Michaelmas: Kindling Light
Fall is a splendid season in Northern California. As we near the autumn equinox, the brilliant sunlight, deep blue skies, and leafy green canopy of trees bring a special beauty to our campus. At the same time, we see the signs of coming winter in the crisp morning air, the falling oak leaves, and, sometimes, an early season rainstorm. As the nights lengthen and the weather begins to cool, it is time to shine our inner light, finding the courage and strength to carry us through the darkness of the winter months.
At Marin Waldorf School, we celebrate the autumn season and the kindled light of our community at the Michaelmas pageant, held annually in late September. The first festival of the school year, the pageant recounts the story of Saint George and the battle between the archangel Michael and the dragon. Through songs and verses, the children introduce us to the people of the village who are terrorized by a fearsome dragon, the brave knights who defend the people, and the dragon itself, who appears amid a cloud of smoke and marching to the rhythm of a beating drum.
The pageant is performed by grades 2 to 8, with each class taking a role that is assigned to their grade; in this way, as children grow older, they will play every role in the pageant—making the experience a rite of passage. As with many of our festivals, the lessons of Michaelmas are also intertwined with the curriculum. For example, second graders, who play an important role in the pageant as the knights who tame the dragon, learn about Michael’s qualities of courage, compassion, and steadfastness as part of the larger second grade curriculum, through which they study the lives of inspiring people from around the world. On a deeper level, we can each think of the dragon as those things that prevent our awakening to our own humanity.
“Autumn is a time of transition. With attention, we can become sensitive to the subtle but profound changes in nature and notice what is called for inside ourselves to prepare for the coming darkness that winter brings,” explains MWS director, Megan Neale. “In many Waldorf schools in the northern hemisphere, Michalemas is the festival that celebrates and honors this transition and inner preparation. Many of the native people in California also celebrate this time, honoring the harvesting of the acorn that brings life and sustenance throughout the winter months. For the farmers, it is a time to begin to put the land to rest after an active growing season through the summer. There is preparation required for this transition to take place.”
Parents and our extended school community are encouraged to join us in the audience for the pageant at 2:20pm in the oak grove on Friday, September 30. (Please remember, per our school’s media policy, no cell phones/photos please!)