St. Martinsritt

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We have some catching up to do on our weekend activities. Sadly, the camera batteries were going for this event so the flash didn't work so our photos of St. Martins are few and very dim (sorry!).
Three weeks ago we gathered Saturday night for the annual celebration of St. Martins Ritt (read down to the section on his cloak). This is a big deal here because St. Martin is the saint of Sindelfingen. The old church in the square, Martinskirche, was built in the 11th century and dedicated in 1083. It is one of the oldest Roman churches in Wuerttemberg.

One of the teachers had organized it. The kids made lanterns as an art project the week before. We met at dusk at the school to collect and light the lanterns, then we walked, singing through the park. As we walked to the square, we met up with other children in the town; there were about 200 in the church yard by the time it started. We waited in the cold for the annual reenactment of St. Martin's kindness.

There is a man dressed in rags in the church yard shivering. It was a cold night so that part of the story was easy to reconstruct. Then a man dressed as a Roman soldier rides through the yard a few times. A children's choir sings special songs and everyone holds up lanterns. Marting then takes his sword and cuts his cloak in two and give half to the beggar.

After the performance, the church sold sausages, cookies and hot wine to raise money for mercy projects in Asia. Wonderful night. And we all survived, which was sometimes questionable when you have 200 little people swinging lighted candles around.