Saint Martin's Day. Saint Martin's Day, also called the Funeral of Saint Martin, Martinstag or Martinmas, as well as Old Halloween and Old Hallowmas Eve, is the Funeral day of Saint Martin of Tours and is celebrated on 11 November each year. The feast was widely seen as the preferred time for the butchering of Martinmas beef from prime, fattened cattle, geese, other livestock and the ending of the toil of autumn wheat seeding. Hiring fairs were more abundant than usual, where farm laborers could choose, or others had, to seek new posts. Saint Martin of Tours was a Roman soldier who was baptised as an adult and became a bishop in a French town. The most notable of his saintly acts was when he had cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm, to save him from the cold. That same night he dreamed of Jesus wearing the half-cloak and saying to the angels, Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is now baptised; he has clothed me. Saint Martin died on 8 November 397, and was buried three days later. This holiday feast-day originated in France, then spread to the Low Countries, the British Isles, Galicia, Germany, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe. Akin to Christmas, Martinmas is the day when Martin is honoured in the Mass. Its feast and meat-permitted day celebrates the end of the agrarian year, the main annual harvest. Saint Martin was known as friend of the children and patron of the poor. In the agricultural calendar formerly used widely in Europe, the day marked natural winter's start, and in the economic calendar, the end of autumn. The feast coincides with the end of the Octave of All Saints and of harvest time. Much brewed beer and wine first becomes ready at this time, which sees the end of winter preparations, including the butchering of animals. Because of this, the feast is much like the American Thanksgiving: a celebration of the earth's bounty to humans. Because it also comes before a penitential season, it became a minor carnival time for feasting, dancing and bonfires. As at Michaelmas on 29 September, goose is eaten in most places. After one of these holidays, many women resumed work away from the fields for the winter, while male farm labourers would work in animal-driven sowing and then in the forest slaughter/butchering hogs, followed by moving into coppicing and felling trees, hunting, fishing and, most often with their families, tending any winter crops and animals. In some countries, Martinmas celebrations begin at the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of this eleventh day of the eleventh month. In others, the festivities commence on St. Martin's Eve. Bonfires are built and children carry lanterns in the streets after dark, singing songs for which they are rewarded with candy. In the 6th century, church councils began requiring fasting on all days, except Saturdays and Sundays, from Saint Martin's Day to Epiphany on January 6. An addition to and an equivalent to the 40 days fasting of Lent, given its weekend breaks, this was called Quadragesima Sancti Martini. This is rarely observed now. This period was shortened to begin on the Sunday before December and became the current Advent within a few centuries. The goose became a symbol of the saint due to a legend that, when trying to avoid being ordained bishop he hid in a pen of geese whose cackling gave him away. Once a key medieval autumn feast, a custom of eating goose on the day spread to Sweden from France. It was primarily observed by the craftsmen and noblemen of the towns. In the peasant community, not everyone could afford this, so many ate duck or hen instead. Although no mention of a connection between Martin and viticulture is made by Gregory of Tours or other early hagiographers, Martin is widely credited in France with helping to spread wine-making throughout the region of Tours and facilitating vine planting. The old Greek folklore that Aristaeus discovered the advantage of pruning vines after watching a goat foliage has been appropriated to Martin. He is credited with introducing the Chenin blanc grape varietal, from which most of the white wine of western Touraine and Anjou is made. Martinloben is celebrated as a collective festival. Events include art exhibitions, wine tastings, and live music. Martinigansl is the traditional dish of the season. In Austria St. Martin's Day is celebrated the same way as in Germany. The nights before and on the night of Nov. 11, children walk in processions carrying lanterns, which they made in school, and sing Martin songs. The day is celebrated on the evening of 10 November in a small part of Belgium.
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