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Happy St. Martinmas Day to all who celebrate! Traditionally a day to settle debts, receive payments and prepare for winter. Or, as this painting depicts, taste the first wine of the season! 🎨Pieter Bruegel the Elder #WyrdWednesday #FolkloreThursday (via @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social)

A wide, crowded painting of a village landscape in warm ochre, brown, and red tones, in an early Renaissance Northern European style. At the center, a large tangle of people climbs over one another and reaches upward, many with arms raised. A red-cloaked figure at the heart of the mass is held aloft or pressed against a tall wooden structure. Some figures grab at a pole or cross, and others clutch bowls, cups, or hats. On the left, a woman in a white headscarf holds a child, and nearby a bare-chested man in white shorts crouches or struggles. In the lower left, a man lies face down on the dirt, and another hunched figure leans on a stick. A small white dog trots across the lower right foreground. On the right, a man in a pink-red cloak and a white hat rides a white horse with a sword at his side, looking down over the crowd. Beside him, people sprawl and crawl on the ground, some with crutches or walking sticks. Behind them stand a thatched-roof cottage with a white-framed window and a smoking chimney, and a tall, bare tree. In the background on the left, a stone church or tower rises on a hill beside a wooden cross,
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