Lanterns!

In Germany, November 11th is St. Martins Day.

For St. Martins Day there is a story about a rich guy who was going somewhere and gave his coat to a cold, poor guy. It's a way more involved story than that of course... and I'm not even really sure how a Lantern fits in the storey, but the kids all make lanterns in school before hand and that night they take their lanterns and walk around outside with them. I think there is supposed to be a horse involved and a band.

UGH.... hold on....

here.... I hate wikipedia for unknown reasons... but here you can read ALL about it because I'm not doing the holiday justice.

So Scotty made a lantern at school. His wonderful mommy came in to school to help him while Andrea screamed in the background. :) It's a see through paper wrapped into a cylinder shape. It has a bottom and a hole on top. A stick attaches to the top and a little light hangs down into the middle of the cylinder and it lights up the "Lantern".

Back in the day people used candles and I'm sure some still do. No qualms about giving fire to kids here... I still remember the play group Scotty went to in Denmark where they gave each child a FLAMING candle to carry across the room to place on the windowsill. All. By. Themselves. I stress when my kid has a full cup of juice.

So all the kids met at school at night but it was too windy and rainy to go outside so they walked around the school with the lights off. : /

It was loud and chaotic and next year I'll do it with just my kids or a small group, but it was a fun little tradition. The lantern was cuter when it was outside and glowing. ...and I think there are songs involved too.

I tried to be a slacker parent and just buy a lantern for Andrea, but they don't sell them on Lantern Day. You have to buy them in advance. Whatever. This reminded me of not being able to buy a pumpkin on Halloween. I had these two incidents in mind when I bought three turkeys at the store today. Buy it when you see it. That's the new rule.


This is Scotty's best friend. They are both crazy... :)