Die Gänsl und Laterne

The Geese and the Lanterns

We were in Graz last week to meet with students, faculty and administrators from the University of Graz and the Graz University of Technology – both ISEP sister schools of Wesleyan.  Here you can view photos of us lecturing about Lincoln’s multi-cultural educational system to 200+ students - we hope the students enjoyed it as much as we did!  After our amazing day of meetings and lectures, we were lucky enough to celebrate St. Martin’s Day with our delightful new colleagues.  Never heard of St. Martin’s Day?  Neither had we.

Here is what we learned about the St. Martin legend – mostly from Austrian children, Austrian professors (our hosts in Graz), and the Internet: Martin, originally from Hungary, was a soldier. On a freezing cold night when he was making his rounds, he met a beggar clothed in rags. Other than his military cloak, Martin had nothing with him to offer, so with one stroke of his sword, he split the cloak in two and gave one half to the beggar.  This generous act not only warmed the beggar, it warmed Martin’s heart – so he left the military and devoted himself to people in need.  He did such a good job that they later made him a saint.

How do you honor such a charitable and munificent man?  Well, by walking through the dark street with a lantern, and by eating a goose, of course!  As is often the case with traditions, when outsiders ask, “Why do you do that?” many locals answer with some form of “Gosh – I don’t know . . . we just do.  Don’t you celebrate St. Martin’s Day this way?” Or “Let’s go ask my Grandma.” Or “ummmm . . . I think I learned about that in grade school—I sort of remember something about setting fire to a goose because it was cold?”  In any case, the following explanations for the lantern and goose traditions have been shared with us.    

Walking with a lantern:  Our sources explained the light in the darkness (remember, it is dark at 4 p.m. here) is a symbol of how St. Martin brought a flicker of hope to the lives of the poor through his good deeds.  Children sing the following while processing through their neighborhoods, "Up and down the streets, again the lanterns illuminate: red, yellow, green, blue, dear Martin come and look! It's Saint Martin's Day, it's nice to celebrate. We knock at your door and bring you a little light. We run along to all the doors and sing now a song especially for you!” Some have told us that, especially in smaller towns, children get cookies or fruit when they go door to door (kind of like trick or treating but without the tricks, costumes, commercialism, or artificial colors and transfats).  This evening as we were strolling through our neighborhood, we did indeed see many children with homemade lanterns, though none of them approached us for treats. (Karla was disappointed; Travis was relieved.)

Eating of the goose:  Our sources don’t agree on this one, but here are the two most popular stories we’ve heard.  First, being a modest man, Martin did not feel himself worthy of becoming a bishop, so he hid in a stable filled with geese. The squawking of the geese was so loud that the townspeople found Martin and made him bishop anyway.  Another legend says that noisy geese disturbed a prayer service Martin was leading; this annoyed him so much that the geese were later served for dinner.  (We think legend number two is more plausible – and delicious.)

Finally, just this afternoon we discovered St. Martin is the patron saint of drunkards and teetotalers.  We don’t know what to make of that.  Somehow, eating of the goose and walking with the lantern doesn’t seem odd at all.