Celebrating St. Martin's Day

Today is November 11th which makes it St. Martin's Day.  People look forward to it even though it is not a national holiday.  It's kind of like St. Patrick's Day in that it is more of a commercial holiday, just without the green beer.


St. Martin started life out as a Roman soldier and later became a monk.  He once came across a beggar but didn't have any money to give him.  Instead, Martin tore his own coat and gave half to the beggar in order to protect the man from the cold. 

Martin přijíždí na bílém koni means that "Martin rides in on a white horse" because this is supposed to be the first day of snow.  Well we already had snow in October and fortunately we didn't get any more today.

The proper way to celebrate St. Martin's day is with young wine and a traditional meal of roast goose with red and white cabbage.  Almost every restaurant has roast goose (or duck) on special for the next week.