Here There Be Dragons (And Warriors Too!)

Last Thursday, we joined as a community to celebrate Michaelmas with our annual pageant. Michaelmas celebrations are a time-honored tradition in Waldorf schools across the world. Michaelmas (pronounced “mick-el-muss”) is one of the four seasonal festivals we celebrate on our Waldorf calendar. It is named for the biblical hero, Michael (meaning “Who is like God” in Hebrew). Other examples of this figure can be found in many cultures throughout time and history. Some examples include Indra (Indian), Zardust (Persian), Marduk (Babylonian), and Phoebus Apollo (Greek), all known as the conquerors of the powers of darkness and warriors of courage; figures who challenge us to develop strong, brave free will.

Here at WSMF, Michaelmas is a celebration of such brave, free, will power. With shorter days to come, we seek to strengthen ourselves against the sadness and fear that may come with the growing darkness outside. It is a time to renew our aim to be truthful, compassionate neighbors to one another, and conquer any inner challenges that turn our efforts away from these goals. Our students enacted a pageant in which a dragon– representing the challenges that distract us from achieving our goals– is subdued and its power is instead harnessed for good. We expect our students to take the lessons of this pageant to heart as they move through the coming year.

To help drive the point home, our oldest students capped off the day by wrestling with another great power— that of their classmates and teachers in the annual tug-of-war competition! Enjoy some photos from the exciting day below!