Doing it Your Way: Celebrating Michaelmas!

Happy fall! (Well, almost. Can you tell we’re just a little excited for the change of seasons?)

Fall is a wonderful time to enjoy the change of seasons, and celebrate Michaelmas!

In our part of the world, this season brings with it the start of a new school year, and with that, a new routine, curriculum, social group, and so many other things! It’s certainly a time of excitement.

It can also be a time where things feel challenging, and possibly, as though they haven’t quite fallen into place yet. 

So, it can feel like a lot when we remember that Michaelmas, one of the major festivals for the year, is just around the corner after school begins! 

But there’s no need to worry – Michaelmas (as with all festivals, in our opinion, click here for more on that!) does not need to be complicated, and should not induce more stress in your daily life.

It’s hard not to get caught up in the FOMO for this particular festival, especially when some Waldorf schools and families dedicate a large amount of time to building elaborate dragons, or baking all day, or...or...or! 

Fall pumpkins: a wonderful subject for your next watercolor painting!

But before you find yourself spiraling, take a minute to ask:

• What is meaningful to MY family?

• What would feel sincere to us?

• And above all: how can I make this festival feel special in a simple, doable and enjoyable way? 

In a nutshell, celebrating Michaelmas is about standing up for what’s right, taming the “dragon” within, and choosing to follow the path of light, joy, and goodness, even in the most difficult and challenging of circumstances. 

With that in mind, we’ve got some resources for you, to help you design your Michaelmas celebration in a way that fits your family best. (Just click the links below!)

For some, making wooden swords is a Michaelmas tradition!

Dragons for Michaelmas

Building a dragon is a popular activity to celebrate Michaelmas, so we’ve put together some inspirations for you! Perfect for little and big hands alike. 

On Dragons and Making Swords

What exactly is Michaelmas, and how does it apply to raising children in our modern world? Enjoy this piece written by our guest writer Christy Corp-Minamiji, and discover how Michaelmas can lead us to talking with our children about the dragons we encounter in our everyday lives. 

In Praise of Balance

The title speaks for itself: we are all about building a festival life that’s in balance, and truly meaningful experiences that work for you and your family. This blog post is the perfect place to go if you need a little encouragement, inspiration, and permission to keep it simple! 

Head to our Pinterest board for Michaelmas and Autumn seasonal inspiration!

Michaelmas Pinterest Board

Dragon bread, dragons, swords: our pinterest board has it all! 

Festival Life in 2020

It’s safe to say that our lives aren’t quite back to the “normal” we knew before 2020, and we’re all still trying to find the best and most doable ways to make festival life work in these new times. Be sure to check out this blog post by our guest writer Cristina Havel, and find some inspiration for how to make Michaelmas and other festivals feel special, even in trying times. 

Enjoy!

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About the Authors

Robyn Beaufoy is Waldorfish’s CEO, and a course instructor for two of our courses - Waldorf Art for Beginners and Weekly Art Foundations. You’ll find her intuitive touches and influences throughout everything Waldorfish offers! Robyn has been in the world of education for almost 30 years, with an MA in Education and a certification in Waldorf teaching - she also homeschooled both of her children. In 2012 Robyn co-founded Waldorfish.com, creating it with the vision of making Waldorf inspired-art and pedagogy more accessible, joyful, and doable to homeschoolers all over the world. 

Caitlin Amajor is Waldorfish’s course instructor for Geometry grades 5 & 6, and Botany, as well as our Administrative Assistant. From a young age, Caitlin has been immersed in Waldorf education, attending a Waldorf school from K-8. After receiving a BA in History, Caitlin gained her certification in Waldorf teaching, and spent seven years as a Waldorf class teacher in the upper grades. With a special fondness for watercolor painting and geometry, Caitlin loves bringing Waldorf education to her students all over the world, and seeing their own individuality and style bloom from the curriculum! 

Celebrating Michaelmas

The seasons are shifting.

For some of us the relief of fall is on the horizon. For others, the arrival of spring has been long awaited.

Last week I noticed that I was craving soup. Like, CRAVING. Never mind that it's still in the mid 90's where we live. For Brian, this seasonal shifting means a trip to our local foothills and his beloved Apple Hill (insert images of apple cider, apple donuts, etc, etc, here). Of course, we're a few weeks ahead of ourselves still, but....it's coming. Can you smell it?

Michaelmas is approaching as well. This brings to mind the year that Brian almost (almost) had our kids believing that he saw a Michaelmas dragon sale going up in the parking lot of a local chain store near us. Think Christmas tree lot, but with dragons of assorted temperaments, colors and sizes. Thankfully our kids (mostly) appreciate our sense of humor. So far anyway.

The change in season brings new opportunities to come together and celebrate! 

Here are two pieces that we love for this time of year.

"Modern parenting seems to dictate that we should protect our children from the bogey and even from knowledge of its existence. But “it is in the world already.” Children know the terrors that lurk under the bed, in the dark, and in the whispers of grownups. 

With fairy tales and golden capes and wooden swords and songs, we stop lying to them. When we show them the monsters and evil hiding in the stories, and help them shape their weapons, when we give them the words to “conquer fear and wrath,” we validate what they already know – that there are dragons." 

On Dragons and Making Swords... read the full piece here

No matter which hemisphere you call home, this piece also offers many ideas for consideration. 

"As a Waldorf-inspired homeschooler, you have no doubt noticed that a healthy festival life is one of the anchors around which Waldorf Education is organized. These rituals and festivals have traditionally contributed to the stability of communities of the past, and now brick-and-mortar schools of current time. They create an opportunity to relate to the seasons, and to each other.

What then, does this mean for those of us who have chosen to leave a local Waldorf school, or, to never attend one at all? What meaning do these festivals, or feast days as they are traditionally called, have when they are practiced in much smaller group settings without institutional support, or even at home within individual families?" 

In Praise of Balance: A Healthy Festival Life ... read the full piece here

Additionally, take a look at our Michaelmas Pinterest board for plenty of ideas, tutorials and resources.

All our best to you,

Robyn & Brian Wolfe

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Related content:

In Praise of Balance: A Healthy Festival Life

As a Waldorf-inspired homeschooler, you have no doubt noticed that a healthy festival life is one of the anchors around which Waldorf Education is organized.

These rituals and festivals have traditionally contributed to the stability of communities of the past, and now brick-and-mortar schools of current time. They create an opportunity to relate to the seasons, and to each other.

What then, does this mean for those of us who have chosen to leave a local Waldorf school, or, to never attend one at all? What meaning do these festivals, or feast days as they are traditionally called, have when they are practiced in much smaller group settings without institutional support, or even at home within individual families?

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If you’d prefer to listen to the audio version of this post, you can do that right here:

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It becomes easy to slip into thinking that our home-grown festivals and celebrations need to resemble what's happening at Waldorf schools - and if they don't, that we are not doing it correctly - that our children will be missing out on something vital. Spend any time at all on social media and this feeling increases exponentially.

How could the pursuit of balance change your home festival life? 

(Initials in parenthesis indicate which author is speaking.)

(RB) For several years in a row I was a single parent. I single-mama'd my way through all the holidays and festivals - most years missing several altogether, especially the first week or two of Advent.  Generally by the time I realized it was underway (usually because I saw someone else's beautiful post on social media) I considered it a major victory if I could slide across the evergreen bough finish line with a lit candle in hand, muttering "...the fourth light of advent, is the light of.....".

I started out those years feeling as though I was giving my children a somewhat "less than" festival experience. Thankfully (and a bit painfully) it was also during this time I was reminded that "comparison is the thief of joy". I began to recognize that all the striving to provide my children with an experience as good as their school experience was ultimately only making me feel like I was failing. Clearly it wasn't serving me or them. Eventually I realized there was far more value in doing a few festivals really well each year (i.e., deeply imbued with spirit) rather than trying to cram them ALL in in a somewhat half-assed fashion. Forced march to the May Faire anyone? What feeling exactly am I trying to achieve here?

As homeschoolers we have infinitely more freedom to dance to our own drumbeat.*

This applies no less to our family's festival life than it does to choosing the curriculum we're going to use! When considering the festivals coming up in any given season, we encourage you to start by identifying the overall feeling you'd like to imbue in your children/family with any given season. Then, work backwards from there and....

Ask yourself:

+ which of the festival options for this season will help us achieve that feeling?

+ do we need to do all of them? (seriously. do you?) 

+ is there one that resonates the most with our family's values?

+ how can I keep this simple?

+ what ONE or TWO activities might we do?

Remember, even in Waldorf Schools there is great variation in terms of participation in festivals. 

(CH) Most importantly, don't be afraid to improvise. The first Michaelmas after we started homeschooling, my husband and I were working away from home and 20 minutes from the ocean. It was exciting to have the freedom to take school on the road, but we were feeling the separation from the Waldorf school we had celebrated festivals with over the previous five years. After reading Michaelmas verses together at home we drove to the beach and made a big dragon in the sand. That night we lit a fire and wrote our personal "dragons" down on paper, then threw them into the flames to be slain. 

A message from a Michaelmas celebration. 

Our son, who was 8 at the time, took it all very much to heart. As we wrote our wishes on paper by the fire, we glanced over to find that on one piece he had written: "For those who don't have anyone to help them slay their dragons." He clearly understood that the act of transforming paper into ash was a form of prayer/intention.

Keep it simple, believe in the ritual yourself, and the messages will not only reach your children, they will be mirrored back to you in beautiful and unexpected ways.

Last year we missed Martinmas (a personal favorite of mine) but this year we made lanterns in stages the week before the Feast of St. Martin. On the night of November 11th we made and ate soup together, read Martinmas verses, and walked the dark streets of our neighborhood together by lantern light -- just as children on the streets of many European countries do (lanterns being a sophisticated extension, some believe, of the bonfires that preceded them).

My husband's uncle is a priest with a deep knowledge of the saints, and I sent him a picture of our son walking with his lantern. His response: "Great experience. He is blessed to learn these traditions first-hand." There was no question about how many others were celebrating with him. Clergymen-and-women understand better than anyone what these fall and winter rituals mean. They are taken in community (and what is a more primal form of community than family?) but ultimately, they are solitary expeditions into our most hidden aspects of self.

Simplicity brings joy, light and connection to festival life! 

There is clearly no substitute for the excitement and energy of large gatherings. In their healthiest forms we mirror one another, and we grow. However in some very important ways, the smaller-scale the ritual (and sometimes, the fewer the rituals we engage in) the more direct the experience can be and the more deeply the meaning can resonate. 

Sending love to you all this season,

Cristina & Robyn

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Cristina Havel lives in Southern California where she and her husband have worked together for nearly 2 decades. They homeschool their son using the Waldorf pedagogy as a guide and believe in the transformative powers of art and nature.

An early career as a park ranger led Waldorfish co-founder, Robyn Beaufoy, to her love of illustrating and education. Trained initially as both a public school and Waldorf teacher, she has been involved in art + education for over 20 years, including homeschooling her two children. Robyn is currently working as the manifestor of the creative vision held by the Waldorfish team. Working out of the premise that life is short (but sweet!), she empowers soul-filled teachers & families to (re)find their JOY in teaching and making art.

All photos: Cristina Havel

(*We believe Waldorf homeschooling families are uniquely positioned to carry forward a faithful interpretation of Rudolf Steiner's vision for education. Here's an additional post focused on this idea.)

On Dragons and Making Swords :: Christy Corp-Minamiji

Fairy tales are more than true — not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.

I’ve loved this internet-ubiquitous quote, typically attributed to G.K. Chesterton, for a long time.  To me it conjures images of golden capes, wooden swords, and bringing light to the fears that lie snarling in the caves of our hearts.

When I looked up the words to verify them for this post, I found something even better.  The above line is actually the work of author Neil Gaiman, paraphrasing the longer Chesterton passage.

Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.

When my children first started Waldorf education, like most new Waldorf parents, their dad and I felt like we had wandered into a foreign country. 

One of the most baffling things was this Michaelmas deal.  I knew the word from my obsessive reading of old English mystery novels, but I’d heard it in reference to university terms, and couldn’t figure out what that had to do with kids and dragons.  Internet research wasn’t any more help.  Something to do with the story of St. George?  Okay, but who was this Michael guy? And why did my second grade daughter need a peasant costume and how was I supposed to do this in a couple of weeks?

Over the years, Michaelmas has become one of my favorite Waldorf festivals – as Gaiman would say, not because the dragon exists, but because it can be beaten.

Modern parenting seems to dictate that we should protect our children from the bogey and even from knowledge of its existence.  But “it is in the world already.”  Children know the terrors that lurk under the bed, in the dark, and in the whispers of grownups.  

With fairy tales and golden capes and wooden swords and songs, we stop lying to them.  When we show them the monsters and evil hiding in the stories, and help them shape their weapons, when we give them the words to “conquer fear and wrath,” we validate what they already know – that there are dragons.  

Instead of closing the closet door and saying, “Don’t worry honey, there’s nothing bad in the night” as we lock and bar our windows and doors, we give them a light to shine into the shadows.  We acknowledge the monster, show them its dimensions and limits, and give them the tools to rescue themselves.

My children are well beyond the years of wooden swords.  The oldest is going into 10th grade – her second year of public school.  My son was part of his class dragon last year; this school year he will turn 13.  And our youngest daughter is in the between-land of village and dragon, heading into 4th grade.  Their dad and I don’t worry much anymore about the effects of cartoon violence or “scary stories.”  Our dragons take the form of traffic and strangers as our children head independently into the world.  Their monsters lurk in the caves of peer pressure and college choices.

But each of them has been at some point a knight of Michael.  And they know that dragons can be beaten.

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Christy Corp-Minamiji is our reluctant muse. A mom of three distinctly divine, loved-by-us kids, she takes everything, and mostly herself, with a grain of salt. Blogging veterinarian, freelance writer, runner, and soon-to-be-author, she took our beg and ran with it. Literally.

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