Not a turkey, but just as yummy!

What could be considered the German equivalent of Thanksgiving is a day known as Martinstag or St. Martin's Day on November 11th. The day celebrates a Roman soldier who later on became a monk. The story goes that Martin, a plain Roman soldier at the time, was riding down a road in the bitter cold when he came upon a beggar. Seeing that this man would freeze to death, Martin gave him the only thing he owned -- half of his red cloak. The other "half" belonged to the Roman army.

Towns all over Germany celebrate this day with reenactments of the story. The school began its celebrated with a little concert from our sixth grade band (which also happend to be Mike and my first performance with them). We held the concert in the main hall of the school with all of the lights dimmed. It was a very nice atmosphere. If you're curious, our program consisted of four little pieces - one of which was called "Bus Stop Blues".

Since the previous week the elementary kids had been creating paper lanterns - another St. Martin's Day tradition. Benjamin's class (3rd grade) made big round orange ones. Then at dusk (after our little performance), all of the children took their lanterns and went on the St. Martin's Day procession. The long line of children, their parents, and teachers went winding through the forest across the road from our apartment. Each child had a lit candle in their paper lantern. The trail lit up by swaying lanterns made for a very nice sight, but it was also a bit shocking to see such young children handling flames. Miraculously nothing caught on fire this year. Apparently most years there are at lesat two flaming lanterns and weeping children. Unfortunately, I forgot to grab my camera that day.

We trekked through the woods for about half an hour and then returned to the field behind the gymnasium. There they had roped off an area where a re-enactment of the story took place -- with a real horse! Mike played a trumpet fanfare to begin the performance and played a couple traditional St. Martin's Day songs. Then the third grade class sang us the story as one of their classmates went around in circles on a pony who wouldn't stand still.

At the end of the play parents and students brought around baskets of bread. In the spirit of Saint Martin, you were to break the bread in half and share it with someone else.

St. Martin's Day is also recognized as the end of fall and the beginning of winter. To recognize the winter season, many people have a St. Martin's Day goose. Annette and Jo were kind enough to arrange for a very lovely goose dinner the following Saturday in a cute old fashioned part of Wolfsburg called Vorsfeld.

The restaurant was a very nice place.

They even gave us special goose napkins for our meal!


Benjamin took a picture of us at the table.

The first thing that came out of the kitchen was an absolutely delicious goose cappuccino. I know, it sounds gross, but it was so yummy. It consisted of the juices of the goose (no espresso whatsoever). And just like a real cappuccino, there was a nice layer of froth on top (also made from goose juices).

Then came our meal.

The goose tasted very good. Its texture is closer to duck than chicken, but maybe just a little bit tougher. The gravy made from the bird was so good than even Mike had more! Underneath the goose is a traditional red cabbage "salad". It tastes pleasantly tart and is served warm. There is a bit of roasted parsley on the plate and under that are German knudeln. From what I understand, knudeln is a "meatball" that is made of flour or bread or potatoes.