Today is Veterans Day, a day to remember and offer thanks for those who have served in the armed forces. Unlike many other holidays, Veterans Day always lands on November 11, regardless of what day of the week it is. As a child I learned that the day found its origin in the armistice that ended World War I that took effect at 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th month. I played the trumpet and was called upon to play taps at a variety of different events in our community including Veterans Day and Memorial Day. I also played for graveside committal ceremonies. My first experiences of playing for funerals were the deaths of old men in our community who had served in World War I. They were of my grandfather’s generation and it was a tradition in our town for the old men to carry the colors at the Memorial Day Parade until they were too old to march straight. The Veteran’s Day ceremonies in our town were more muted than Memorial Day. We didn’t generally have a parade, but there was often a brief ceremony at the Legion Hall or in the High School gymnasium with a few speeches. Veterans often wore their uniforms for the occasion and it usually ended with the playing of taps. Being on deck for the final note of the ceremony meant that I had to pay attention to the whole thing, but it also usually meant that I had a special place to stand or sit.

My father was a veteran, having served in the Army Air Corps as an instructor pilot and service pilot during the Second World War. He did not serve overseas, spending his entire term of service based in the California Desert where bomber pilots were trained. He was a recipient of the Purple Heart, having been injured when he bailed from an airplane that experienced a catastrophic engine failure while flying a plane that had served in the Pacific theater to a storage facility in Arizona. Father wasn’t one for wearing his uniform, however. He went to Veterans Day programs in his work clothes and sat in the crowd. I never saw him wear his purple heart or the pin showing membership in the caterpillar club - the sign his life was saved by a silk parachute.

Now that I am approaching the age of those World War I veterans when I was a child and our daughter is the wife of an Air Force Master Sergeant, I understand that service and sacrifice are marks not only of the members of the armed forces, but also of their families. Our son in law was recently assigned to overseas duty at a base where his family could not follow him. It was a temporary deployment lasting six months, but six months of having his daddy gone is a long time for our five year old grandson. Although they were able to speak regularly over an Internet connection with video, it was a challenging time for our daughter to have to care for house and child while her husband was overseas. As we spoke to them over Skype yesterday our family celebration of Veterans Day included thanksgiving that he is now back at home and the family is together.

Veterans Day falls on the Feast of Saint Martin in the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church and in protestant denominations that honor traditional saints’ days such as the Lutheran and Anglican Churches. Due to variations in historic calendars, Eastern Orthodox communions celebrate the Feast of Saint Martin on November 12. Saint Martin of Tours was a 4th century saint known for generosity. One legend about him tells that he cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar, saving the man from the cold.

A variety of traditions are associated with the Feast of Saint Martin, also known as Martinmas. It is traditional to serve goose or beef for a feast at which the first wine of the season is served. In Germany, children make lanterns that are carried in processions.

Martinmas is also a traditional day for making predictions about the length of the winter. Here is my forecast: It is going to rain today. I am basing that prediction on the fact that it is currently raining and I can hear the drops on the skylights in our kitchen as I write. Since I live on the coast where the weather is mild, I also predict that we won’t have much snow this winter where I live. However, the snow in the North Cascades is already deeper than at this time in several recent years and the combination of snow and rain means that the rivers in our region will reach flood stage in the week to come. Having grown up on the east slope of the Rockies I think of spring as flood season, but here November is the month where flooding is most likely.

At our house, however, we have no particular plans to celebrate Martinmas. If we did, I think I might favor eating croissants. Although we generally associate croissants with France, St. Martin’s croissants are the tradition of Poznań in western Poland, where it is predicted that between 1.25 and 3 million St. Martin’s croissants will be consumed today. That’s about 250 tons of pastry, and the Polish croissants are not low calorie versions, either. Poznań’s croissants are topped with sugar and nuts and the pastry is filled with poppy seeds, nuts, raisins, almonds, sugar and butter. A single croissant can top 1,200 calories. I guess, however, that we probably can’t get the pastries here as St. Martin’s croissants have Protected Geographical Indication status. According to the European Union, only croissants baked in Poznań can carry that official name. It’s OK. We aren’t planning to cook a goose, either.

Our celebration will be muted, but we will remember to thank veterans and their families for their service and sacrifice. However celebrated, we have benefitted from the service and sacrifice of others. I might even get out my trumpet and sound taps later this morning. It is always good to remember those who have served and sacrificed.