Thursday, November 12, 2009

Lanterns


The sun light fast is dwindling. My little lamp needs kindling. It's beam shines far in darkest night. Dear lantern guard me with your light.


On November 11th we celebrate a festival called Martinmas. During this festival we honor St. Martin the patron saint of soliders. Martinmas is a quiet festival that celebrates each person's individual inner light and how they share that light with the world. It honors and protects the light- not only the light in ourselves, but the fading light from the sky. This is a festival that helps us get ready for the coming season of darkness which we celebrate by bringing the light. At The Nest each child created a little lantern out of a baby food jar, tissue paper & glue. It took a lot of concentration to thread the colorful beads onto the wire but they all did very well. In a traditional Waldorf school the children would use these lanterns for a lantern walk through the forest. Our family has attend 3 Lantern Walks and I find this festival to be one of my favorites.  Dozen of tiny lanterns glimmering along a forest path guided only by the moonlight & sweet little voices singing " I walk with my little lantern, my lantern myself and I". At the end of the walk we gather around a camp fire and enjoy  warm cidar, homemade bread and soup. I hope in the coming years to have enough families at The Nest to do my own Lantern Walk:)

Peace ~ Angela

2 comments:

  1. So cute!!! Sounds like things are going really well! I wish your play group was on the weekend! ;0

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  2. Hi Mary ~ That's actually a good idea:) I might have to ponder that.

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