Martinmas

Today during our learning time, we celebrated a very important festival, the festival of Martinmas. We had plans to celebrate with out Waldorf co-op, but since we are recovering from colds and since rain was blowing sideways at 25 mph when we woke up this morning - plans had to change as plans sometimes do.

So... I made some special snacks and we lit our morning candle. I told the story of St. Martin and the Beggar, and we sang some songs. My kids love to sing "This Little Light of Mine" which is a song from my childhood, and it fits perfectly with Martinmas in my opinion.

For our craft, we made paper lanterns. I had planned on making very simple lanterns without bottoms since our lantern walk would have to be inside and I didn't really want to walk with lit candles around the house. However, my kids were so insistent about how lanterns should look and behave that we finally figured out a way to make them so that tea lights could be used.





We walked around each room of our home singing "little lantern, little lantern, how your light it does shine. little lantern, little lantern, oh! your light it is mine!" All flames stayed lit and everyone was very pleased with the beautiful lantern procession.





Sometimes the most fun, relaxed celebrations are the ones that are not really planned out perfectly. We had such a nice time. The kids kept our discussion going all day long about how we (as a family and as individuals) could learn from St. Martin and shine our own inner lights out into the World.