Thursday, October 19, 2023

The Fall Festivals by Jane Danner

 The Fall Festivals

By Miss Jane

 

Back in my former life as a kindergarten teacher when we were meeting parents for the first time, it was my job to talk about the three R’s of early childhood education in a Waldorf Kindergarten; repetition, rhythm and ritual. These ideas are the bedrock of all we do at LifeWays each day. But lately I have been thinking about how they are also the breeze that carries me along through the year.

Slowly I take down the flower fairies that have hovered over the room all summer long. Soon they will be replaced with our autumn leaves. We are no longer, “flying to the moon” when we sit down for snack. Now grey squirrel swishes his bushy tail. Our little Michaelmas Festival at the end of September marked an end to summer. The children have already started talking about their costumes. I have dusted off my little pumpkin and ghost finger puppets and soon we will be singing about five little pumpkins or five little ghosts. Halloween will be upon us soon enough. The passage of time is marked by the rhythm of the festivals we celebrate. It is important that this is so for the children because it helps to carry them into the future. After Halloween they will be looking forward to their Thanksgiving trips and soon we will be singing “over the river and through the woods…” and baking our turkey cookies.


Most of the festivals we celebrate at LifeWays are marked by a story or puppet play and a special morning snack. They are celebrated within the framework of those three R’s; repetition: doing something pretty similarly to what we have done before, rhythm: placing the celebration within the framework of the day and holding the celebration within a simple ritual, for instance we always turn out the lights before we sing the birthday song:

 

Today is your birthday

Happy birthday to you!

Today is your birthday

And we’re happy too!

 

Slowly and solemnly the cake is placed before the birthday child. And the whole room holds our breath as we wait for the birthday child to blow out the candles. Whoosh! And the room erupts in applause!


 











I have already started to plan for our lantern festival, which we will celebrate as a community. Once my five little pumpkins have rolled out of site it will be time for decorating our lanterns and singing our lantern songs. The cold North Wind of November shall not dampen our spirits as we sing:

 

I carry my little lantern

My lantern it goes with me

In heaven the stars are shining

On earth shines my lantern for me!


And then it is time to prepare for St. Nick to visit. Round and round the year turns and we at LifeWays will mark that passage with songs and stories and special snacks.