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.
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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!
