By mid-November, Oktoberfest is a warm memory, and German calendars turn toward a different kind of celebration — quieter, more candlelit, built around gathering indoors as the days shrink.
Martinstag: November 11
St. Martin's Day, or Martinstag, falls on November 11 and honors Martin of Tours, a Roman soldier-turned-bishop best remembered for a single act: cutting his cloak in half with his sword to share it with a freezing beggar. That story of shared warmth is baked into every part of how the day is celebrated.
The signature tradition is the Laternenumzug — a lantern procession, usually led by children carrying handmade paper lanterns through the streets at dusk, singing Martinslieder (St. Martin songs) along the way. It's frequently followed by a Martinsfeuer, a bonfire, and the meal of the day is traditionally Martinsgans — roast goose, said to reference a legend that Martin hid in a goose pen to avoid being made bishop, only for the geese to give him away with their honking.
The Slide Into Advent
St. Martin's Day effectively opens the runway to Advent, the four-week countdown to Christmas that's taken far more seriously in Germany than a simple calendar of chocolates. Homes get their first Advent wreaths (Adventskranz) — four candles, one lit each Sunday leading to Christmas — and the German Christmas markets, the Christkindlmärkte, begin setting up their wooden stalls in town squares across the country.
This is also when Lebkuchen (spiced gingerbread) and Stollen start appearing in bakery windows, and mulled wine starts replacing beer as the evening drink of choice in a lot of households — a preview of the Glühwein tradition we'll dig into later in this series.
Why It's Worth Knowing
Understanding this stretch of the German calendar explains a lot about why German food and drink shift the way they do this time of year — heartier meat, warmer spices, wine mulled with cinnamon and clove instead of served chilled. It's not random; it's centuries of seasonal ritual, still followed closely today.
We'll be marking the season the German way too — keep an eye on our events calendar as Advent approaches.