Last week, children, their teachers, and families gathered together, sang songs, and carried handmade lanterns — representing the inner light of each human being — through the darkness of the season, celebrating courage, kindness, and community. This is a yearly event at the tiny Waldorf School of the Upper Valley, and one that its participants eagerly await. In a time when children as well as adults have their attention pulled in many directions — including toward glowing digital screens, a painful news cycle, and the daily grind of chores and responsibilities — the Lantern Parade offers a long moment of reflection and celebration, a welcome warmth in the cold.
The Upper Valley Waldorf School (UVWS) was founded in Quechee in 1986. One of two Waldorf schools in Vermont, and one of nearly 1,000 worldwide, it takes its teaching philosophy from Austrian Rudolph Steiner, who advocated experiential learning and arts at every grade level, according to the UVWS website. Though Waldorf is a secular school, the Lantern Walk comes from the tradition of Martinmas, a European Christian festival that celebrates the life of St. Martin, who gave half of his own cape to help warm a beggar in the cold. After a dream the next night, Martin decided to dedicate the rest of his life to service for humankind. The lanterns of the Martinmas holiday celebrate the kindness inside all of us to do good in the world.
Isa and “Simi” Rattigan hold their handmade lanterns before the Lantern Walk at Upper Valley Waldorf School. Courtesy of the Rattigan Family
“I cry every year,” confessed Ceileigh Hammond of Hartland, mother to Jack, a 7-year-old in his fourth year at the school. She told the Standard that while not a particularly sentimental person, it’s hard for her not to get emotional each time she and her son participate in the walk. “We’re honoring the light inside all of us as we enter into the darkest time of year, and really acknowledging the people who bring a lot of light to our lives. Obviously, the people who do that the most are our children — in my experience, their lights burn the brightest. And seeing them all gathered, and all their lanterns, and that light in the darkness — it really always brings tears to my eyes. It’s just so beautiful, and it makes me feel like we’re doing something, right? There’s still something good.”
Jen Brown, the Apple Blossom Pre-K lead teacher at Waldorf, not only loves the festival but also the activities that lead up to it. “The children in our class make their lanterns out of jars, tissue paper, and glue,” said Brown. “This year, one child said, ‘I can’t believe it’s the day that we get to make our lanterns!’ Another child waited patiently for a few days until it was his turn to make his lantern, and he was so proud to tell me that he left no spot uncovered by the tissue paper. The children love these lanterns that they make, and many families keep them for years, getting quite a big collection of them that they light each November at their dinner tables.”
For more on this, please see our Nov. 20 edition of the Vermont Standard.
