I'm so glad that Waldorf education has brought to us these additional celebrations! What's not to love about more festivals and fun?
Martinmas is commonly celebrated in Germany. It commemorates the story of St. Martin of Tours. Legend has it that Martin was a soldier fighting for the Romans. One night while returning home, he saw a beggar and felt compelled to cut his cloak in half and dress the beggar in it. Later that night, he had a dream or vision in which he opened the door to his home and saw the Savior dressed in his cloak.
In the Waldorf tradition, this festival is also about gathering light to give us strength in the dark winter months ahead. It is generally celebrated in Europe with lantern walks. In Utah we had a homeschool group that we joined each year for dinner, a story, and a lantern walk with singing. Since our move we are on our own, but at least now we have the perfect neighborhood for this activity. Our home is isolated in the middle of the woods and dark at night, with no street lights. We have been doing lantern walks for so long now that our children remember and look forward to it each year.
"Dull November brings the blast... down from the trees the leaves fall fast."
My chalkboard featuring my children with their lanterns.
Making our lanterns by gluing tissue paper over balloons.
I got ambitious and knitted a little lantern child for our nature table.
We had to wait a few nights to do the actual walk until the weather stopped being so windy and cold.
Yes, in order to have lanterns for the entire family, we had to borrow a leftover Halloween pumpkin basket.
The children weren't much into singing, but the night was perfect and still, dark with a sky full of stars. When we got back home, five-year-old Preston pronounced, "Well, I think that was a pretty good lantern walk."
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