...Laterne, Sonne, Mond und Sterne...



Hans and his friend Hanna



Tuesday night Kevin and I joined Hans and his dad to parade the streets for their "Lantern tradition." Kids trick-or-treating for Halloween in Germany has just taken off within the past 5 to 10 years and is still not very popular here. Instead, around Halloween, people celebrate the life of a 4th century bishop on St. Martin's day. The tradition is usually held on the eve of St. Martin's day (Nov. 11th), however, the Scherenberg's church held they're "festival of lanterns" on Tuesday. The tradition is that kids go through the street with lit up lanterns or candles singing songs about St. Martin. In some areas of Germany, the kids go door to door to carol and receive candy for their songs.



As for us, the night started out with a short church service and after the children and their parents along with the church band took to the streets parading with their lit up lanterns. Some lanterns are homemade and some store bought. The Scherenberg's bought me a lantern to carry and Hans had helped make 2 at home, one for his dad and one for him. He had been looking forward to this for about a month, constantly singing the lantern song leading up to Tuesday night. Below is the song Hans sang all the time, and the only song I was actually able to learn!



Kev and I with our lanterns



Laterne, Laterne
Laterne, Laterne
Sonne, Mond und Sterne
Brenne auf, mein Licht,
Brenne auf, mein Licht
Aber nur meine liebe Laterne nicht.

Here’s the English translation...

Lantern, Lantern

Lantern, Lantern,
Sun, moon and stars,
Burn, my light,
Burn, my light,
But not only the light of my dear lantern

After the children finished walking, they came back to the church where they were selling hot dogs and drinks. It's quite a sight to have 100-150 kids walking through the streets with their lanterns. It's nice to be apart of these different traditions.

Hans and I have been getting along now more than ever. Last night, he even asked me to stay by him in bed while his parents were out to the theater. Some days he wants nothing to do with me and others he is asking me not to go home at all and stay with them all day/night. I am done with work for the weekend, and tonight Kev and I are going to go downtown for a real North American night... burgers and an english movie! We are taking full advantage of Kevin having a Friday night off with no games! Have a great day! Tschüss!