Duck-Duck-Goose: Morten's Eve; November 10th

          Morten's Eve is on November 10th. All Danes know this much, if it isn't immidiately in our DNA, it is certainly fed to us as infants, and should you have acquired your citizenship later in life, I am sure, one of the questions on the test were:" When is Morten's Aften?" It might have been a multiple choice kind of question and if you had spent any kind of time in the dear country, you would have had no trouble answering this part. It is the evening of Nov. 10th and everybody eats duck, although he really hid among the geese! If you are nodding your head and perhaps smiling now, you have an understanding for the Danish sense (or lack) of logic; if not, let me fill in the blanks, because although everybody knows of the date and a little bit of the history behind it, few know more than that.

         Not much of the traditions make sense anymore and that's the fun part! Morten's name really wasn't Morten, but Martin, St. Martin (not the island!), no less! Martin was not Danish but was born in 315 or 316 in Pannonia, a Roman province that included modern Hungary. We know a lot about him because Sulpicius Severus, who lived at the same time, was allowed to cronicle Martin's life. I will let you look those interesting facts up for yourself and stick to the parts that have to do with the Danish tradition of eating duck that night.

        Martin was a Christian man in the very early days of Christianity; many legends are told of him and his good deeds, including many miracles. They must have been true to some extent because when the bishop of Tours (where he lived at this point) died, the people wanted to elect Martin as the new bishop. Martin was very humble and shy, he really didn't want all the attention on his person and hid from the paparazzi of the time, among the geese in a stable. If you have ever been near even just one live goose, I am sure you can imagine how easily a whole gaggle of them gave him away. Subsequently Martin, now as bishop, ordered for each family to consume a goose on the eve of Nov 10, the evening before what we now call Saint Martin's Day, November the 11th, (also the date on which Martin was buried many years later, at the for the time exceptionally ripe old age of 80 years.)

      So now we know, what happened, and why we should eat goose, but we don't know why we eat duck instead, or why it is so important to celebrate a saint in Lutheran Denmark that quite frankly isn't as outwardly religious as many other places I have been to. I think the answer to those questions lay hidden in another much more important answer that should be on the Danish citizenship test : Danes love a party and will always always always find a good reason or excuse to feast. As for the duck instead of the goose; some say the Danish ovens are too small, some say the Danish families have shrunk, some say the Danish economy has shrunk; personally I think the Danes just find duck tastier and love the practice for the next big feast: Christmas, where many also will eat duck.

   P.S.  Saint Martin's Day is celebrated in many countries and in various ways. Interestingly enough, in parts of Belgium it involves children in processions carrying lanterns made out of beets, which reminds us of earlier described beet lanterns on Lolland, Denmark, and pumpkins in Ireland and the US, curiously reminding us that allowed enough time, all our traditions intertwine eventually.