SaintCast #83 - Christmas Saint Traditions
What’s the connection with St. Clare, television, and Christmas? Why would a girl wishing to marry throw a shoe at the door around midnight on November 29th? Why is St. Thomas remembered on the longest night of the year? These are just a few of the many Saint traditions associated with the Christmas season. We’ve got beautiful Christmas songs from someone I discovered on a TV commercial (!) and St. Francis and Greccio on the SaintCast”After Christmas Special.” Music from Magnatune.com, podshow.com, and Garageband.com
- Help Support SQPN here
- Fisher the Band website
- Magnatune.com’s Christmas collection
- Christmas music from “This Sea Reflects Stars” at Garageband.com
- Lee Harris and the Tijuana Trumpets, at Podshow.com
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I’ve just recently started listening to the SaintCast, and really enjoy them. The music was absolutely wonderful in this show - thanks!
Take care and may God bless…
I am a bit behind in listening to the episodes… No answers from Germany to your call, how those feast days are being celebrated over here… What a shame!
Ok…
St. Martin’s Day
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In my area there is a lantern procession with the children and with a Brass Band that plays songs dedicated to St. Martin like you did mention on the show. The children are singing those songs, too. St. Martin (played by a local person) is riding a horse and being dressed up like a Roman soldier. He accompanies the procession. After that, there is a little performance. In this performance St. Martin meets a poor beggar. The beggar is very cold. He has no clothes apart from clothes in rags. St. Martin dismounts his horse, draws his sword and cuts his cloak into two halves. He gives one half to the beggar. In the performance, it is being stressed that St. Martin is a saint that helped the poor and that we should do that, too. And after this performance, the procession moves on to the “city hall” or somewhere else, where the children receive little “Stutenkerle” (pronounce it Shtootnkehrle - which is pastry formed like a man): http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weckmann_(Geb%C3%A4ck)
I do not know the other traditions you mentioned, but there are so many regional differences…
I think that there are so many traditions that actually are only quite “local” ones, other traditions are quite known.
The link in my recent post does not work. You can see the picture over here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Weckmann.jpg
These are three Stutenkerle (pronounciation: Shootn-care-le -> not very easy to think about letters being pronounced in English).
Oh, I forgot about St. Nicholas. Once again a lantern procession with songs about St. Nicholas, Brass Band and St. Nicholas, being dressed as bishop. He is being accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht. Knecht Ruprecht is being dressed in black, he does not talk. He carries a birch. His function is to be the guy, who is supposed to punish children, who did not behave well during the last year. St. Nicholas gives a little bag with sweets to every child and encourages the children to be nice to their parents, sisters, brothers and in school and so on. Some children declaim a poem (this does not happen very often any more) in order to make St. Nicholas happy (… and their parents proud, I guess ;)).
How cool! Wish we had some of those traditions here - perhaps they still exist in some of the smaller ethnic communities here in the States.