Why I Don't Celebrate Candlemas

My reasons are pretty simple.

Breathing time.

I love the Christmas season. 

Our Christmas celebrations begin with Advent, continue through the 12 days of Christmas, on to the Epiphany. I keep Christmas until Candlemas, when the last of Christmas is packed up and put away. 

I like having a breather between Christmas and Easter. It feels like a good outbreath, to relax and sink back into the daily rhythm of life. I find comfort, solace and renewal in the quiet time. That's why I don't celebrate Candlemas. I need the outbreath. 

I do embrace Groundhog day.

It's fun. It speaks to young children. 

Young children anticipate the coming of this special day. We wait and wonder. Will the groundhog come out of his home in the earth? Will it be sunny? If it is, will he see his shadow and scurry back inside? 

We wait to hear the news, to learn whether or not the groundhog has seen his shadow, almost more fun than learning how much winter is left. 

With the littles we go outside and stomp on the earth, telling Mother Earth," it's time to wake up!" 

I like to think of this time of year as the stirring of the year, a stirring that comes from deep in the belly of the earth. Depending on where we live in the northern hemisphere, the earth is beginning to soften, the hens are beginning to lay and the cows are giving more milk. 

We've had celebrations of light since last fall. The light culminated in the birth of the Child of Light. Now, I like to let it be dark and quiet, a sort of post partum period.

As a Catholic, I appreciate the religious aspect of the Churching of Mary, the Churching of women as an ancient postpartum blessing.

As a homeschooler, I like to include Saint Brigid of Ireland in 2nd grade, and revisit her as Celtic goddess Brigit around 7th and 8th grades.

As a midwife, I love everything about Brigid and Brigit. 

Yet I'm not going to make candles indoors in the winter. I don't really get the making of candles indoors in winters. It's too dangerous. If you don't know me in real life, you should know that I'm pretty comfortable with risk taking. However I am not comfortable with the risk of burning down my house dipping candles in the winter. Beeswax, if heated too much, ignites easily. Ask me how I know.

I prefer to dip candles outdoors in summer or autumn. It's much safer that way.

In the reflection that comes with writing this, it's not Candlemas per se that I won't be contemplating. It's making candles central to the day that I'll pass up. It's also the focus on light. We've kindled our inner lights, carried them through the dark to the birth of the Child of Light. The light has become embodied. It's within us. It's time to look within and see what's stirring there. I like the quiet time, to enjoy the dark, and be open to the stirrings within. 

As an old timer Waldorf homeschooler, I have observed new trends arise and take off. Candlemas is one of them. It must be appealing to something within the human psyche. I'm not sure what the deeper meaning is in the grand scheme of the year. There's a lot in there, as the midpoint in the rhythm of the year, right at the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, a cross quarter holiday.

There's a long and rich history of celebration of this day with Imbolc, the goddess Brigit, the Churching of Mary, the act of the churching of Mary and what it means for all birthing women, and the Irish Saint Brigid, with her origins in the Celtic goddess Brigit. I can see it as religious, or pagan, or even just a time to dip candles. I haven't quite made sense of how the many different rich aspects of this day weave together and what is the deeper meaning imbued in them. I'll keep pondering it. 

For now I'll  observe and continue to dip candles outdoors in the summer or fall, and think of Candlemas as a day of blessing the postpartum woman and shining the light on the power and glory of childbirth. 

How about you? 

How do you make meaning of Candlemas? 

It's All About Free Play

"Let us look at children’s play from this perspective, particularly the kind of play that occurs in the youngest children from birth until the change of teeth. Of course, the play of such children is in one respect based upon their desire to imitate. Children do what they see adults doing, only they do it differently. They play in such a way that their activities lie far from the goals and utility that adults connect with certain activities. Children’s play only imitates the form of adult activities, not the material content. The usefulness in and connection to everyday life are left out:. ~ Rudolf Steiner

In the Waldorf early childhood years, the focus is supporting children's free play and their unselfconscious activities.

That's why there are no lessons.

No main lessons in the nursery or kindergarten.

No instruction.

No this is how it's done.

No predetermined end product to take home and wow the parents.

It's all about developing the child's inner creative capacity through child initiated free play.

This is why Waldorf schools discourage organized sports, yoga, dance lessons and the like, because they all involve an adult directing the action. This takes children out of the dreamy unselfconscious world of early childhood.

The child between birth and the change of teeth lives in the dreamy inner world of the imagination. This is the world of fairy tales, where anything is possible, transformation happens all the time, and good always conquers evil, in the stories children hear. 

The Waldorf kindergarten is a magical, dreamy place where the teacher works sideways to create a space that invites play. She is not the central figure, but more of a warm, consistent presence, guiding the rhythm of the day. 

It's all about child initiated free play.

If you've ever seen children at play in a Waldorf kindergarten, you've heard the buzz of children at play, seen children engaged in socio-dramatic play, creating scenarios with their imagination and playing them out. Children at play in a Waldorf space transform the objects in the room with their play. This socio-dramatic play is at the heart of the Waldorf kindergarten years. 

When we impose adult ideas for creating a specific product, we are imposing the adult world on children. This is not their world. Their world is one of developing the inner imaginative world and playing out what is in their own inner world. It's a time for curiosity, exploration and playing out their own inner world. This is how children learn. When we impose adult projects, we get in the way of their process. 

You may wonder, what about the watercolor painting and cooking and baking?

What about the crafts? I have written about crafts here.

With cooking and baking, painting, coloring and modeling, the teacher leads by doing. She does not instruct. She guides the children with her doing, and if needed with "pictorial language." There is no expectation of a particular end product.

There is no instruction. The children join the adult in her work, and contribute to the process in a way that allows them to step back into play. At home our children can join us in our work, yet it can be helpful to remember that their work is child initiated and child drive imaginative free play. So they may step up beside us, join in and then return to their play.

In a culture that is so material and end product oriented, we sometimes lose touch with the importance of process. For children, the process is in the play.

As homeschoolers we can create an environment that supports our children in their own free play, and we can craft a rhythm that flows through the day, I know because I was living miles from nowhere during my first child's early childhood and I was determined to provide a Waldorf early childhood experience for him.

After my second child was born, I became a single parent, I wanted to be home with him, and I wanted a Waldorf experience for him, so I began a Waldorf Morning Garden program in my home, a way to earn a living and create a space for other children to join us for a Waldorf experience of early childhood.

You can do it too!

If you'd like to learn more about how to create the "space" to support child initiated free play, and use pictorial language, and craft a rhythm that flows through the day, keep an eye on my curriculum program. I offer affordable eCourses to support parents and homeschoolers on topics such as these, and I am in the process of reformatting my affordable curriculum program to make it more user friendly.

In the Waldorf early childhood years, the focus is supporting children's free play and child initiated unselfconscious activities.

We live in a very material world. It's easy to get caught up in the Waldorf stuff, especially with all the beautiful things that can be bought. 

Yet Rudolf Steiner told us then, "They play in such a way that their activities lie far from the goals and utility that adults connect with certain activities. Children’s play only imitates the form of adult activities, not the material content.  Now it is more relevant that ever. 

They don't need all the stuff, they need time to play, they need the protection and freedom to live in the dreamy world of wonder, of early childhood. 

The children will imitate what we do and how we do it. It is our warmth, our kindness, our finding joy in the everyday, and the quality of stories we tell that spark healthy development of the children.