The Lantern Festival, which is still brand new in our country and got to know it a few years ago, is usually celebrated in the middle of the darkest month of autumn - November - in Germany. It is very touching and memorable for every child. The Waldorf Lantern Festival came to Russia through Waldorf kindergartens and schools. What kind of holiday is this, what is its history, what needs to be done on this day, we learn from the article.
Heat and light are so necessary for people ...
November is perhaps the darkest month of the year, bordering on damp, cold and winter. On these sad evenings, I really want to sit by the fireplace, wrapped in a soft blanket, enjoying crackling logs and a glass of mulled wine. And so I want to believe in a fairy tale. Moreover, the New Year is just around the corner. But if there are children in the family, it is possible for them (however, for themselves too) to arrange a real celebration of gnomes and lanterns. “In November, when autumn is already over and winter has not yet arrived, all the gnomes come out of their houses, take flashlights and give everyone some light and warmth ...”
What is this about? What kind of gnomes are meant - little men from fairy tales? And why do they roam with flashlights? Such questions can be asked by uninitiated people who are not familiar with traditions. And this holiday arose for a reason. In addition, he is able to bring a lot of joy and the opportunity to find himself through the light.
From book to script
About seven years ago, Samokat Publishing House released a series consisting of only four picture books by German artist Rotraut Susanna Berner. Each volume was dedicated to one of the seasons. In the Autumn Book, quite a few pages are devoted to the story of how children, holding lit lanterns (all the lanterns are different and very beautiful), march across the city to the lake to celebrate the German lantern festival .
Soon after, in our country, some families began to organize small celebrations for daughters and sons. Some parents come up with whole scenarios for holding such evenings. For example, the whole family gathers and, singing a special song, goes to the nearest grove, park or small fishing line (and there the lanterns prepared by parents or grandparents already burn). Adults, along with the kids, collect small, independently made gnomes, find a treasure with sweets, buttons or glass pebbles. At the end of the evening, you can launch large lanterns into the sky.
Today it can already be argued that such an unusual for us holiday of lanterns (in Germany they began to celebrate it much earlier than here) gradually penetrated the November gray everyday life of Russian cities and villages. Let's try to look at the origins and understand the different options and nuances of traditions.
Take a look at the story
It was on the eleventh of November that Catholics accepted the celebration of St. Martin's Day . Moreover, he is revered by both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Martin lived a long life (90 years), was in military service, then left it, was baptized and became a monk. At a venerable age, he became bishop of the city of Tours in France, then he founded a monastery there. After his death in 398, he became one of the most revered saints, and even national in France (later Martin’s “kappa” cloak became a shrine for the Frankish kings; incidentally, the words “chaplain” and “chapel” come from him). St. Martin for millions of people is like a bridge connecting Europe (he was born in Hungary, lived in France, and spread the traditions of monasticism in the West).
It was November 11 that was considered much later as the most successful date for a grand holiday. After all, by this time the harvest was harvested, the young wine had ripened, the cattle were slaughtered before winter. For the peasants, this time was important: the beginning of a new financial year, the conclusion of contracts and transactions, payment of debts and interest on them. It turned out a holiday that is very similar to American Thanksgiving.
By the way, this November day earlier marked the beginning of the forty-day fast before Christmas (then it became a little shorter). And with its traditions, the holiday resembled spring carnivals held before Easter.
Gradually, in such autumn processions, lanterns appeared. That is how the very festival of lanterns was born. For the first time, children with flashlights in their hands took to the streets of Erfurt, and lit them not on the 11th, but on the 10th - on the birthday of the reformer Martin Luther. And all because in Thuringia, in the Protestant communities, the feast of St. Martin - Martinstag - received a new content - Luther's memorial day.
But the founder of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, interprets this tradition in a slightly different way.
He is sure that the human soul breathes with the Earth. In summer, plants and animals grow. In winter, the life of nature dies in darkness and cold, focusing all its forces on seeds and roots in the depths of the earth. People in the summer are light, free, they soar in their illusions. In winter, human souls are stale, each person becomes more selfish. Autumn is a transitional time when people are at risk of falling into both extremes: on the one hand, they remember nostalgia about summer, and on the other, the coming winter focuses them on material security. And this holiday gives a person the opportunity not to succumb to all sorts of temptations.
Steiner attached great importance to pedagogy, having founded his own direction in it. By tradition, Waldorf schools and kindergartens must celebrate the lantern festival. Usually it is dedicated to St. Martin's Day. And he came to our country precisely thanks to such gardens and schools.
We arrange a holiday ourselves
Many probably know that the universal symbol of all good is light and candles. And for kids, lanterns with candles are something magical, fabulous, very interesting and fascinating. They don’t even need any additional entertainment and legends.
It turns out that it’s not at all difficult to organize such a holiday of lanterns. The script can be any. It all depends on time, desire and opportunities. The most important and indestructible rule is that flashlights should be made with the children. If you really want, then even candles can be made at home. They are twisted from wax bought in honey stores, or fashioned from ready-made sets of colored wax. And then - whoever wants to.
On a festive evening, you can go out into the street with a lit flashlight and look for a treasure with the treasures of the little dwarves. Or you can just go along a familiar road, for example, the one along which the kid goes to kindergarten, to school or walks often, and see how it changes when a neat flashlight is lit in the hand. And even if the weather is not good, you can stay at home, turn off the lights, light a flashlight on the window and enjoy it with the whole family. For a child, this will be a real event.
Making paper lanterns
We have already figured out what constitutes a festival of lanterns. How to make a flashlight - the one with which you can go on an unusual walk? There are several ways to resolve this issue.
So, we make paper lanterns. The first way. Paint a regular sheet of paper with watercolors, twist into a lantern, then oil a little. And you can neatly fold it so that a strange and beautiful faceted shape consists of several concave rhombuses.
The second way. Take a cardboard box or some other basis, make cuts and glue translucent paper, such as silk or ordinary tracing paper, into them. You can thus make a house or a castle with luminous windows. In the same way, autumn leaves and dark silhouettes of people, animals, birds, fairy-tale characters are glued.
Such silhouettes can be "hidden" inside the flashlight. Then they will appear only when the flashlight is “on”, that is, the candle is lit.
We design with kids
Some modern parents who want to give their children as many holiday experiences as possible, begin to prepare a holiday with lanterns, pumpkins when their baby is still very small for quite conscious help. He already wants to help, but he has not yet figured out how to do it. To attract a child to create a holiday so that he can feel his involvement in this action, you can do everything easier and more convenient. Assign your child to cut strips of colored tissue paper into small squares. Spread a sheet of tracing paper with glue and invite the baby to pour the pieces prepared by him on top. Then all the excess can be shaken off. Children are always happy to join this work: they like to feel old enough to make interesting crafts together with their parents.
The resulting beautiful stained glass window can be inserted into a cardboard frame, as a picture, or rolled up with a neat tube and glued on top of the bottom.
Making glass home lanterns
"The firefly took his flashlight for the holiday." It is these words that can be sentenced by making flashlights with children. It is very simple to make them if you take a simple glass jar as the basis. Then, after finishing work, it was convenient to hold it in the pen, the neck of the can is wrapped in several layers of thick wire, to which the pen is then attached.
The jar itself can be decorated as you like: a child can paint it with PVA or toothpaste, stick figures of colored paper or foil on it, you can use New Year's rain - this will create a voluminous, fluffy pattern, you can draw small funny pumpkins, you can take ready Christmas snowflakes or pre-collected autumn leaves.
By the way, a flashlight will look very nice with a regular white napkin glued on it, in which patterns are carved. As an option - gently attach lace to the jar - it will be elegant and solemn. If you have a glue gun at home, you can use it to decorate the jar with colored glass, filling the space between them with clay or plasticine.
All at the request of the baby. Autumn and winter patterns can fit on one such jar. It will turn out beautifully, besides a holiday with lanterns, pumpkins represents a transition from autumn to winter, so any picture will be appropriate.
Metal flashlights
Probably, it may seem that making such flashlights is quite difficult and only a real craftsman is capable of it. But everything turns out to be so scary. Indeed, for such a homemade product, a normal tin can is suitable. Even such a seemingly plain-looking dish with the expenditure of some effort will turn into a very beautiful craft. It is enough to drill neat holes in such a jar and put a candle inside. These holes can be arranged in a chaotic manner or folded into a specific pattern that will remind you of autumn or winter. You can make a heart, a tree, a leaf, a snowflake, or even a gnome out of such holes. Who has enough imagination.
A la papier-mâché
Perhaps not every child knows what papier-mâché is. And to familiarize the baby with the simple technique of manufacturing volumetric objects using plain paper and paste, you can prepare for the evening celebration. It is clear that the festival of lanterns is impossible without these same lanterns. Made in this way, it will not only bring joy to the child later, while walking, but will contribute to the development of finger motility in babies. And children of different ages will be delighted to make just such lanterns, because here they can, almost without waiting for the end of the result, see what beauty they get.
Indeed, among all the proposed options for making "home fireflies" this is the most time-consuming, but thanks to it, the figures are amazing. This is what needs to be done. An ordinary balloon is inflated and pasted with translucent paper (you can take ordinary white, you can immediately color). You need to make several layers. Wait until everything is dry, pierce the ball with a needle. That translucent sphere, which turned out after so many efforts, can be painted with paints, felt-tip pens, you can paste ready-made pictures, decorate with additional elements. You can cut to get a conceived figure.
Celebrations in child care facilities
The Lantern Festival in Waldorf Kindergarten can be held in any scenario. The lanterns themselves remain indestructible - self-made or bought in a store; gnomes - both toys and children themselves, dressed in costumes of fairy-tale characters; pumpkins - here, too, you can take either a real one, or draw on a piece of paper, or buy a toy.
The holiday begins with any outdoor game that the guys like. You can add thematic moments related to the celebration to this game.
After the kids had fun from the heart, put them on the chairs and start telling a fairy tale. It can be read from a book, turning pages, you can, sitting in a circle of children, read and show them pictures, or you can show this tale as a kind of theatrical action.
So, the festival of lanterns in kindergarten, you can start with a fairy tale about the Land of fairies and gnomes. In the evenings, magic lights were lit in the houses of the inhabitants of this country, giving warmth and light. But this country wanted to destroy the witches living in the neighborhood in a dark country. Therefore, they decided that the first evil desire, uttered in the Land of fairies and gnomes, will be fulfilled. So it happened when a little fairy was accidentally burned about the flames, wishing them to go out. The evil sorceresses were very happy, but the old wise fairy said that the trouble can be fixed, you just need to find sincere and very kind people who are ready to help. The little fairy, deciding to fix everything that she had done, flew into one village to the people who made beautiful flashlights and lit a fire.
Since that time, remembering that any desire should be made not only by the mind, but also by the heart, people began to celebrate the festival of lanterns that not only shine, but also give them beauty, warmth and joy.
Kids really like these fabulous stories, so they will be happy to make lanterns after the end of the tale under the guidance of educators. It will be all the more interesting for the children a little after, when everything is ready: adults turn off the lights, and the light comes only from flashlights.
The Lantern Festival at Waldorf School can be held in much the same way, only the script must be prepared in accordance with the age of the children. Here I must say for those who do not know, this school involves some kind of replacement for home education. The main indicator here is that parents are involved in all activities, in the child’s life at school. That is, everything is done together, together.