This is our first year celebrating Martinmas (the feast of St. Martin of Tours) in our Catholic home and, judging by the children’s reactions, it certainly won’t be our last!
Today, I’m sharing how our family celebrated Martinmas and other’s ideas for observing this day.
Martinmas Lanterns
I love the traditional idea of celebrating Martinmas with a lantern procession. What child (or adult for that matter) doesn’t love lanterns and evening walks?
When I tried to track down the origins of this tradition, I found various answers. The one I found the most moving is that St. Martin of Tours was a light to the Roman pagan world. How meaningful for our modern age as well!
Making lanterns from mason jars sounded delightful, but November 11th, we woke up to this…
And then the weatherman predicted the temperature to drop to -5* overnight!
I love the outdoors, tromping through our backyard that evening didn’t sound so delightful anymore.
However, if you are still interested in Martinmas lanterns, here are a few resources for you:
Martinmas Lanterns from Shower of Roses
Martinmas Lanterns from Little Acorn Learning
Martinmas Lanterns from Inside my Domestic Church
Free Martinmas Lantern Printable from Wee Little Miracles
Lantern lit Dinner
Since the weather didn’t cooperate, we decided to transform our lantern walk into a candle and lantern-lit dinner. Honestly, the kids loved this almost as much as an evening tromp.
Each child got a mason jar votive at their place and we also lit our old kerosene lamp. It is amazing how a little novelty can make the day exciting!
Read Alouds for Martinmas
Of course, reading to the children is one of my favorite ways to live the liturgical year. We read a couple summaries of St. Martin of Tours in two of our saint anthologies for children.
St. Martin of Tours (Picture Book of Saints, Lovasik – own
St. Martin of Tours (Illustrated Lives of the Saints) – own
The Sword and the Cape: A Tale of St. Martin of Tours
Downloadable short read alouds from Family Feast and Feria
Other Martinmas Resources
- Sort through and donate clothing
- Say a prayer for our veterans
- St. Martin of Tours Coloring page (from My Catholic Kid)
- St. Martin of Tours Coloring page (from Super Coloring)
- Martinmas food ideas (from Catholic Cuisine)
- St. Martin Ornament Craft (from Catholic Inspired)
You may also enjoy:
My Catholic Planner (for keeping track of those feast days)
