These were taken on 11 November – the day when in many areas in Germany children are celebrating St Martin with a lantern procession. It’s a predominantly catholic feast and it has been in the news during the past years because in some nursery schools they have started calling it simply “lantern festival” or “festival of lights“.
The title are the words of one of the songs that are sung while walking with the lights.
The Plus: And I couldn’t leave without adding this picture (from a fancy dress party a few years back, in Berlin) where two friends dressed up as the Ampelmännchen. These are the symbols on all pedestrian traffic lights in Germany and are quite politcal: in the West, the red and green men looked differently and it is often joked that the Ampelmännchen was the only thing of culture from the East that was kept at unification. I am linking this, of course, with Debbie’s #Januarylight no. 11:
Ampelmännchen Ampelfrauchen
I’ve since read up on the little men (nothing like a good reason for procrastination on a Saturday morning) and found there is much more to them then I thought. When the East mannikins were starting to replace the West ones after unfication, there were apparently protests (a country where this is a problem is a happy country, albeit with miserable people). On a nicer side, in some towns they change the men at Christmas time to have Santa Clause leading the way across the street. And in Friedberg, where Elvis Presley was stationed when he was in the US army they have three traffic lights with his silhouette.
And yes! on day 2 I am already messing with the word light (yet only following Becky’s instructions). But I think it’s justified for the challenge, since the happy chappy is backlitso beautifully!
Yippeh! It’s the New Year! And Squares are back in style! Hurrah!
Although I did not indulge in a private fireworks display (haven’t done so in years – there are many reasons for not doing it but my turning point came when we spent a New Year’s Eve in a holiday resort in Germany and we saw the disgusting amount of rubbish on the streets the next morning) how else could one start day 1 of a month long theme of light? Rocketlights(I warned you, I’m German, I know how to do compound nouns!) rushing towards the New Year! And in case you haven’t noticed: It’s a tie-in with the last square challenge of squares & lines.
pictures imperfect blog 