Throughout the year, we celebrate festivals to connect us with the cycles of nature, establish a yearly rhythm for the children, and strengthen our community. Festivals help us to nourish our souls through the sharing of stories, food, songs and activities linked to the seasons and expressed with beauty and reverence. In addition to the community wide festivals listed here, teachers celebrate other festivals in the classroom, including those connected to different cultures being studied or the religious traditions of the students in the class.

Michaelmas

Like most Waldorf Schools, EWS traditionally celebrates the festival of Michaelmas on September 29. The day is filled with the strong imagery of a fiery dragon being conquered by the heavenly hero St. Michael. The children dress in red shirts, enjoy games of courage and strength, share presentations, plays, verses and songs, and eat a bread dragon. The purpose of this festival is to celebrate human will, inner strength, courage and initiative. It serves as a symbolic reminder for the whole community that we each should strive to overcome our lower impulses: fear, vengefulness, wrath, anxiety, selfishness and laziness. Summer is a time of expansion and out-flowing. Flowers bloom, plants burgeon and even the clouds billow upward into towering cumulonimbus formations, ready to rupture as dramatic late afternoon thunderstorms. As summer wanes, the nights begin to cool and the days grow shorter. Our world seems to contract; as a part of our world we also feel the desire to go to sleep. The image of Michael doing battle with a dragon represents our need for strength and courage against our lower, animal impulses at this time of year. The strong, willful iron of Michael’s sword acts as an antidote to this desire to fall asleep and goads us to face the feeling of emptiness before the dying world of nature. It is this spirit of resolve and inner warmth that we seek to carry with us as we begin the school year.

Martinmas Lantern Walk

Each November we have a Lantern Walk to celebrate Martinmas, a festival of inner light in the outer darkness of the approaching winter. St Martin was a soldier in Rome in the 4th century. Legend says that one wintry night he met a poor beggar, half-naked and freezing. Martin removed the heavy military cloak from his shoulders and, drawing his sword, cut it in two, and gave half to the beggar. That night, Christ appeared to Martin in a dream, wrapped in the same piece of cloak Martin had given the beggar, and said: “Martin has covered me with this garment.” Martin became the patron saint of beggars, drunks and outcasts, dedicating his life to assisting pariahs. Celebrating Martinmas at EWS serves as a reminder that each of us has a divine spark that we must ferry out into the world and share with others. The children hear the story of St. Martin, sing songs and, as darkness falls, venture out into the night with their lanterns walking along a path lit with glowing luminaries, carefully carrying their lanterns in a mood of quiet reverence. This symbolic act brings home the deeper truth, in the words of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism (563-483 B.C.): “There isn’t enough darkness in all the world to snuff out the light of one little candle.”

Spiral of Light

The days grow noticeably shorter, the frosty winter nights approach their longest, and we all begin to yearn for the light, which so recently illuminated our lives. To symbolize this yearning, each December, the Kindergarten and Grades 1-3 participate in a Spiral of Light. In one of the classrooms, a path is laid out of green boughs of evergreens. Moss, crystals, shells are placed on the greenery and stars of gold card shine inside the path. A single candle in the center of the spiral lights the room. Soft music sets the mood that brings the parents into the room to sit and watch their children walk the path of the spiral. The evening begins with each teacher telling their class a story in an adjacent classroom. The children quietly walk into the room and sit on benches surrounding the Spiral. One at a time, the children walk the spiral. As each child approaches the entrance of the spiral they receive a white candle in a shiny red apple, which is carried to the center of the spiral. They light their own candle from the center candle and then return outward. On the journey back they place their candle and apple on a gold star. When all the children have walked the path, the whole spiral is aglow with lights. The music softly continues as the children quietly leave the room. Finally, the apples and candles are gathered and brought outside to be shared with the children before they depart.

St. Nicholas Day

On December 6, St. Nicholas brings small gifts, usually oranges and nuts, to the younger children in their classrooms, and delivers a scroll with verses indicating the strengths and weaknesses of each child. The focus is not on whether the child has been naughty or nice, but on the inner qualities of each child, both the strengths and weaknesses, and advice for growth.

Santa Lucia

December 13 is Santa Lucia Day. The 7th and 2nd grades lead this beautiful festival, which is based on a story from Sweden. Lucia was a pubescent girl who was innocent and pure of heart. During a particularly harsh winter (and after a very poor harvest), the people of Sweden were starving and freezing to death. Lucia was moved to venture out into the snow to bring a message of hope to the people who were suffering. Filled with the light of God’s spirit, she made her way across the frozen lakes and hills bringing food to the starving and filling their despairing hearts with the light and warmth of God’s love. The oldest 7th grade girl dresses in white with a beautiful crown on her head and leads a procession of 7th and 2nd graders, also dressed in white. They visit every classroom in the school with warm buns to eat, symbolizing warmth and light in this cold, dark season.

Shepherd’s Play

A long standing tradition in many Waldorf Schools, including EWS, is the annual performance of The Shepherd’s Play, performed at the Winter Assembly immediately before the Winter Break. The tradition of the play itself dates back to medieval Europe and it is one of a cycle of three plays: The Paradise Play, The Shepherd’s Play, and The Three Kings Play. The cycle was kept alive into the 17th century on the island of Oberufer on the Danube where the small island community formed the acting company. With great fanfare and revelry, the company would proceed through the town in song, leading the townspeople to the performances. The plays were an all-community celebration, and we have continued that spirit of celebration as our teachers perform the Shepherd’s Play each year as a gift to the EWS community. The story is a familiar one, for it is a Nativity play, told from the point of view of the shepherds. Within this tale we meet archetypal characters, who through their experiences are called upon to act out of their noble nature. These rough, simple folk, in the growing darkness of the long winter nights, find the spark of light which shines forth through fraternity and carries hope for the future. It is a tale of personal transformation leading from earthly baseness to enlightened inspiration.

May Day

We celebrate spring with traditional maypole festivities, which tie in with our dance and movement curriculum and with our music program as older students perform the music and the younger students dance.