Legend has it that, in the middle of the fourth century, on a cold and stormy autumn day, a Roman soldier called Martin was riding along on his horse when he came across a beggar who was starving and cold.
Martin, being a generous man, when he saw the beggar in that state, he took off his cloak and with his sword he cut it in half and covered the beggar with one part. The soldier continued his journey, barely sheltered from the cold and the wind when, suddenly and as if by miracle, the sky opened up, driving away the storm, and the sun shone again as if it were a summer’s day.
Since then, every year, around November 11th, those days of warmth appear, which came to be called “Saint Martin’s Summer”. Martin, the good soldier who was not indifferent to that beggar who was in the cold and without warm clothes; the man who became a monk and one of the main religious men spreading the Christian faith in Gaul (now France), was later made a Saint.
Several European countries celebrate Saint Martin’s Day on 11th November, the day Saint Martin was buried, and Portugal is not left out. It is traditional to celebrate this date with Saint Martin’s dinners and get-togethers where one eats chestnuts roasted under the embers of the fire, very well accompanied by a good wine. Besides the chestnuts, dried figs and walnuts are also part of this festivity and it is customary to drink an alcoholic beverage, resulting from the water of the grape marc, called água-pé.
Happy St. Martin’s Day with lots of chestnuts and wine!
Last modified: 11 de November, 2021
