Autumn Lantern Festival

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

The Lantern Festival, which is still quite new in our country and we got to know it several 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. Especially since the New Year is just around the corner. But if there are kids in the family, you can arrange for them (however, for yourself too) a real holiday of gnomes and lanterns. “In November, when autumn has already ended and winter has not yet arrived, everyonegnomes come out of their houses, take lanterns and give everyone some light and warmth…”

What is it about? What do you mean gnomes - little men from fairy tales? And why do they wander around with flashlights? Such questions can be asked by uninitiated people who are not familiar with the traditions. And this holiday did not just happen. In addition, he is able to bring a lot of joy and the possibility of finding oneself through the light.

From book to screenplay

Approximately seven years ago, the Samokat publishing house released a series of only four picture books by the German artist Rotraut Susanna Berner. Each volume was dedicated to one of the seasons. Quite a few pages in the Autumn Book are devoted to the story of how children, holding lighted lanterns in their hands (all lanterns are different and very beautiful), march through the whole city to the lake to celebrate the German Lantern Festival.

Shortly after that, in our country, some families began to arrange small celebrations for their daughters and sons. Some parents come up with whole scenarios for such evenings. For example, the whole family gathers and, singing a special song, goes to the nearest grove, park or small forest (and the lanterns prepared by parents or grandparents are already burning there). Adults, along with children, collect small, self-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 lantern festival for us (inIn Germany, it began to be celebrated much earlier than here) gradually penetrated into the November gray everyday life of Russian cities and villages. Let's try to turn to the origins and understand the different variants and nuances of traditions.

Let's look into history

It is on the eleventh of November that Catholics celebrate St. Martin's Day. Moreover, he is revered by both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Martin lived a long life (90 years), was in military service, then left her, was baptized and became a monk. At a venerable age, he became bishop of the city of Tours in France, then founded a monastery there. After his death in 398, he became one of the most revered saints, and in France even a national one (later Martin's kappa cloak became a shrine for the Frankish kings; by the way, the words "chaplain", "chapel" come from him). For millions of people St. Martin 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, much later considered the most successful date for a grandiose holiday. After all, by this time the crop was harvested, the young wine was ripe, 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, the payment of debts and interest on them. The result was a holiday that is very similar to the American Thanksgiving.

By the way, this November day marked the beginning of the forty-day fast before Christmas (later it became a little shorter). And with its traditions, the holiday resembled spring carnivals,held until Easter.

Slowly lanterns appeared in such autumn processions. This is how the festival of lanterns was born. For the first time, children with lanterns in their hands took to the streets of Erfurt, and they lit them not on the 11th, but on the 10th - on the birthday of the reformer Martin Luther. And all because in Thuringia, in 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 a little differently.

He is sure that the human soul breathes with the Earth. Plants and animals grow in summer. In winter, the life of nature dies in darkness and cold, concentrating all its strength 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 become stale, each person becomes more selfish. Autumn is a time of transition when people are in danger of falling into both extremes: on the one hand, they remember summer with nostalgia, 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. According to the already established tradition, Waldorf schools and kindergartens always celebrate the holiday of lanterns. It is usually timed to coincide with Saint Martin's Day. And he came to our country precisely thanks to such kindergartens and schools.

We arrange a holiday ourselves

Many,Probably, they know that light and candles are a universal symbol of all good things. And for kids, lanterns with candles are something magical, fabulous, very interesting and exciting. They don't even need any more entertainment and legends.

It turns out that it is not at all difficult to organize such a holiday of lanterns. The script can be anything. It all depends on time, desire and opportunities. The most important and unbreakable rule is that flashlights must be made together with the children. If you really want, then at home you can even make candles. They are twisted from foundation bought in honey stores, or fashioned from ready-made sets of colored wax. And then - whoever wants it.

On a festive evening, you can go outside with a lit lantern and look for a treasure with treasures of little gnomes. Or you can just walk along a familiar road, for example, the one along which the baby goes to kindergarten, school or often walks, and see how it changes when a neat flashlight burns in your 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 admire it with the whole family. For a child, this will be a real event.

Make homemade paper lanterns

We have already figured out what a lantern festival is. How to make a flashlight - the one with which you can go on an unusual walk? There are several ways to solve this issue.

So, let's make paper lanterns. First way. Color an ordinary sheet of paper with watercolors, twist it intolantern, then oil a little. And you can carefully fold it so that you get a strange and beautiful faceted shape, consisting of several concave rhombuses.

The second way. Take a cardboard box or some other base, make cuts and paste translucent paper into them, such as silk or plain tracing paper. You can thus make a house or a castle with luminous windows. Autumn leaves and dark silhouettes of people, animals, birds, fairy-tale characters are glued in the same way.

Such silhouettes can be "hidden" inside the flashlight. Then they will appear only when the flashlight is "on", that is, the candle is lit.

Design with kids

Some modern parents, seeking 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 does not yet figure out how to do it. To involve the child in creating a holiday, so that he can feel his involvement in this action, you can make everything easier and more convenient. Instruct 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 with their parents.

The resulting beautiful stained-glass window can be inserted into a cardboard frame, like a picture, or rolled up with a neat tube and glued on top.

Make home glass lanterns

"A firefly took his flashlight for the holiday." It is these words that can be pronounced while making flashlights with children. It is very easy to make them if you take a simple glass jar as a basis. So that later, after finishing work, it would be convenient to hold it in the handle, the neck of the can is wrapped with several layers of thick wire, to which the handle is then attached.

Decorate the jar itself as you like: a child can paint it with paints with the addition of PVA or toothpaste, stick figures of colored paper or foil on it, you can use New Year's rain - this will turn out a voluminous, fluffy pattern, you can draw small funny pumpkins, you can take ready-made New Year's snowflakes or pre-assembled autumn leaves.

By the way, a flashlight with an ordinary white napkin glued on it, in which patterns are cut out, will look very nice. As an option - carefully 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 a 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 the transition from autumn to winter, so any picture willappropriate.

Metal lanterns

Probably, it may seem that such flashlights are quite difficult to make and only a real craftsman is capable of it. But everything turns out to be so scary. Indeed, for such a homemade product, an ordinary tin can is suitable. Even such a nondescript vessel at first glance, with 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 for what.

A la papier-mache

Perhaps not every child knows what papier-mâché is. And you can introduce the baby to the simple technique of making bulky items using plain paper and paste, in preparation for the evening celebration. It is clear that the holiday of lanterns is impossible without these same lanterns. Made in this way, it will not only bring joy to the child later, on a walk, but will contribute to the development of finger motor skills in babies. Yes, 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. Here's what you need to do. An ordinary balloon is inflated and gluedtranslucent paper (you can take plain white, you can immediately color). You need to do several layers. Wait until everything is dry, pierce the ball with a needle. That translucent sphere, which turned out after so much effort, can be painted with paints, felt-tip pens, you can stick ready-made pictures, decorate with additional elements. Can be cut to your desired shape.

Celebrations in children's institutions

The Lantern Festival in the Waldorf kindergarten can be held according to any scenario. The lanterns themselves remain indestructible - homemade or bought in a shop; gnomes - both toy and the children themselves, dressed in costumes of fairy-tale characters; pumpkins - here you can also take either a real one, or draw on a piece of drawing paper, or buy a toy one.

The holiday begins with any outdoor game that the guys like. You can add themed moments related to the celebration being held to such a game.

After the kids had a lot of fun, put them on chairs and start telling a story. You can read it from a book, turning the pages, you can sit in a circle of children, read and show them pictures, or you can show this fairy tale as a kind of theatrical performance.

So, the holiday of lanterns in kindergarten can begin 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 be destroyed by witches living next door in a dark country. Therefore, they decided thatthe very first evil wish uttered in the Land of fairies and gnomes will come true. And so it happened when the little fairy accidentally burned herself on the flames, wishing them to go out. The evil sorceresses were very happy, but the wise old 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, having decided to fix all that she had done, flew to one village to the people who made beautiful lanterns and lit a fire.

From that very time, remembering that any wish should be made not only by the mind, but also by the heart, people began to celebrate the holiday of lanterns, which not only shine, but also give them beauty, warmth and joy.

Kids really like such fairy tales, so after the end of the fairy tale they will be happy to make lanterns under the guidance of educators. It will be even more interesting for the kids a little later, when everything is ready: the adults turn off the light bulbs, and the light comes only from the flashlights.

The Lantern Festival at the Waldorf school can be held in much the same way, only the scenario 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 life of a child at school. That is, everything is done together, together.