You may remember we made sugar beet creations earlier in the week. Well, yesterday, after school, was the big night - we headed off, sugar beet in hand, to hunt for St Martin and his donkey (and get the sweets and buns that all the kids get if they did something with their sugar beet).
Kids aged 4-12 can take part so although Pierre was happy to finally be old enough to join in, it was a bit sad for Sophie because it's her last time.
The girls went and had their photo taken with St Martin - Pierre was too scared !
But he soon got his smile back when he got his bag of sweets and huuuuge bread roll, that was almost as big as his head ! I'm sure I've told you the story of how these buns, called Volaere or Volaaren, came to be, but it's such a lovely tale, I'll tell you again. St Martin was off having a drink in the tavern when his donkey wandered off into the dunes and got lost. St Martin asked all the children to help him find it, so they all went out with lanterns and followed the donkey poo to find him. To say thank you, St Martin transformed the donkey poo into bread, which is why they have that shape now !
After seeing St Martin and picking up the sweets, we headed into town to join the procession and soon found them, hearing the musicians from quite some way away.
There he is ! St Martin and his naughty donkey !
I have to say, St Martin is one of my favourite local traditions. It's such a lovely story for the children and is great fun for the whole family. Going on a torchlit procession through town is already quite exciting, and adding in free sweets just takes it up another notch as far as the kids are concerned !
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Definitely a lovely tradition.
ReplyDeleteSounds like great fun. #CountryKids
ReplyDeleteWhat a story! A fab tradition too.
ReplyDelete