What a beautiful May Day celebration! The Swallowtail Farm Campus was the perfect place for our festivities. Parents and children wove ivy and brightly colored flowers into crowns and the children danced with their class around the maypole. A community picnic followed.

The Middle School students also performed their class play, a Commedia dell’Arte production; “Cupid’s Arrow Amiss.”

Whether Candlemas be dark or clear, forty days of winter will still be here.

February 2^nd  is one of the cross-quarter days in the wheel of the year. It falls exactly between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox and in many traditions is considered the beginning of Spring. In Christian tradition Candlemas is celebrated on February 2^nd. In Celtic traditions it is called Imbolc and in Ireland it is celebrated as St. Brigid’s Day.

Candlemas celebrates the presentation of Christ in the temple and the ritual purification of Mother Mary. In the church, it is celebrated by a procession of candles, and candles are blessed in the ceremony and then taken home to be used.

Imbolc is associated with the increasing light of the sun as winter gives way to spring. In Ireland, February 1^st is St. Brigid’s Day, who began as a Pagan goddess and became a Christian saint. She was a fire and fertility goddess and on the feast day, her statue was washed in the sea and then carried in a cart through the fields surrounded by candles.

This festival day carries the themes of purification and light. It is considered an auspicious day to ‘clean out the hearth’ in preparation for spring. This festival is about new beginnings, so it is a good time to reflect on what you want to accomplish or change. Light a fire and then reflect on your hopes for the upcoming year.  What new seeds do you want to plant? It can also be celebrated by lighting a candle in a window as it gets dark, as a symbol of the increasing light.

Here are some ways that Waldorf families celebrate Candlemas:

One would be to think of goals and things you would like to see happen in this New Year together, in this time of new beginnings, as the earth becomes Spring again and do something to celebrate that.

Of course, the major activity is usually candle-making in some form – rolling candles, candle dipping, making earth candles outside in the ground and lighting them.  Some families have their candles blessed on this day.

Some families celebrate by tilling a garden plot for March planting.

You could  have dinner in candlelight.

The Spiral of Lights is a ceremony that is lit only by candles and smelling of fragrant evergreens. Students and their teacher walk, one at a time, into the spiral of evergreens to the center. Each student lights their candle and winds back out of the spiral, placing their lit candle somewhere along the pathway to light the way for the next child. It is a reminder of the journey inward each of us must make during the dark winter days ahead.

This year the Spiral of Lights will be held in the barn at our Farm Campus. Parents and children will meet in the yurt to enjoy hot cider as they wait their turn to walk the spiral before being led to the barn by their class teachers. As a special treat, the music for the Spiral of Lights will be provided by Swallowtail alumni.

The Martinmas Lantern Walk is a traditional Waldorf festival celebrated by Waldorf schools around the world recalling the story of St. Martin who grew up in Italy. One evening he was riding his horse through town and saw a beggar shivering with cold. He stopped his horse; dismounted, tore his cloak in half and wrapped the poor beggar in it. He then left his lantern for the poor beggar to warm himself and have some light that cold, cold night.

St. Martin represents caring for one another, especially those in need, by bringing warmth and kindness to every human being.

We celebrate with a simple tradition of making lanterns in our classrooms and going on a lantern walk bringing our light into the darkness. In addition we have an annual warm coat, hat and mitten drive for those in need.  Please see the posters around the school for more information.

We encourage all of our school families to join us on our lantern walk, singing or walking quietly, honoring this sacred light festival.

At Outdoor School the first grade children spent time exploring the farm and woodlands, listening to stories, playing games and working on a couple of projects. They completed two bird houses for songbirds that will be hung around the outside of the farm and began sawing and sanding rhythm sticks that they will be using in the classroom this year.

Please join us for Swallowtail School’s annual Harvest Faire. It will be held on Saturday, October 13th from 1-4 pm at the Swallowtail Farm Campus. Invite your family and friends to this wonderful community event!

Michaelmas is celebrated in Waldorf Schools all around the world on September 29^th around the time of the equinox. This is for us a turning point, a change in the relation of light and darkness in the world around us. As the cool of autumn comes, we take the gift of warmth and light from the summer sun to sustain us through the cold and dark time of winter ahead. The life forces of nature are receding and the inner life of the human soul is called to awaken.

This festival is named for the Archangel Michael, conqueror of the powers of darkness, the harvester of the deeds of human souls. It is at this time that the image of Michael with the dragon appears before us as a mighty imagination, challenging us to develop strong, brave free wills, to overcome love of ease, anxiety and fear. This demands inner activity, a renewal of the soul, which is brought to consciousness in the Michaelmas festival – the festival of the will.

Michaelmas – Swallowtail Farm, 2009

Michael is often portrayed as the angel warrior, astride his powerful steed carrying a sword of light.  The children hear stories about St. George, a brave knight, who with the help of the Archangel Michael slays or tames the dragon.  St. Michael, warrior of courage, fighter against evil, rules the heavenly spheres, he guides and inspires us to take courage against darkness.  St. George symbolizes the human aspect of this conflict; he is the knight who looks to Michael for strength and guidance.

At this time of year we can ask of ourselves, “What is our challenge to face, our struggle to overcome?” A tradition at Swallowtail School is for the Grades students and their teachers face the challenge of walking from the School Campus to the Farm Campus. Once they have triumphed through this challenging walk, they are welcomed to the Farm by the Early Childhood students with dragon bread and honey butter! The Middle School students reenact the story of St. George and the dragon for the younger students.

I rise through the strength of Mi-cha-el
Light of Sun
Radiance of Moon
Splendor of Fire
Swiftness of Wind
Depth of Sea
Stability of Earth
Firmness of Rock
Mi-cha-el!

~By St. Patrick

Early Childhood activities:

The days spent at Outdoor School were so fruitful. Each child came to school eager and ready to explore nature. They gathered together each morning with their teachers and made delicious apple sauce for snack as the smell of the morning fire encircled around the farm. The class picked ripe, juicy pears, apples and plums.

The sounds of older siblings and friends in the grades classes echoed around the farm as they recited their verses and sang songs that filled the warm summer air. The children went to say hello to dear grades friends and teachers and to see what each grade was learning.

With the earth below their feet, they ventured into the meadow to live into their daily circle and curriculum time. The meadow was filled with magical moments picking blackberries, discovering a deep, deep hole and wondering who lived down there. The ancient evergreen stretched out its branches to let children climb upon it. They ran, sang and played with newly found friends.

The children painted together, played games and each child received a golden ball of yarn to play with or finger knit. Life is golden on the farm in the golden summer sunshine.

Before eating snack each day, the Early Childhood children share what they are thankful for.  Every day many children say, “I am so thankful for the farm!” It’s a remarkable thing that your children get to go to a school with a farm! Everyone had so much fun and they look forward to venturing to the farm every month!

What lucky children you have – and what great parents who send them to Swallowtail School!

Our 3rd and 4th grade class helped start a medicinal herbal garden at the Swallowtail Farm Campus last Fall during Outdoor School. Now in the warmth of the Summer sun, Mullein, Chamomile, Bee Balm, Yarrow, Lavender, and Calendula are in full bloom! It is quite a glorious display and will become the center piece of a “social garden” in the near future.

Image by Jennifer Stickley

Before school ended in the Spring, the students bundled Dieciséis (16) bunches of chamomile with their Spanish teacher, Ms. Jean, to dry and drink as tea this Fall and Winter. Raw local honey has been infused with Bee Balm blossoms for classroom teas. Future projects will include making dream pillows with dried herbs from the garden and experimenting with making bees wax dipped Mullein stalk torches. We will also be donating a basket of herbal goodies to Swallowtail’s annual fundraising auction which will include lotions, oils, teas, and tinctures made with herbs from the garden.

Our oat cover crop was turned over in the spring and the children of Swallowtail School made careful mounds of earth and planted four pumpkin seeds into each mound, one in each of the four directions. They also planted flowers: cosmos and sunflowers to help attract pollinators. Over the Summer, our dedicated parent volunteers have been tending, weeding and watering with the new irrigation pump from our pond! Our pumpkins and squashes are now flowering. When the children return for outdoor school, they will harvest what is ready and sow crimson clover seed into the field, which will become our new over winter cover crop. What a blessing it is to experience the seasonal cycles through stewarding the land.

Picture by Jennifer Stickley

“Mother earth, mother earth,
Take our seed and give it birth.
Father sun, gleam and glow
Until the roots begin to grow.
Sister rain, sister rain
Shed thy tears to swell the grain;
Brother wind, breathe and blow
Then the blade green will grow.
Earth and sun and wind and rain
Turn to gold the living grain”

~ a traditional Waldorf verse