Common contents of the bags include:
~almonds
~walnuts
~hazelnuts
~chestnuts
~oranges
~tangerines
~figs
~apples
~pomegranates
It might also contain St. Martin's bread (Weckmanner in Germany). We just used what we had on hand - peanuts, cashews, and dried fruit. The bags are easy to make. This one is a light muslin, decorated with a goose - symbol associated with St. Martin.
A poem about the bag of treats to recite:
Ġewż, Lewż, Qastan, Tin
Kemm inħobbu lil San Martin.
Walnuts, Almonds, Chestnuts, Figs
I very much love Saint Martin.
At our St. Martin feast day celebration with our local support group today, a friend of mine made "beggar bags" for all the kids. They were crumpled, brown paper bags signifying simplicity and poverty. The picture on the bag shows St. Martin with the beggar. They contained nuts, fruit and a cookie.
Such a simple thing, but so lovely! I didn't know about this tradition. Thank you, Mary.
ReplyDeleteI love this! Wish I would have seen it before I posted yesterday! What a great idea :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I’m looking to make some changes in my own eating habits, so I appreciate your insight a lot! Thank you. I recently stumbled upon this blog like I did yours and I thought your readers may appreciate it: http://burisonthecouch.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/food-for-thought/
ReplyDeleteI’ve started to look for their stuff more regularly and I think I’m going to add your blog to my list as well. Thanks for the post!
-Amy
This is fantastic and I totally want to do this for my next St. Martin's Day (which I celebrate annually with a goose feast!)—can you tell us the dimensions of this little bag (the cloth one)? It looks like it's about 9-10 pecans tall and about 6 pecans wide. Is that correct?
ReplyDeleteThe bags are about 4 x 6 inches.
DeleteJust adding that the bags could be any size, depending on how much you wanted to be able to put in them.
Delete