Nov 11 2025
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Martinmas

Martinmas, and a Shift

Hallowe’en each year ushers in a span of time known as Hollantide; we’ve been in the midst of it since, and here, with Martinmas, Hollantide comes to a close. This is the time when we traditionally remember our dead. All Hallows (All Saints Day) is what gives the span its name––Hollantide being but a corruption of the word Hallowtide. It is the time of the sacred, the time of the holy, the time of remembrance.

Martinmas celebrates St. Martin of Tours. He was a Roman military veteran (and lo, today also brings Veterans Day and Armistice Day) in the fourth century who opted to take up Christian pacifism and is known best for helping a poor, drunken man on a cold winter’s day by tearing his own cloak in two so that the poor fellow would have something to keep himself warm. St. Martin has since become a patron saint of tailors, vineyard keepers, winemakers, and drinkers. In Germany tonight, children will parade through villages carrying Martinmas lanterns that they’ve made, illuminating the night.

So, what is it that makes Martinmas the bookend to Hallowe’en? The connection may have something to do with the Celtic New Year––Samhain––which, over the centuries, melded and evolved into the Hallowe’en celebrations we know today. Samhain marks, as well, in traditional reckoning of time, the transition to winter. With all of these November days since Samhain, since Hallowe’en, our thoughts have gone deeper below the earth, just as the natural world also shifts its energy below the earth. Winter leads us there. The legend of Persephone leads us there. The trees take us there: The leaves have flown, all growth now is below, in the roots. This makes for stronger growth above ground come spring and summer: balance. As above, so below. Oh and guess what? November 11 is the old style date of Samhain. Winter, by the almanac, is still several weeks away, but by traditional reckoning of time, it is Martinmas that marks its full onset… so that by the solstice, we’ll be singing songs like “In the Bleak Midwinter.” This is the shift that comes with Martinmas.

It is, as well, the day when new young wines are tasted: it is time, for instance, for the new Beaujolais vintage to be released. All signs point toward harvest and gathering in, and in the gathering darkness, the lanterns of Martinmas brighten the early nightfall. The shift toward winter is now undeniable.

 

IT’S TIME FOR ADVENT CANDLES & CALENDARS!
These lovely traditions help to slow things down on the approach to Christmas and help us welcome Christmas in its own time. (This is what we mean when we talk about celebrating a Slow Christmas.) Our Advent Calendars are all made in Germany (a few are made in England) and our Advent Candles are all made in Germany, England, Sweden… and, new this year, we have handmade beeswax Advent Candles made for us by a small company in Atlanta. CLICK HERE to shop our Advent offerings.

 

COME SEE US!
We enter into a very busy time of year for us, and here’s a listing of the in-shop events and pop-up markets we currently have on our calendar:

Our first Advent & Christmas Market of the season is happening this weekend at the shop: Saturday November 15 & Sunday November 16 from 11 to 4. Enjoy homemade Christmas cookies and our own Löfbergs Swedish Coffee while you shop. (Our second Advent & Christmas Market is planned for Thanksgiving Weekend: Friday November 28, Saturday November 29, and Sunday November 30.) The shop is at 1110 North G Street in Lake Worth Beach, Florida.

Find us on Friday November 21, Saturday November 22, and Sunday November 23 at the Scandinavian Christmas Market in Lantana; then on Saturday December 6 at Christmas Market Miami at the German American Social Club in Miami (that’s us and our pop-up shop in the photo!); and at Krampusnacht on Friday night December 12 and Christkindlmarkt on Saturday December 13 and Sunday December 14, all at the American German Club in Lake Worth. And we’ll reopen the shop again for our Solstice Market on Saturday & Sunday, December 20 & 21.

 

Image: “Martinmas in Düsseldorf ” (Das Martinsfest in Düsseldorf) by Otto von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld. Engraving, 1863 [Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons].

 

Nov 05 2025
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Autumn, Book of Days Calendar

Autumn Afternoon, or Your November Book of Days

Last month was dominated by Oktoberfest Miami, and then we went to Maine for a quick visit to see Seth’s family, and when we got back it was Hallowe’en, and then the local Dia de Los Muertos festival… anyway, I have finally gotten around to publishing your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for November. We delve deeper into autumn now.

The calendar is a printable PDF, as usual. I do hope you had a mysterious Hallowe’en and a lovely All Souls Night. Though I did not write to you here, we did celebrate all these nights, and you’ll find pictures at our Instagram page (@conviviobookworks) of our Hallowtide so far. These days of remembrance continue through Martinmas on the 11th of November. In this house we are still basking in the glow of orange lights each night in the company of pumpkins, and we’ve just finished the last of the Butternut Soup from Hallowe’en and the cinnamon and anise scented Pan de Muertos my sister made for Dia de Los Muertos. She made other sweets, as well. (I, meanwhile, have an appointment on Thursday for bloodwork for my 6-month physical… I don’t think “A candy apple a day keeps the doctor away” is quite how the old adage goes, and yet, this is the current state of things.)

We enter into a very busy time of year for us, and here’s a listing of the in-shop events and pop-up markets we currently have on our calendar:

We’re planning an Advent & Christmas Market at the shop the weekend of Saturday November 15 & Sunday November 16, and another Advent & Christmas Market on Thanksgiving Weekend: Friday November 28, Saturday November 29, and Sunday November 30. The shop is at 1110 North G Street in Lake Worth Beach, Florida.

Find us on Friday November 21, Saturday November 22, and Sunday November 23 at the Scandinavian Christmas Market in Lantana; then on Saturday December 6 at Christmas Market Miami at the German American Social Club in Miami; and at Krampusnacht on Friday night December 13 and Christkindlmarkt on Saturday & Sunday December 14 & 15, all at the American German Club in Lake Worth. And we’ll reopen the shop again for our Solstice Market on Friday December 19, Saturday December 20, and Sunday December 21.

And here’s a really nice story about Convivio Bookworks that was written by Amancio Paradela. It came out in the October 29 edition of OutSFL. I think it’s the best thing that was ever written about us; I feel like Amancio really understands what we’re trying to do at Convivio Bookworks. Thank you, Amancio!

Finally, I imagine most of you who read the Convivio Book of Days must also subscribe to our more popular mailing list for the Convivio Dispatch from Lake Worth… but who knows, maybe I’m wrong. If you did not receive last week’s Convivio Dispatch for Hallowe’en, well… here’s a link to that Dispatch. Though All Hallow’s Eve has passed, it’s a pleasantly mysterious read, no matter what time of year. And since we are still in the midst of Hallowtide, reading it now is actually just right.

That’s all for now. I would promise to be better about writing this month, but let’s face it: Look at all those dates we have scheduled! The writing is most likely going to have to wait. I will, however, be sure to write during momentary lapses of good judgement. Have a wonderful month, and we’d love to see you, if you’re local, at one or more of our events or pop-up markets this holiday season!

Image: “Autumn Afternoon” by László Mednyánsky. Oil on canvas, circa 1900 [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

P.S. There are three open seats still in this Sunday’s pasta making workshop at the shop! My family will be teaching you how to make Cavatelli. It’ll be an absolutely delicious day!

 

Oct 01 2025
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Autumn, Book of Days Calendar, Feast of the Guardian Angels

Pumpkin Possibilities, or Your October Book of Days

Now it is October, and here is your Convivio Book of Days calendar for the month. We’re excited: Even here in this land where Autumn is an exercise in subtlety, I might dare say we’ve seen some hints of change.

Our markets are full of the bounty of the season, trucked in from northern climes. Apples, pears, and my favorites: the pumpkins and winter squashes. I can remember weeding the pumpkin patch when I was a print apprentice under Brother Arnold Hadd at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community in Maine in the late 1990s: the warmth of the sun on my back, my hands in the rich soil, and the very particular scent of pumpkin vines, which, for the life of me at this moment, I cannot remember well enough to describe, but I know that if I ran my hand across a pumpkin leaf, the scent would waft up and I’d know it immediately. Something about that fragrance, and the vines and tendrils, and the fruits themselves, spoke to me of great possibility. Of stories and books that I did not know then and still do not know… though I feel they are close at hand, on the horizon. Pumpkins, for me, are more than just a fruit to carve for Hallowe’en or to make into a pie or soup. The thing is, though, I don’t yet know what this all means. It’s a bit of a fairytale, where there is magic, but I’ve yet to discover it or watch it fully unfurl. The feeling is one I can’t shake. Everlasting, like the pumpkin in the engraving that is our cover star for the month.

If you feel this way about pumpkins, too, I’d love to hear your story or your take on this. And in the meantime, I will keep at my annual pumpkin reverie.

As you read this on this First of October, folks in the Jewish tradition will be preparing for Yom Kippur, which begins with tonight’s setting sun. Tomorrow, the Second of October, brings one of the oldest celebrations in the Church: the Feast of the Guardian Angels. It comes on the heels of Michaelmas a few days ago (September 29), which honored St. Michael the Archangel. It is an angelic week, this week, which might explain why I’ve had Shaker songs about angels playing as the soundtrack inside my head all week. I sing them, too, as I brush my teeth or as I go up and down the stairwells at work.

Pumpkins. Angels. Stories. I can’t help it. This may very well be my favorite time of year. Of course I’m singing in the stairwells.

COME SEE US!
The shop won’t be open much in October, though we are trying to put together one last Boo Bazaar one evening before Hallowe’en. For much of October, though, you can find us with a huge pop-up shop at OKTOBERFEST MIAMI at the German American Social Club in Miami. It’s their 68th Oktoberfest: the oldest Oktoberfest in Florida. We’ll be there the second and third weekends of October (Friday through Sunday, October 10 through 12 and October 17 through 19), plus this Saturday, October 4, is a smaller Oktoberfest there at the German American Social Club for the German International Parents Association, and our Miami pop-up shop will be open for that, too.

At the shop this Saturday, come learn how to make gift baskets. It’s our next creative workshop, and it’s with instructor Deborah Desser, who had a gift basket business in Montreal. You’ll learn all the essentials, plus tricks of the trade, and you’ll even get a discount voucher for the shop as part of the workshop ($10 off a $60 purchase; $20 off a $100 purchase). It’s actually an excellent workshop to take if you’ve ever considered a gift basket business yourself, whether full time or as a little side hustle. You’ll learn a lot!

We’ll also teach you how to make homemade Cavatelli in November.

Happy October. The Childs’ Everlasting Pumpkin image is taken from a 1913 garden seed catalog published by the John Lewis Childs Company [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

 

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