St. Martin

You can read all about St. Martin by clicking here, but the short story is that St. Martin, a soldier, met a poor beggar who was freezing in the cold. When he saw him, he drew his sword and divided his mantle in two, giving one piece to the beggar.
The legend turned into a very popular holiday here in Germany. Usually kids are making lanterns, then go on a parade with them once it's dark, and afterwards the story is being reenacted. The end of the celebration is a hand-out of some (simple) goodies, yesterday it was pretzels.
Obviously Michael and Annika didn't make their own lanterns, but they sure enjoyed trashing them... In the end the were walking around with only the lights. Fortunately electric ones. Back in the days many a child ended up burning his or her lantern, and maybe even more.
Unfortunately it was too dark to film, and not that many pictures turned out well. But here are some:

Lantern still intact
The other children from our playgroup had the same kind of lanterns
Oma came with us
Michael didn't want to walk anymore, but refused to go back into the stroller. Notice that we are not carrying the lantern anymore, just the light...
St. Martin on his horse.
I'm cold, I'm hungry, my lantern is trashed... I want to go home!