Fading Fast

Why the forgotten festival of Martinmas is worth reviving

As we approach the year’s end, I’ve been pondering the disappearance of one of the great dates in the British ritual calendar.

The Feast of St Martin – better known as Martinmas – fell on 11 November and was traditionally seen as the end of the harvest and the date when animals were killed and salted down to provide food over the winter. It is why the Venerable Bede, writing in the 7th Century, called November Blōtmōnaþ – ‘blood month’.

For more than a thousand years, the run-up to Martinmas was a period of riotous carnival similar to the one before Lent. It marked the beginning of winter and was followed by a 40-day period of fasting and devotion, which lasted until Christmas.

Martinmas is still an important date in the rest of Europe, where bonfires are lit, huge lantern processions take place, and goose suppers are traditionally eaten. In Poland, there is an almost impossibly rich pastry, filled with almond paste and white poppy seeds, called rogal świętomarciński or St Martin’s pastries.

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