Martinmas...and a Lantern Tutorial!

While we are eclectic in our approach to homeschooling, we are very influenced by the Waldorf tradition. One of the many aspects of Waldorf that resonates with us is the celebration of festivals. I love celebrating festivals with children. They root us and connect us to something bigger than ourselves and bring a little joy and magic to the rhythm of our year. Martinmas is one of the festivals celebrated by Waldorf schools that I completely love.

For us, this festival is about light and warmth, and how we can find and create those things within us, even as the days are getting shorter and the icy-cold of winter is upon us. It is about honoring and bringing out the light within us, and sharing that light with others. It comes at a time of year when we are really beginning to feel the dimming of the sun and the shortness of the daylight hours, and when we are preparing ourselves and our homes for the winter ahead.

We spend a lot of time working on our lanterns. (See below for how we made our lanterns this year). We light candles in our homemade lanterns. We warm up by the fire in the wood stove. We sit in the darkness with our candles and appreciate the fire and the warmth that it brings.

We tell stories. Lots of stories. Nature stories of the season, of light and dark, fairy tales with characters who let their light shine, even in the darkest times, and of course, the story of Saint Martin, who shared his cloak.

We make warming, yummy food and share it with friends. We gather food to take to our local food bank.

Since we discovered Martinmas, we've celebrated as a family, and it's been wonderful. This year, we decided to invite our co-op friends over for a special dinner and a lantern walk. Everyone was invited to make lanterns on their own and bring them, along with a dish to share.

As everyone arrived they placed their lanterns on the wood stove (which was not burning, by the way). Martinmas is a new festival to most of our friends, so we began the evening with a candlelight story of St Martin, and an introduction into why we were celebrating that night. (The Seasons of Joy Martinmas Festival book was very helpful with lots of great ideas for stories, verses, crafts and more.) Then we sang our blessing verse and had an amazing dinner (our community is great at potluck). After dinner everyone put their coats on, got their lanterns and found a place in the living room. I told the story The Lantern Prince (a wonderful story from our friends at Sparkle Stories), and we lit our lanterns at the end of the story.

We walked into the night, all the children holding their lanterns and singing songs. We sang This Little Light of Mine, and one I learned a couple of years ago:

"My lantern, my lantern, shining near and far. Shining like the moon, shining like the sun, shining like a silver star."

I remember looking back at this flowing line of little lights as these little people walked into the dark of night. It was a magical sight. I was not able to photograph the walk, as my hands were a little full, but it was beautiful.

After the lantern walk we went back inside for some hot apple cider and dessert...and more time to play, of course.

When we said goodbye to the last of our friends, Aaron and I got two tired kiddos ready for bed. Mason wanted to light our lanterns and walk upstairs with them, so we did, and so the magic continued. We placed them on the beam of our loft railing for story-time.

It was a wonderful ending to a beautiful night.

Sometimes the day after we host an event is tiring...sluggish, perhaps with lots of cleaning, or decompressing. Not so on the day following our Martinmas celebration. The house seemed to hold a peaceful, grounding energy from the festival, and we all had a calm, lovely day.

The magic of the lanterns continues throughout the year, especially the winter season. They remain on display, waiting for little hands to take them down and play.

We make new lanterns every year, and Mason insists that everyone in the family have one. Last year, we made these wonderful lanterns from some of our watercolor paintings. They are still used and much-loved. I used this tutorial from Frontier Dreams.

This year we decided to make punched tin lanterns from cans from the recycling bins. We had a lot of fun making them, and they turned out great.

Punched Tin-Can Lantern Tutorial

First, we peeled off the labels and washed the cans well. Then Mason filled them with water and put them in the freezer. (This helps with the punching part later.)

The next day we took them out and set them on towels on a table. We each used a nail and hammer to punch holes in the designs of our choice. We kept our designs in the center part of the can, since we planned to cover the top and bottom with fabric. I made a spiral and a star, Mason made a candle and a flame and Aaron made a big smiling sun. (Of course, we made one for River, even though she would have loved to get her hands on that hammer...)

Once our designs were punched, we removed the ice and dried the cans.

Next, we painted the middle part of the cans in warm colors of fire and light, and rolled them in gold glitter. If you do this step, you will have glitter everywhere, for always.

Once the paint dried, we cut fabric strips and used Mod Podge to apply them to the tops and bottoms of the cans. This is where I started taking photos...

Then the whole can got a nice coating of Mod Podge, mainly so our hands would not be covered in glitter any time we touched the lanterns. We used tooth picks to clear the glue from the holes of our designs.