Congratulations to Serena who is the winner of a free copy of Little Acorn Learning's latest festival e-book for Martinmas and Thanksgiving (Serena please contact us at info (at) littleacornlearning.com with your email to send your e-book). Her comment was randomly chosen from yesterday's post:
"This is our first year celebrating Martinmas. We spent a morning last week sharing the story of St. Martin and his cloak and making lanterns. This week we will have our lantern walk, sing songs, and share a meal with our extended family. I am so excited to be celebrating this year and plan to make it a new tradition in our family." - Serena
We LOVED reading all of the wonderful ways you and your family will be celebrating Martinmas this coming week. Please be sure to head over to Little Acorn Learning and grab a copy of this very full and heart-warming book. A ton of love and energy was put into it and we truly appreciate your support.
Here are some of the ways our members will celebrate with their families this year. We hope it will inspire you:heather reilly said...i loved reading this blog post (congrats on new stove!). we have never done much more than make our lanterns and go on our lantern walk with our classmates. but we do sing the martinmas songs all weekend long and try to be mindful of what st martin did, his kindness to the beggar as a metaphor for what we can do in our own lives. but i would love to read your book as we could certainly use some new ideas! enjoy your cozy stove!
Denise said...Love your new wood stove
We like a lantern walk with friends then home for soup
Happy days x
Jamie Bennett said...I adore your new wood stove! Martina's is so special, it's my son's birthday! He will be 9, so we spend the day celebrating him, then ficus the rest of the week purging and giving away, like St Martin, then next Sunday we will gather with our friends for a lantern walk through the woods and share a meal with them
Suzie Stephensen said...There are so many lovely ways to celebrate Martinmas, I tend to get overwhelmed with trying to do it all. Last week our homeschool co-op made beautiful paper mache lanterns. This week we are gathering clothes and toys to donate, and on the night of our lantern walk we'll have a bonfire with hot apple cider before taking to the woods with our songs and lanterns. I'm looking forward to this soul-warming ritual. It's going to be a chilly walk, though!
Michelle Emery said...My very hopeful plans include making lanterns and carving our pumpkins with St. Martin images. I'm not sure what will be on the menu yet but it's never a celebration around here without good food!
Sarah Policastro said...We will enjoy a lantern walk with other Waldorf home schoolers this year. We made balloon lanterns. We also always perform an act of service decided upon by the whole family.
Viola Höll said...In Germany we made lanterns at Kindergarten or elementare school and mostly the church communities organizer a huge lantern walk through the village streets.The local Brass Band and a Saint Martin in his red coat on his white horse would lead the walk. The band played Martinmas songs and people sang along.At the end Martin would do a little play and part his coat to give it to the beggar. Children got "Martinmas geese", little cakes to share with each other like Martin did. Geese because there is a legend about him hiding in a geese barn when he die not want to become bishop -too modest- but the cackling of the geese gave him away and people found him...Sometimes there would also be a Martinmas fire and people would drink hot cider as well...
Anonymous said...We will be making gluten free Martinmas horseshoe cookies and also metal lanterns. We will walk through our neighborhood delivering the cookies while singing Martinmas songs in both English and German.
Jana Karsnitz said...Sorry if this gets posted twice.
This will be our first year celebrating Martinmas and I'm pretty excited about it.
We will make lanterns, go for a walk singing the songs we learned, have apple cider, bake gluten free cookies, and give away items that we no longer need to a local womens and childrens shelter.
I hope that my little one enjoys it!
Chelsea Wipf said...This is our first year celebrating Martinmas and I am excited to teach my kids about St Martin and the biblical tie-ins of the good Samaritan and the "whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me" passage. We are also planning a lantern walk with homemade lanterns, some baking, and yummy food.
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antoinetterascon said...One year, my son's kindergarten class celebrated at their teacher's home. We had stories & songs by the bonfire, homemade play dough for the kids, a beautiful potluck dinner. Then we strolled through the neighborhood with our handmade lanterns, singing our lantern songs door to door for the neighbors to enjoy. It was a very memorable Martinmas celebration.
JK said...We made glass lanterns, feasted and took a walk along the edge of the forest singing i go outside with my lantern whike the moon rose full and bright over the nearby mountains. So lovely!
Rachel S. said...We read a story about Martin and talk about being a bright light in the world. We make different lanterns every year and walk down our gravel road singing Martinmas songs carrying our lanterns. This year we were going to make felt lanterns but I just broke my arm so we may modify our plans this year!
Christel Bassett said...We usually tell the story of St. Martin, make lanterns and take an evening lantern walk while the Weckmann are rising!
Kimberly said...We love going on lantern walks in honor of St. Martin's day! Thanks for this great offering!
The Princess said...We started painting our paper for our lanterns yesterday and will assemble them on Tuesday. We plan on making a chicken and vegetable soup and having almond horseshoe cookies for dessert. We will walk with our lanterns (weather pending) and sit around the fire table and probably roast a couple marshmallows. We still have our clay pipes from our Weckmann when I was in elementary school in Germany. I always enjoyed St Martin's Day, I am very happy to share this time with my boys
Serena said...There is nothing better than wood heat on a cold day.
This is our first year celebrating Martinmas. We spent a morning last week sharing the story of St. Martin and his cloak and making lanterns. This week we will have our lantern walk, sing songs, and share a meal with our extended family. I am so excited to be celebrating this year and plan to make it a new tradition in our family.
jennifer johnson said...We talk about the story of St Martin sharing his coat, and how we can share our warmth and light to others. So we spend the day preparing treats or small gifts to share with our neighbors, then as the sun recedes we light lanterns and walk to our friends homes sharing our light with them. The first year we did it my 3 year old daughter said, "Mom, I loved sharing light with my friends, my heart feels warm." I knew it was a tradition to keep!
Lizzie said...After listening to a short story of St. Martin, we walk with our Waldorf community, the younger folk, with lanterns and singing through one of our local parks. We decorate lanterns and learn songs in the weeks beforehand. We walk quietly and reverently through the park, stopping to sing along the way.
Agnes said...Love your woodburning stove! My in-laws also have one in their house and it is the only source of heat. It feels like a campfire indoors! My children attend a Waldorf school and we celebrate by making lanterns in class and at home. Last year I bought beeswax and we dipped balloons into it, quickly pressed leaves against the wax, and dipped again--it was so fun. The lower grades will have a lantern walk on the 20th around the neighborhood. Happy Martinmas!
Adam Dun said...In Italy this is the time to eat chestnuts and open the new wine thereby celebrating both the chestnut and grape harvest. An Indian Summer at this time of year is known as a Saint Martin Summer - l'estate di San Martino. In some areas of the country children do a type of trick or treating. Tania
Tammy H. said...We are new to Waldorf traditions and last year were fortunate to celebrate our first Martinmas! Our daughters daycare family invited the children and their families for soup, cider and making little watercolor lanterns. When then bundled up and went for a walk in the neighborhood singing the Lantern Walk song. It was so sweet! We are lucky to be doing that again this year. I'm excited to learn more of the Waldorf traditions and would love to dive into this book.
Roxanne Gregorio-Anthony said...I make lanterns with my children and give a special puppet play. Our community gives a lantern walk b on Saturday and we will participate. I would love to bake also.
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