Fall Traditions Around the World

Welcome back!

Since we are moving toward the holiday season, and Halloween is right around the corner, I thought it would be interesting to look at some different fall traditions that are celebrated around the world. You can see a common theme between many of them: to shed light on the darkening world.

St. Martin’s Day in Germany (Nov. 11^th): also known as the Feast of St. Martin or Martinmas, St. Martin's Day is a time for feasting celebrations. This is the time when autumn wheat seeding was completed, and the annual slaughter of fattened cattle produced "Martinmas beef". Historically, hiring fairs were held.

A widespread custom in Germany is bonfires on St. Martin's eve, called "Martinsfeuer." In recent years, the processions that accompany those fires have been spread over almost a fortnight before Martinmas. At one time, the Rhine River valley would be lined with fires on the eve of Martinmas. In the Rhineland region, Martin's day is celebrated traditionally with a get-together during which a roasted suckling pig is shared with the neighbors.

The nights before and on the night of Nov. 11, children walk in processions carrying lanterns, which they made in school, and sing Martin songs. Usually, the walk starts at a church and goes to a public square. A man on horseback dressed like St. Martin accompanies the children. When they reach the square, Martin’s bonfire is lit and Martin’s pretzels are distributed.

Guy Fawkes Night in Britain (Nov. 5^th): also known as Bonfire Night, Guy Fawkes Night celebrates the events of November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. Celebrating the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London, and months later the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot's failure.

For many families, Guy Fawkes Night became a domestic celebration, and children often congregated on street corners, accompanied by their own effigy of Guy Fawkes. This was sometimes ornately dressed and sometimes a barely recognizable bundle of rags stuffed with whatever filling was suitable. Once the effigy was made, they would be placed on the bonfire and burned, usually accompanying songs like this:

Don't you Remember,

The Fifth of November,

'Twas Gunpowder Treason Day,

I let off my gun,

And made'em all run.

And Stole all their Bonfire away. (1742)

Diwali- Indian Festival of Lights: is an ancient Hindu festival celebrated in autumn (northern hemisphere) every year. Diwali is the biggest and the brightest festival in India. The festival spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness. The festival preparations and rituals typically extend over a five-day period, but the main festival night of Diwali coincides with the darkest, new moon night of the Hindu Lunisolar month Kartika. In the Gregorian calendar, Diwali falls between mid-October and mid-November.

Diwali is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs to mark different historical events, stories or myths but they all symbolise the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, hope over despair.

The Yoga, Vedanta, and Samkhya schools of Hindu philosophy share the belief that there is something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal, called the . The Atman. The celebration of Diwali as the "victory of good over evil" refers to the light of higher knowledge dispelling all ignorance, the ignorance that masks one's true nature, not as the body, but as the unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality. With this awakening comes compassion and the awareness of the oneness of all things, and knowledge overcomes ignorance. Diwali is the celebration of this inner light over spiritual darkness, knowledge over ignorance, right over wrong, good over evil.

I hope you enjoyed reading about these fall traditions! This is part one of a three part post, so stay tuned for more of these! 

Happy light-up-night! And happy fall!

-Sarah.