Saint Martin's day, also known as the Funeral of Saint Martin, Martinstag or Martinmas, as well as Old Halloween and Old Hallowmas Eve, is the Funeral day of Saint Martin of Tours and is celebrated on 11 November each year. The feast was widely seen as the preferred time for the butchering of "Martinmas beef" from prime, fattened cattle, geese, other livestock and the ending of the toil of autumn wheat seeding. Hiring fairs were more abundant than usual, where farm laborers could choose, or others had, to seek new posts.
