Every year on November 11th, not only in Germany but also in many other European countries and the world, children can be seen walking through the streets singing with home-made, brightly lit lanterns. The warm lights symbolize the victory over darkness and create a very special atmosphere.
This tradition is part of Saint Martin’s Day, which commemorates the good deeds of Bishop Martin of Tours. Saint Martin met a poor beggar man on a street in winter. The scantily clothed beggar begged Martin for a gift. The beggar then shared his coat with the sword and gave one half of the coat to the beggar man. Martin’s legend – but above all the ‘division of the cloak’ is an appeal for humane help and charity.
The Christian German School lives this idea of charity, and although many families of the school community feel the limitations and consequences of the current pandemic themselves, they collected clothes and donations to give to refugees in northern Thailand and to an orphanage in Chiang Mai. In total, the generous donation of over 70,000 THB was collected.
As particularly dear guests we were then allowed to welcome the children of the orphanage ‘Care Corner Orphanage’ at this year’s parade.
Also here the generosity of the parents was shown, who were very happy to share their brought food with the orphans. Afterwards we went to a church where the children of the elementary school sang songs and showed a shadow theater which
reminded us once again of Saint Martin’s message. Full of joy and with shining eyes and lanterns, everyone later went to the campfire to grill some bread on a stick.
Earlier this school year the entire CDSC community was experiencing the feeling of solidarity and togetherness through the worldwide hype ‘Jerusalema Dance Challenge’. And we were very happy to bring the positive energy to the St Martin donation campaign.
If you would like to support the Care Corner Orphanage, please visit their website.
https://www.carecornerorphanage.com/
More pictures of the St. Martin move can be found on the CDSC website
https://cdsc.ac.th/ich-geh-mit-meiner-laterne-st-martinsfest-an-der-cdsc/
