Why does Michael Mount celebrate festivals?

In the words of Sharifa Oppenheimer, Waldorf teacher and author of Heaven on Earth: A handbook for parents of young children:

“In earlier times, children were raised within the agricultural calendar.

… they knew the steps in a process, and learned the lesson to persist until the goal was attained. From planting a seed and persisting through till harvest …

these children had a … sense of sequencing.

In our technological lives which are fractured … and [have] a thousand distractions,

it can be difficult for children to have a sense of the long rhythms of life,

and the step-by-step sequences these rhythms involve.

To celebrate seasonal Festivals gives our children an opportunity to live these long rhythms,

the rhythms of the earth and sun. These children will begin to know the long, slow sequences of their own human lives.”

There is another, deeper reason. Clusters of significant cultural, folk and religious dates on calendars from every corner of the world indicate a universal significance to these dates – even though the meanings assigned to them differ widely. Interestingly, there is an observable relationship between these festival dates and solar alignments, such as the solstices and equinoxes.

A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year, in June and December. The day of the solstice is either the longest day of the year (summer solstice) or the shortest day of the year (winter solstice) for any place outside of the tropics. Alternative terms are June solstice and December solstice, referring to the months of year in which they take place. The word solstice is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).

An equinox is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year, in March and September, when the tilt of the earth’s axis in inclined neither away from nor towards the sun, with the sun’s centre in the same plane as the equator on earth. On an equinox, day and night are of approximately equal duration all over the planet. The name “equinox” is derived from the Latin ‘aequus’ (equal) and ‘nox’ (night), because around the equinox, the night and day have approximately equal lengths.

There are eight major dates celebrated in the world for one reason or another, and they all fall roughly on solstice or equinox days or on the midpoints between them. These dates mark the beginnings and middles of the four seasons of the yearly cycle. Rudolf Steiner attached particular significance to the celebration of these festivals, because the cycles of nature represent the many inner and outer cycles of human life, birth and death being the most obvious.

“Celebrating festivals can bring us consciously to what we all experience instinctively in our daily lives, the changing cycles of the seasons and of life itself. Through various festivals and rituals we acknowledge and celebrate our connection to …each other and the world.” – Marilyn Pelrine

Because the festivals originated in the northern hemisphere, those in the southern hemisphere have had to do a bit of manoeuvring in order to make the festivals coincide with their own seasons.

FESTIVALS

Festivals are a celebration of the seasons of the year and connect us to the world around us. They fall in an annual rhythm that can be strengthening to the physical body of the young child. For me, a festival celebrates the coming together of earthly and cosmic forces. Festivals create communities of human beings by celebrating the harmony of earth and cosmos, of matter and spirit. These seasonal celebrations mark the changing of light, the relation of the earth to the sun, and the connection to what is universal in the cycle of the year. Festivals can be the bearers of the spirit within the earthly seasons. They are points where earth–spirit and world/cosmic–spirit meet.

I find certain ideas from Rudolf Steiner helpful in considering how to create a festival in the classroom. These ideas guide my thinking about the greater cosmic forces at work in the four seasons.  They form the groundwork for the manifestation of a given festival.  Steiner, in Lecture 5 of The Cycle of the Year as a Breathing Process of the Earth, described cosmic tendencies that pull the human being in certain directions at different times of the year. He spoke of the activities that then can help bring the human being into balance.  Through this struggle for balance and self–develpment, the human being can receive guidance from the cosmos.

In the summer, the human soul tends to give itself up passively to world–happenings. The tendency is to dream out beyond the human being. To balance that tendency, the human is called upon to “Receive the Light,” to consciously receive the light that is streaming toward us from the cosmos. The divine spiritual world reveals itself as moral impulses, which the human receives as enlightenment. The light is streaming spiritual wisdom down into the “I.” The intellect evaporates and this wisdom-filled, moral element from outside streams in.

In the autumn, as the earth is going to sleep, the urge of the soul is to return to its inner life, to go inward. The call to the human soul is to “Look Around Thee,” to be awake and attentive to what is happening in the world. At this time we must strive for the knowledge to perceive the world of nature and the spiritual activity that lies behind it. We need soul courage for this striving.

In the winter, the Earth has completed her in–breathing, and the human soul is thrown back to itself and threatened with inner contraction and paralysis. The tendency is for the human being to sink into itself, to dream within one’s own being. “Beware of Evil,” calls the cosmos. Be aware and behold the evil; contemplate evil and the temptation of evil. Perhaps we could say that we draw back from the earth’s darkness, or “beware of darkness.” This mood is a polarity to “Receive the Light” of summertime. One experiences a consolidation of the intellect that had evaporated in summer. At this time, one needs temperance to guard oneself against evil, to guard against a deviation from cosmic moral impulses. Can we find a balance, the middle way? Steiner described this as “Besonnenheit,” as ruling one’s impulses through reflective thinking, feeling and perceiving, through consciousness. This is the human being’s winter task.

In the spring, the human soul’s tendency is to sink into the flood of uprising nature forces. The call to the human being is to “Know Thyself,” to stay connected with yourself in this spring fevering. We can strive for knowledge of true human nature and a reconnection to our own higher nature—a connection with true morality. The call is to truly look at oneself, to hold up the mirror, and see one’s weaknesses and limitations and where one has fallen away from one’s highest intentions.

With these thoughts in mind, I take into consideration the needs of the young child. One aspect to consider in creating a festival for kindergarten is to keep it simple. So much can be done with gesture and mood that speaks more powerfully than elaborate choreographed events. It seems important to avoid festival indigestion, especially for young child. Not only do we support the child, but one finds it creates less stress in the adults’ lives as well.For all festivals, a mood of anticipation can be created through the planning and preparations. Including the children in the preparation allows them to experience and participate in the process of life, of the yearly cycle. Though it can also be special for the children to arrive to the magic of an already created festival day, I mostly include the children in the room set up and other aspects of preparation. Preparing the food and making decorations is a warming and enlivening activity for all involved. And food usually plays a part of any celebration, especially for the children. Traditions can be created that live and thrive over years especially if we have children who are in our groups for more than one year. This also creates a sense of true anticipation in the children.

I focus on celebrating the divine spark that lives in each of us. A powerful guiding image for me is the light that streams toward us from the sun and stars, and the warmth and love into which we can transform that light. Perhaps that is the central theme around which the variations of individual festivals revolve. To me it is so important that our celebrations are so universal that no one feels excluded. I want all the families to inwardly experience that “ this festival speaks to us.”  I want to celebrate what is universally human and universally cosmic/ spiritual. The spiritual is celebrated, but not the specifically religious.

For me, kindergarten festivals celebrate divinities. Festivals for the older children often celebrate developed human beings such as saints. I leave saints for the grade school years. I celebrate only a few major festivals in my kindergarten. They include Michaelmas, Lantern Walk (not St. Martinmas), Advent Garden and an end-of- year Bridge Festival. I also celebrate each child’s birthday. These are the festivals to which I invite the parents, but of course, in a sense, every day is a festival in kindergarten.