up. I was asked to play the trumpet for a St. Martins parade, a religious Christian event  at Rebecca's Mother's kindergarden in the evening. It was like a mini marching band for the festival.

The festival is actually to remember the deeds of a Man, St. Martin. St. Martin was riding on his horse in his red cloak on a cold day. On the way, he saw a beggars by the streets. He decided to share his red cloak to the beggars on the street by splitting it up into pieces in order to make sure that some of them have part of the material. The tradition here is that children light up lanterns, sing the Martin songs and walk around the neighbourhood, knocking on doors asking for sweets or treats. It is not really necessary for the children to knock on doors asking for things but they celebrate it in kindergardens with the lanterns, walking about and singing. After the walking about around the neighbourhood, they light up a bon fire and the children are distributed with this Weckmann (a bread made from yeast dough and raisins). The Kindergarden had a small ceremony where one of the kids was dressed as St. Martin riding on a pony, and the other two as beggars. They repeated the scene according to the story.

I have been practising for the whole week for just 5 simple songs, so that I can sound better. That is the consequence for being lazy.  On the way, I met up with Leonie. She was in the same tram as me, it took me a while for me to notice that she was standing just right in front of me. Of course, her back was facing me. Suprisingly, I managed to talk more than usual. It was really pleasant.  We were a group of five girls. A flutist, Saxophonist, Baritone player and 2 trumpeter. It was really cool that we managed to get together to help Rebecca's mother. They always had professional bands in the previous years but some misunderstood between the two parties resulted in desicion of the orchestra to not take part in this event. She said something wrong but she was not meant to be so. That is how I ended up taking part in this cultural event. After the practice, Rebecca offered her self-baked Apfeltaschen ( yeast dough made in to a pillow that is filled with apple mousse).  After the performance, most of us decided to leave although we were given coupons for food. Most of us had plans.

I walked with Leonie to the tram station and boarded on to the same tram. I took the advantage of the time we have by talking to her all the time. Then we talked about Christmas and future activities that we can do together such as ice skating and snow sleigh. Haha, I even told her that I have not baked or eaten christmas cookies before. Since she likes to bake, we might end up baking together. Rebecca bakes quite often too. I gave her a hint that we should spend more time together before I leave. I even suggested that we should go to Christmas markets soon.

I went for choir practice. The St. Martin's song was in my head all the time, instead of Bach's Lobet den Herrn or Chichester's Psalms by Bernstein. Shame on me. Hehe. The songs are really sweet. I shall share some links here below.

Ich geh' mit meiner Laterne ( I am taking off with my Lantern)
Laterne, Laterne (Lantern,Lantern)

Children from the neighbourhood with their lanterns.