Lantern Walk in Swaffham Prior
FIRST of all a big THANK YOU to all who came along and joined us. So what was
it all about?
A German tradition brought to Swaffham Prior. In Germany on the evening of the 11th November the children walk with their lanterns through the streets singing. And why are they doing this? It is to remember a Roman Knight called Saint Martin who was travelling through Hungary. He cut his coat into half with a sword and gave one half to a poor man to stop him from being cold, and also shared his bread with this man. Where do the lanterns come in? Martin liked helping other people and continued to be very good man and helped the people. They liked him and wanted him to become their bishop.
Being unsure, he was scared and ran away and hid in a stable where lots of geese lived. The people searched for Martin with their lanterns in the dark night, and because the geese made so much noise they found him and he became their bishop after all. That is briefly the story behind it.
I remember it as a very exciting event when I was little. So being German with two little children, with one just starting at school, I was wondering if there is any interest in following up on this tradition. The class teacher Mrs Jackson was very interested and we had a whole morning of making lanterns, painting geese and making pretzles, which I think the children enjoyed very much.
The children and parents were invited to come along in the evening to do a “Lantern walk”. About 10 children and their Mums and Dads turned up . Much more than we were hoping for.The lanterns looked beautiful in the dark. We were walking up and down the High Street singing, or better trying to sing (a bit of a language problem there) That’s where you might have spotted us, wondering what`s going on. Our little son managed to set light to his lantern and it was gone in no time (That all belongs to a real Martin’s day! ). Some came back to our house to warm up with a bit of mulled wine and “Kinderpunch”.
So all in all I think it was quite a success. Most of all I think the children enjoyed the whole thing. We might do it again next year.