The Waldessori Mom

This was our first year celebrating Michaelmas at home. Michaelmas is celebrated on September 29th, and it is about good triumphing over evil, light overcoming darkness, as the year comes to a close and darkness draws nearer. In our home, we did not use the traditional Saint Michael slaying a dragon story, since my son is only 3 and I wanted a milder version, but we did do our own versions of dragon stories with themes of courage and overcoming your fears.

What is Michaelmas?

Michaelmas is originally a feast day with the church to celebrate Saint Michael, the archangel, who defeated evil in Biblical stories. The traditional story told on Michaelmas is about St Michael defeating a dragon which is a representation of evil. It is about light triumphing over dark, good over evil, and is celebrated close to the autumn equinox as the seasons start to change and there is literally more dark than light.

In more modern times, many of the stories use the dragon to represent our inner fears and show how we can face them with courage. Characters will typically triumph over the dragon through illuminating their fears with knowledge, creativity, courage, and compassion. As the days grow shorter, having compassion for others and going through self-transformation by understanding yourself and overcoming your fears is symbolic of bringing light into the darker days ahead.

Activities to celebrate Michaelmas

Although the official day for Michaelmas is September 29th, we celebrated it throughout the week so it gave us more time to do our activities. This can lead up to a culminating Michaelmas feast! Here are some activity ideas:

• Make golden capes of courage: boil 4 tablespoons of turmeric in a pot full of water and soak a white play silk or any other kind of white fabric for 20 minutes. After, soak it in a bowl of ice water and vinegar. This will give you a lovely gold color for a golden cape of courage! This represents bringing light into the darkness.

• Make a leaf crown. This is also a representation of courage. You can melt beeswax and dip the leaves inside to preserve their color and keep them flexible. Then, overlap the leave and thread through to make a crown!
• Make a salt dough dragon candle holder. Salt dough is a 2-1-1 ratio of flour, salt, and warm water. 1 cup of flour was perfect for us! You bake it for 2 1/2 hours at 250 degrees until it is firm. I had to bake mine for more time but be careful not to bake it for too long so it doesn’t get brittle. These are lovely to have on the table throughout the week and you can light it at meal times, or you can save it for your Michaelmas feast! You can keep these year after year and put them out to see how your child’s art skills have grown.

• Make dragon bread. We used the apple cinnamon festival bread recipe from Wondergarten Early Childhood. This is a beautiful centerpiece for your Michaelmas feast as well!
• Dragon shadow puppet show. Cut out a dragon, a knight, and any other characters of props and take to a stick. Put them behind a blanket with some light and have a puppet show depicting a dragon battle or any other story you would like!
• Make dragon eggs. Using salt dough (instructions above under salt dough dragon), wrap it around anything shiny like a stone. Roll it into the shape of an egg and let it dry. Have your kids paint them (or you can paint them if you want it all to be a surprise) and then they can crack them open for a surprise inside!

• Smash a dragon piñata. If you’re going the slay the dragon route, kids will have a blast being knights and battling their own dragon to open the piñata!
• Have a Michaelmas feast. Instead of a feast for Autumn equinox, consider having a Michaelmas feast (or combine both!) where you have seasonal foods and dragon bread.

Books to read for Michaelmas

Here is a variety of books about dragons in general and others that touch upon the theme of being brave, using your wits to get yourself out of tricky situation, and about how things that may be scary at first glance may not be what they appear to be:

• What Happened on Michaelmas Day by Ms Amber is a nice early childhood’s tory about a boy named Michael that used his intelligence to get out of a situation with a dragon he came across in the woods. I do find this one to be longwinded and parts ca be cut out for young children but my 3 year old really enjoyed it as I acted it out. Heads up, this one has no pictures so it is just a read aloud!
• Lottie, St Michael and the Lonely Dragon by Beatrys Lockie is about a young girl named Lottie that is trying to convince Michael not to slay the dragon because he is misunderstood
• Ten Dragon Eggs: A Book About Counting Down by Lynda Graham-Barber is a fun one to get your kids excited about the dragon. We like to read the repeating quotes together and tap on the eggs to “crack” them.
• There’s a Dragon in the Well! by James Serafino is a comedic book about a dragon that is in a well, swallows a coin, and is puffing fire and the town. All of the townsfolk are convinced that the dragon is attacking them while a young child is trying to use his knowledge to prove them wrong.
• Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges is a classic Michaelmas book that I have not personally read but see recommended a lot. I did not read this with my son since he is very little and this depicts the traditional Michaelmas story of Saint George defeating a dragon to save the people. I tried to keep everything metaphorical when it came to “slaying the dragon” but this is just a personal preference.

Why celebrate Michaelmas?

If Michaelmas is no longer celebrate by the general public, why would you? Michaelmas is not about fighting dragons. It is an amazing lesson to teach children to recognize how much they are able to overcome. By focusing on stories of bravery and compassion, children are able to understand another layer of themselves. These were not usually a topic of discussion for my 3 year old, but throughout the week, he said for the first time “I’m brave!” when he overcame something he was afraid of. We were dipping leaves in beeswax and it is hot so he was nervous to burn his had. After watching me and his dad do it a few times, he was very excited to put on his cape of courage and proclaimed that he was brave as he got his own leaf with a very long stem to dip. It was amazing to experience first hand how the concept of the stories was coming to life! Seeing how my son reacted to this festival, I will definitely be celebrating it again.

Summary

Donning golden capes of courage, reading stories about being brave and bringing light into the darkness, and making dragon themed activities are all fun ways to celebrate Michaelmas. Choosing the stories that you want to read with your kids is all dependent on the family, and the same themes are there. Children learn that they can have courage even when things are scary, and this is an amazing transformation to see.