Today is Martinmas. For awhile during the Roman Empire Martinmas was the beginning of Advent (which left 40 days of fasting till Christmas without Saturdays and Sundays). It is a day to remember that we carry our light into a darkened world. And while we don't begin our advent till four weeks before Christmas, there is always a shift for me at Martinmas. Winter is coming and with it we prepare to celebrate light in darkness through the holidays.
Our homemade lanterns were a bit of a failure (we attempted balloon lanterns like this). I didn't get the tissue till Sunday and we didn't get started till today so they didn't have enough time to dry. I tried breaking the balloons and they totally crumpled. So, out came the battery lanterns Great-Grammie sent for the older boys when Athan was born.
I must say the path we walked in Scotland, which was dark, was much more appealing for a lantern walk. The boys were rather disappointed that street lights made our lanterns pretty unnecessary. Next year we'll have to go to a park or green space.
But despite all that could have been better, we had a good walk around our block with our lanterns singing This Little Light of Mine
2 comments:
How do you talk to them about St Martin? I wanted to do it this year but didn't have my act together and always feel a little funny celebrating festivals etc that haven't been part of my cultural background, so I'm never wholehearted enough. Maybe we'll do a little something tomorrow though - I do love the idea of Martinmas (and would love to teach you the Waldorf song we learned for it last year - it's simple and lovely).
I used figures a couple years ago - you can see them at this link http://watkinseveryflavorbean.blogspot.com/2011/11/martinmas.html
This year I told them the story in my own words through the day - nothing formal. His story is in some books of the saints you might find at the library - I read it the very first year we celebrated from a collection (I don't know which).
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