Community School Initiative

Waldorf also has an unique aspect in that incorporates festivals or holidays throughout their school year. Festivals, or holidays/celebrations not only celebrate those specific holidays but they mark the year and help young children start to feel the rhythm of the year. They have great cultural and sometimes religious significance. And when celebrated together bring the school together as a community and if opened up to the rest of the community, they also orient children within the community at large.

There is a set of ‘traditional’ Waldorf festivals, which personally, I am not huge fan of because they are very Eurocentric (Michaelmas, Yule, etc).

However I propose that we use it as a model in our school to foster a much more multicultural approach. There’s a lot of cultural festivals and things that go on around us here in Northern New Mexico that I think would be great. It is a great way for us all to learn about different cultures. And for those who are part of those cultures, it helps to foster more of their own sense of their own culture and where they come from and their roots and traditions.

I do not believe in directly teaching religion, instead I feel that such teaching belongs to parents and whatever religious establishment they may belong to. Instead I think that children should learn about a variety of religions from a cultural perspective. Growing up in my Montessori elementary we did not have a ‘Christmas’ play but instead every year students formed groups and selected different winter holidays (Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Ramadan—I even did Yule, Wiccan-style one year) and put on a play involving all of the different holidays.

Article on Why Festivals with Waldorf

In the homeschool curriculum that I created this year for my kids, I tried to include festivals that would be relatively evenly spaced so to not overwhelm me. It can be easy to want to load Autumn down with all of the great festivals, and to pick ones that would compliment their own extremely mixed heritage (Chinese, European-American, heavy on the British Isles, African American, and East-Coast Native American) and the family traditions we already celebrate. As I write this I am actually preparing to make an ofrenda for Dios de los Muertos for the first time. For example this year I planned for Iri Ji (New Yam Festival [West Africa], Dios de los Muertos [Mexico], Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanza [African American], Lunar/Chinese New Year, Hanami (Japan), Holi (India), Norwuz/Persian New Year (Middle East), Beltane (mostly Ireland), Midsummer (various areas in Europe), and I’d like to attend an open dance or feast day somewhere in the summer. And yes, this is a lot but I figured I would look into them and work them in as I’m able to, I’m not actually expecting to do them all (I already missed the Mid-autumn/Moon festival)
In a school setting, we would have to take a look at festivals and decide what to include, what would be the most meaningful for our students and what we can realistically achieve. As a new school we have the unique opportunity to create our own rhythm and traditions.