Martini, 11. November#

Martini (Martinmas, November 11), feast day of St. Martin of Tours, provincial bank holiday in Burgenland. Indicator day for weather forecasting according to folk lore. In the past St. Martin´s Day constituted a legally and economically important date in the farming year which signalled the end of the harvest season and the beginning of a six weeks´ period of fasting that ended on December 24 (also called "old advent"). Martinmas was also a day celebrated with special customs by the peasants. Well into the 20th century farmers living in the eastern parts of Austria still used to celebrate the evening before the start of the fasting period with special customs (e.g. people carrying lights and lanterns held processions, they cooked special dishes (roast goose ("Martinigans") and pastry ("Martinigebaeck")), they went from door to door and asked for small gifts, they practised customs involving masks and fire, they played games and sang special songs ("Martinilieder") and asked for St. Martin´s blessing ("Martinisegen", "Martinigerte")). On St. Martin´s Day working contracts started or ended and it was the settlement day for wages. Today it is still common to celebrate Martinmas with roast goose. On November 11 parish priests bless the wine of the year ("Martiniloben") which can then be tasted for the first time. The former processions of peasants have now given way to those of small children carrying lanterns. In some places a person dressed up as a Roman soldier on horseback leads the procession of children (a custom called "Martinsritt" at Bregenz). Martinmas furthermore marks the beginning of carneval which starts on November 11 at exactly 11 minutes past 11 a.m.

Literature#