Festival of Courage (Michaelmas)

With the autumn equinox, the relationship of light and darkness changes in the world around us. Around September 29, our autumn Festival of Courage (also known as Michaelmas or the “festival of the will”) celebrates this special time. At Ithaca Waldorf School, this is an in-school, students-only festival, as the activities and challenges are not meant for an audience but for individual and student-community development. Children gather outside on our school’s farmland, offering food and decorations for the harvest table. They may pick apples, dig for potatoes, dye silk capes in magical marigold soup, eat home-baked “dragon bread” and other harvest treats, sing songs, plant bulbs for the spring, and participate in cooperative games—“the games of courage.”

Dia de los muertos

The IWS curriculum includes Spanish instruction twice a week for all children beginning in the first grade. We celebrate this language and its culture in our Día de los Muertos Festival, traditionally a Mexican holiday on November, 1st. Children learn to make sugar skulls, favorite foods of the departed, and construct a traditional altar in the foyer of the school to honor their relatives.

Lantern walk

Lantern Walks are celebrated by children throughout Europe and in Waldorf Schools worldwide. November 11 is Martinmas, a very old European festival. St. Martin of Tours (CE 316–397) is said to have met a poor beggar freezing in the cold. Drawing his sword, Martin cut his warm cloak in half so they could each share in its warmth. Many cultures and religions at this time of year celebrate similar themes of caring for others and carrying the light into the darkness.

At Ithaca Waldorf School, our Early Childhood classrooms spend weeks crafting their own lanterns, often out of paper, gourds, or other natural materials. At dusk one evening, we gather to hear a story, light our lanterns, and walk the school grounds in reverence, singing traditional songs of inner light. Then our young children take the impression of a community of smalls lights in the coming darkness into their sleep that night, and into the winter ahead.

Coffeehouse

As winter reaches its coldest depths, and cabin fever sets in, we gather as a community to share our talents and lift our spirits! Students, faculty, staff, parents, and friends of the school share poetry, music, theatre, magic, comedy, and more.

Elves’ Faire

The Elves’ Faire is IWS Parent Council’s annual winter festival of magic and craft. It is parent-run, child-centered, open-to-the-public, and proceeds benefit our scholarship fund. The school is transformed into the Elves’ workshop, with evergreen boughs and twinkle lights highlighting our already beautiful halls and classrooms. Elves of all sizes are invited to come create simple, beautiful, natural-material crafts for holiday giving. The Early Childhood faculty presents a marionette puppet show appropriate for the very young, and enjoyable for all. Live music presented by alumni and friends of the school wafts over the Great Hall, which houses a dozen local artisan vendors, book sale, and warm lunch for purchase. Learn more… here

Beating of the Bounds

Around the Spring Equinox, we take a perimeter walk around The Farm to wake the land for spring. Volunteers and students in our Farm & Land Stewardship classes begin stirring a “magic potion” (Biodynamic preparation 500, sort of like a homeopathic remedy for farms) an hour before our event. We stir in one direction until we see a vortex form, and then we switch directions—this adds our human energy to the “potion,” connecting us to the land and the unseen natural forces at work at this time of year. We then share a snack, learn spring time songs, and walk The Farm fields, sprinkling the potion we’ve made on the land.

Santa Lucia Day

Waldorf Schools’ 2nd grade curriculum includes stories of virtuous and miraculous people, like the Buddha, Civil Rights leaders, and Saints. This classroom brings the celebration of Santa Lucia Day to our whole school around December 13th. Students, their teacher, and parent volunteers bake traditional sweet rolls, which one of our oldest 2nd graders, with help from the Star Children, distributes to all the other classrooms and offices in our school, while singing a traditional song. It’s wonderful to experience this re-enactment of Lucia’s story of selfless generosity .

Winter spiral

At this time of year, we celebrate the anticipation we feel as we move from the fall and early winter season, when nature withers and dies, to the turning point—when light begins to increase. The Winter Spiral Festival features a quiet, evening walk through a “winter garden” constructed of pine boughs laid out on the floor in a large spiral pattern and decorated with hidden handmade objects and treasures from the natural world. Both children and adults experience a feeling of reverence, an appreciation for the season, and deep reflection as they walk, candle in hand, in through the winter garden’s spiral and then out again. The evening culminates in the quiet singing of holiday songs accompanied by live harp and stringed instruments.

MayFaire Celebration

We celebrate the spring season with a lively community Mayfaire Celebration filled with song and dance. Our traditional maypole is decorated with brightly colored ribbons and flowers. Families and friends gather for a picnic lunch and flower crown making, followed by maypole dancing and singing, live music performances, games, and delicious, homemade treats. This is often our largest festival of the year, as many friends, neighbors, alumni, and newcomers join our school community to enjoy the outside activities and celebration (after a long Ithaca winter!). Learn more here.