Celebrating Michaelmas
by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
One
of the optional fall holidays observed by Florence’s Waldorf School in Pacific
Grove, California was Michaelmas on September 29th.
For
children in an ecumenical school, Michaelmas was explained as overcoming
obstacles to provide for your family and work on creative projects.
In
religious terms, Michaelmas is the holiday where the archangel Michael defeats
Satan in a war in heaven.
In
Great Britain, Michaelmas is a banking holiday where everyone eats hot cross
buns to prepare for the upcoming business year.
The English parents and a Hungarian teacher at Florence’s school made
homemade hot cross buns that we would eat with hardboiled eggs and apples.
All
of the parents who participated at Michaelmas had to be some sort of obstacle
for the children, who were all Michaels trying to take care of their families.
One
of the big obstacles was racing with hardboiled eggs in spoons to represent
children. If you dropped your egg, you
had to start the race all over again.
The
obstacle course I ran was apple bobbing in a large, metal basin as if it were
Halloween. The children got a little
muddy in their angelic dresses, but loved getting their apple and eating after
running around.
I
thought the hot cross buns were cute with their dough cross of a different
color on top of them.
As
I ate, I thought it was great to celebrate a London banking holiday in unpolluted
ocean air in Monterey County California.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
