St. Martin's Day Festival

College Park Arts Exchange holds an annual secular celebration of St. Martin’s Day, making paper lanterns to usher in the winter holiday season.  This annual celebration is led by Birgit Meade, CPAE board member and native German, who remembers the Lantern Festival as a folk tradition of her homeland.  

Martin of Tours was a Roman soldier who became Bishop of Tours in 371 CE. According to his legend, he cut his cloak in half to give part to a beggar who was suffering from the cold. The piece of cloak that he retained became a holy relic to the Merovingian kings, and was carried into battle to ensure victory.  The words chaplain and chapel both come from the veneration of the piece of Martin’s cloak, and, a 40-day fast that began on his day, November 11, later became the season of preparation for Christmas known as Advent.  Armistice Day (the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when World War One came to an end) coincides with the day of a saint who turned from being a soldier to being a man of peace.  

Here are some pictures of paper lanterns made this year on November 10 in the parish hall at St. Andrew’s. Over sixty people of all ages came this year to cut and paste with the special translucent lantern paper, and then walked and sang traditional songs through the twilight with their lanterns.