St. Martin's day

(I found this picture on wikipedia.  It is from 1949 and was a procession on St. Martin's day in West Germany.  The tradition continues today with paper lanterns and a band)

November 11th is St. Martin's day here in Germany.  The evening started with the traditional procession to the church.  Like most villages in Germany, the town centers around a church.  Subsequently there is a north, east, south, and west part of town.  We live in the weststadt or the west side of town.  There was a gathering spot in each parts of the town.  People who live on the west side had a meeting place, people on the east side had a meeting place, and so forth.  Then we marched towards Burgdorf's center church-St. Pankratius.  It was a procession headed by a marching band that played Saint Martin and Lantern songs and lucky for us they passed out music sheets so everyone could sing along.  And of course all the children brought their paper lanterns.  This time we made lanterns that came in a kit.  Chrissie picked out a snowflake pattern.  Matthew picked out a pirate design that he could color.  And I picked out Jane's owl, which she loved.  The procession ended at St. Pankratius where a service was held.