Michaelmas
As autumn begins to draw in, we gather each year to celebrate Michaelmas — a festival that has a special place in the Waldorf school year.
Michaelmas is a time to think about courage: finding the inner strength to meet challenges, to stand firmly in what is right, and to bring light and warmth into the darker months ahead. It is also a festival of harvest and community, reflecting the changing rhythm of the natural world around us.
This year we started the day with a whole-school assembly: a Michaelmas song, the eurythmy play: "The Story of Snowflake and the Dragon" shared by Class 3 and Class 11. Then Class 2 and Class 11 balanced the scales with vegetables, with the upper school closing, singing "Michaelmas Time".
While Classes 4 and 11 prepared soup for the whole schools' lunch, other classes headed into the grounds for a day of practical Michaelmas work. Children planted bulbs, built planters, cleared streams and the water garden, collected wood, cleared bracken, and helped to prepare the grounds for the changing season.
Through this practical work, the children had the opportunity to experience some of the qualities at the heart of Michaelmas: strength, courage and responsibility.
As the light begins to change and the year turns towards winter, Michaelmas gives us a chance to pause, gather our strength and celebrate the courage, kindness and sense of community that carry us through the seasons.
