The Feast of Martin mass – let the winter begin
Well-stocked kitchen by Joachim Beuckelaer, 1566.
The Feast of Martin mass – let the winter begin
Let’s go back to November in the 1550s. You will be beginning to plan for winter as the days shorten and the cold sets in. But there is one big festival to look forward to before you say a final farewell to autumn – The Festival of Martin mass on November 11th.
Martin mass likely had pre-Christian origins, and used to be called Old Hallows Eve. But in Medieval times was a feast which celebrated St Martin – Martin of Tours, a Roman soldier who became a Christian and then Bishop of Gaul.
His feast day in medieval times marked the end of autumn, the beginning of winter and opened up the winter revelling season. It was the day on which the ploughmen bid farewell to the farms and left to find winter labour and those who had left the city to work on harvesting crops would party before going back to the dark and smelly streets of the towns and cities.
It was also the day on which animals were slaughtered, butchered and salting began in order to keep people fed through the cold months to come.
Martin mass was celebrated all over Europe and had many local customs including lamplight processions, gift giving, bonfires, specials drinks and festivities.
So what could you expect at an English Martin mass feast?
You would certainly be expected to go to church, as was demanded on every saint’s day. Indeed, if you failed, you could be fined. With the long sermon over (they could go on for three hours) you would start the food preparation. Meat from slaughtered beasts would be roasted and roast goose was a traditional dish along with beef and black pudding. Ale would be brought in barrels and for the more wealthy, wine and other festive foods. Loaves of bread would be piled high to mop the juices and pies stuffed with meat, offal and herbs.
Story telling was the main form of entertainment, though mummers – or travelling entertainers might be engaged to put on acts, a drama, acrobatics and bawdy joke telling. In Wales, children would be told that the Dogs of Annwn (hell) with their red ears emerged in the dark and ran through the lands looking for criminals and the badly behaved and so good behaviour was the safer option.
The wise would be keeping a close watch on the weather, for they believed that the weather on St Martin’s day predicted the winter.
‘If ducks do slide at Martinmas
At Christmas they will swim;
If ducks do swim at Martinmas
At Christmas they will slide’
‘Ice before Martinmas,
Enough to bear a duck.
The rest of winter,
Is sure to be but muck!’
The feasting would likely go well into the night for tomorrow begins the huge task of butchering, salting and herb-preserving the slabs of meat lying in the slaughter yard, taking the skins to sell to the tanners, boiling hooves for glue, grinding bones for fertilizer, feeding entrails to dogs and pigs, turning the blood and fat into black puddings. Not chores for the tickle-stomached and maybe better done in the haze of a hangover.
