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From Wikipedia:

"Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel (also the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a day in the Western Christian calendar which occurs on 29 September. Because it falls near the equinox, it is associated in the northern hemisphere with the beginning of autumn and the shortening of days. In medieval England, Michaelmas marked the ending and beginning of the husbandman's year, George C. Homans observes: "at that time harvest was over, and the bailiff orreeve of the manor would be making out the accounts for the year."

The Archangel Michael is the greatest of all the Archangels and is honored for defeating Lucifer in the war in heaven. He is one of the principal angelic warriors, seen as a protector against the dark of night, and the administrator of cosmic intelligence. Michaelmas has also delineated time and seasons for secular purposes as well, particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland as one of the quarter days."

From the Little Acorn Learning Autumn Equinox and Michaelmas Festival E-Book:

"Michaelmas is a celebration of many important ideas. It is a harvest celebration, when we honor the blessings of agriculture and the work of human hands that toil to put good, life-sustaining food on our tables and in our bellies. The bounty of earth is all around us in the autumn, and yet the shorter days and cooler temperatures remind us that soon many of our food plants must die or go dormant. The earth must rest, so that new growth can occur next year.

Michaelmas is also a community celebration, in which we are reminded that we succeed when we work together to overcome hunger, want, and disease, and the less visible dangers of loneliness and fear. It is our chance to come together on the good, green earth and declare to one another: We are alive. We are together. Together we are strong. Together and with pure hearts, we can overcome. In this time, maybe more than ever before, we all need reminders of strength, selflessness, courage, hope, and the ultimate triumph of good over evil."

Watercolor Painting Story

(Introducing the Color Yellow)

~Created especially for Little Acorn Learning by David McCann of Sparkle Stories - to use for storytelling when introducing the color yellow to the children watercolor painting utilizing the wet-on-wet watercolor method used in Waldorf Education.  

Listen to This Story Now

Once upon a time, a long time ago, boys and girls of the world could only know colors from far away.  A little girl could enjoy the orange of a sunset and a little boy could marvel at a deep green of a spruce tree but the colors remained at a distance - out of their reach.  Friends would talk of yellow and red and blue like we talk of happiness, and sleepiness and fear - things we know but have never held in our hands.  Never pet with our finger, never tucked into our pocket and cuddled under our chin as we fell asleep.  But the children wanted to.  They wanted to be able to feel blue between their toes and play with red like a ball and pull yellow out of the sky and give it a hug. 

The forest fairies could see this, so they gave a wonderful gift to the children - they gave paper.  Beautiful clean white sheets of soft paper - and they told the children how to use this gift.   You see this was long ago when fairies and children spoke all the time - these days we must listen very very carefully to hear them and even then it can be so quiet.

The forest fairies told the children to take the clean white sheets of paper and to bath them in fresh water - to place the paper under the water to let their friends the water nymphs begin to work the paper and make it so very soft. 

Now - far away in another part of the world, another gift was being prepared.  So many fairies sought to build a wand - a most powerful wand that the children could use themselves.  This wand would have a handle as strong as a hazel switch but a brush at the end that was as light as butterfly wings.  So soft and delicate was the brush that it could dance with all the colors of the rainbow. 

These fairies showed the children how to hold the handle and how to care for the brush.  And the children held the handle and looked at the brush.  They felt only the very tips of the brush on their cheeks - so light, so delicate.  Butterfly wings.  The children held the butterfly wing brush and washed it gently in the fresh water so that the water nymphs could soften it just like they softened the paper.  And then, the children were ready.

In that moment, a very special fairy named Yellow arrived. 

Now Yellow was well known in the fairy world for her dancing.  Oh my Yellow loved to dance.  She soaked herself into the tip of the butterfly wing brush and guided the children in her dance. 

She started in a top corner of the softened white page with a very small, very light slip of a dance.  And then a pause.  She was being playful - teasing just a little.  Then yellow slipped down on the white page again and moved lightly out from the corner in a few soft slips.  A curl, a loop - full of light and fancy.  Oh what fun this was!

Yellow continued her dance, streaming out from the corner like bright, buoyant beams of sunlight.  And then she started to explore the other corners - what was it like over here?  And over here?

Now all this time yellow knew that the brush was as soft and delicate as butterfly wings so she only danced with the very tip of the brush - and thought Yellow as so excited about her dance - even though she thought she could easily dance all over the page - she was careful of the brush.  She was careful of the paper.  And she kept her dance slow and gentle.  She quieted her dance.

But she smiled the whole time.

And as she came to the last corner of the clean white paper, she realized she had danced over the whole page.  She had danced everywhere - some areas had lots of her color and some areas had only a little.   And then the dance stopped.  Yellow stood back and looked at her dance on the paper and she laughed.

Autumn Leaf Stencil Painting

- taken from our Autumn Equinox and Michaelmas Festival E-Book 

• leaves from nature walks
• paper or cardstock
• watercolor paints and paper
• scissors
• tape
• beeswax crayons (optional: if you'd like to also do leaf rubbings)

Take the children on a walk and have them find special leaves to use with this project.  First, they can cover leaves with regular paper and rub beeswax crayons on top to create beautiful leaf rubbings. 

To create the stencil painting, leaves can then be traced on paper or cardstock and cut out to be used as a stencil.  Carefully tape your leaf stencil to watercolor paper.  Have children then experiment with watercolor paints around and over the leaf stencil and let dry. 

Remove your homemade stencil and the image of the leaf should appear, surrounded by your child's beautiful colors of watercolors.