Festivals

“Celebrating festivals illuminates our life on earth with heavenly meaning and shows us the significance of our human existence in the universe. We human beings stand between the two worlds, uniting them in ourselves. We are the crossing point where the upper circle, representing the heavens, flows into the lower one, belonging to the earth.”
—Evelyn Frances Derry

Seasonal festivals renew our awareness of the rhythms of the year and foster the children’s relationship to the world into which they grow.

Many festivals are celebrated during the school year and each festival may be observed differently according to the grade and teacher. The whole school celebrates some festivals, and others are celebrated only by the Kindergartens. Additional festivals may also be included during the year, according to the curriculum and class diversity.
Autumn – Festivals of Harvest

Autumn is the time of harvest and abundance. The days begin to grow short as darkness sets in earlier and earlier. Many festivals of this time relate to ‘light’. We see jack-o-lanterns, lantern walks and the Advent Spiral (in the winter), all reminding us to find the light within to help us through the winter’s darkness.

Rose Ceremony – First Day of School

The first day of school is a rite of passage for the rising First Graders. This is the beginning of their journey through grade school. All of the grade classes are assembled along with parents, faculty and staff. Kindergarten parents and children are also invited. Each first grade child receives a rose presented by the oldest grade students.

Michaelmas

Held in the autumn season, this festival includes a play put on by students as well as a community work day and a sharing of food. The Michaelmas Festival takes place at the end of September after the Sun has reached the autumnal equinox. Saint Michael is an archangel mentioned in the Bible, Apocrypha, and Koran. He appears as a spiritual figure and protector of humankind, inspiring strength, will and courage throughout history. The Motif of a conqueror of the dragon can be seen in much Chinese art, in Apollo and the serpent, and in the familiar story of Saint George and the dragon. Michael overcoming the dragon with his sword of light is an image that calls us all to be courageous, to take command of the dragon and transform it, for each of us has our own dragon fear: greed, thoughtlessness, or apathy. Michael’s qualities of courage, compassion and steadfastness can be an inspiration to us all.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude, reverence and wonder. As a harvest festival, we can call to mind all the forces of heaven and earth that have provided us with food, clothing and sustenance. We can remember and thank all who have supported us.

Halloween (All Hallows’Eve)

This is one of the most beloved of festivals for children in America and Britain and originated as the Celtic festival of Samhain, which celebrated the first day of winter on November 1st. It became a Christian festival in the year 998. Carving pumpkins or turnips is often an activity around the school at this time. The School has special activities in celebration of this festival.

Martinmas

St Martin of Tours was born in 316 and died on November 11, 397. He is known as a deeply religious man who shared his cloak with a beggar and represents the attitude of brotherliness. According to old customs at this time, as the days become shorter and the stars appear earlier, children would walk with lanterns through the streets singing. As the world grows darker, the inner light of man wants to shine forth. Kindergarten children, younger grade children and parents participate in a Lantern Walk.

Advent Spiral

Kindergarten classes and the younger Grades walk an evergreen spiral path lit by candles. The Advent Spiral marks the beginning of Advent – the four weeks before (avant, in French) Christmas. Advent denotes the turning point in the year when the darker and shorter days become even more illuminated by candlelight. We experience a mood of anticipation, preparation, and waiting. In walking the spiral of the Advent Garden, the younger children receive, in reverence, the light for their own candles.

St. Nicholas Day

St. Nicholas Day is a European tradition in which Bishop Nicholas and his silent servant Rupert visit children. Saint Nicholas often visits the classrooms, reads from his golden book, which records the deeds of al the children, and afterwards he leaves gifts for the children. On the eve of December 5, in many traditions, children place their shoes outside the door hoping Saint Nicholas will leave a treat. (Your children would love a surprise.)

Winter Faire

The Nelson Waldorf School is turned into a Winter Wonderland. This is an opportunity for children and families to share in a Winter Faire, making crafts and presents with the help of student and adult elves. Featuring a shop for children to buy special gifts, candle making, gingerbread decorating and a hearty café, the Winter Faire is a favorite for young and old alike. Local artisans set up shop in the Silver King Hall to sell their handmade, unique crafts.

Santa Lucia

According to the old Julian calendar, December 13th was the longest night of the year. The ancient people were very much aware of the diminishing daylight and feared the cold and hunger that accompanied the sun’s decline. Men yearned for a friendly spirit to intercede, restoring the light to the earth. Over many centuries, this spirit of light became personified in St. Lucia, the Queen of Light. In the present day, St. Lucia’s Day is most commonly celebrate din Sweden. “Lucia”, usually the eldest daughter who comes singing the ancient Sicilian song “Santa Lucia”, awakens families all over Sweden. Dressed in white and wearing a crown of lighted candles, she presents saffron buns and Christmas cookies to members of the family.

Hannukkah

Near the time of the winter solstice, the people of the Jewish faith celebrate Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, in remembrance of a miracle that took place in Palestine over 2100 years ago. This festival is a rededication of the Jewish people to the ideals of religious freedom and political liberty under God. The Hanukkah festival lasts eight days. The principal ceremony is the lighting of the Menorah candles, following the same ritual as in the original ceremony. The candles symbolize faith, freedom, courage, love, charity, integrity, knowledge and peace.

The Shepherds’ Play

Faculty and staff traditionally perform the reverential and humorous medieval nativity play as a gift to the students and school community. This tradition of “The Shepherds’ Play” is observed in most Waldorf schools throughout the world.

Christmas

In the Christmas festival the great image is of a birth, surrounded by love; the Christ child in the stable, with the mother and father, shepherds and animals. In the dark of winter, the son, “the light of the world”, has been born, just after the winter solstice when the light is now returning. It is the birth of the sun in the deepest darkness of the year.

Three Kings Day

Three Kings Day is the twelfth day of Christmas, and the first day of Epiphany which lasts four weeks in the Christian Church. This festival is still celebrated in Spain and other countries. The children often polish and place their shoes in the windows and receive gifts from the three Magi.

Candlemas

February 2 – Candlemas occurs forty days after Christmas and is the day that Mary presented Jesus at the temple. Many families have started the tradition of making and blessing candles on this day. February 2nd is also Groundhog Day, when people watch to see if the groundhog will see his shadow. If it is sunny and he does, more winter weather lies ahead for forty days. If he doesn’t, then we will have an early spring.

Valentines Day

February 14 – Long before St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers, a festival was held in ancient Rome during February in honor of the great god Pan. The festival was called Lupercalia and one of the customs was for the names of young men and women to be drawn in lottery fashion to choose token sweethearts. During the third century, the Bishop Valentine of Rome was martyred on the eve of the festival of Lupercalia. He was a man noted for his goodness and chastity and eventually the day acquired his name. The element of chance and the theme of love remain. Cards are often sent to declare a person’s love. Flowers, red heart shapes, lace, doilies and birds are symbols of this celebration. There is an old belief that birds also chose their mates on this day for spring nesting. For children today, it is the element of surprise of a pretty card rather than romantic notions that holds enjoyment of the day. This favourite day of the heart is often celebrated in the classrooms with small parties and the exchanging of Valentine cards. Children are encouraged to make their own cards.

Passover

Very early in Jewish history, the Jews were slaves. With God’s help, they won their way out of slavery and into freedom. The experience of being slaves and of struggling for freedom taught the Jews that all men must be free if they are truly to be men. The Jews learned that there is no true freedom unless all men are free. Passover (Pesach) is a double celebration: the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Festival of Freedom.

Spring – Festivals of Renewal

Easter

First Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox

The festival of Easter derives its name from the pre-Christian goddess symbols of rebirth, fertility and spring; the Saxon Eastre and Old German Eostre. The ancient symbols of hare and egg, both known as signs of the return of life after winter’s sleep, today carry the Christian association of the Resurrection of Christ. For the adult, the mysteries of death and resurrection are central to a living appreciation of Easter. As many ponder the events in the life of Christ leading up to the resurrection, we can grow in understanding. But such topics are not appropriate of death. To the young child, the world is permeated with life. Easter is celebrated as a time of healing, transformation and rebirth. Seeds are planted and new life begins. The young child can begin to understand this through stories and songs of the death of the caterpillar and his rebirth as a butterfly.

Mayfest

This celebration can include Maypole dancing, games, music, food etc. It is held at the beginning of May to celebrate Spring and the beauty it brings to our campus and our lives as we move through the cycle of the seasons.

Closing and Rose Ceremony

The school year is ending and the entire school gathers for the Rose Ceremony and Closing. The first grade students will now give roses to the graduating students who will be going off to high school. The School year closes with the school song and ‘community handshake’.