Celebrating Michaelmas...

[mommabeehilly]

How do you celebrate Michaelmas? I have been doing lots of reading and would love to hear personal accounts...what do you eat? what stories do you tell? what books do you read?

[dogretro]

I have to look up when that even is. I SWEAR I am doing festivals now! I even read All Year Round & am ready to go!

[LuxPerpetua]

We make dragon bread and homemade blackberry jam to spread on it (we tell the account of St. Michael kicking the dragon out of heaven and the dragon landing in a blackberry bush and cursing it so that after Michaelmas there would be no more blackberries). There are some good dragon stories on mainlesson.com. We did one last year about a mound that is actually a sleeping dragon that gets woken up. This year we'll add Dragon Baked Bread and St. George and the Dragon. I'm going to see what other dragon/good conquers evil books I can get at the library, but I haven't done that yet. We put a cape on dd (she's always St. Michael) and give her our long bread knife to "slay" the dragon bread.

[dogretro]

Got the shelf cleaned off & the fall nature table is set up, woo-hoo! Looked up Michaelmas in the book, so now I at least know when it is

DD1 LOVES dragons, so I think she will really dig this holiday! I'm not sure if I'm up for trying the dragon story bread from the All Year Round book, but I may try. I like the idea of making dragon loaves & we can do that from frozen dough if need be. I have dd1's old dragon Halloween costume that is dd2's size now, so maybe I'll dress dd2 up as the dragon & dd1 as St. Michael. That seems kind of wrong, to dress my baby up as Old Scratch I wonder if I can find a dragon shaped candle to light.

Mostly I think I will def tell them the story & then have some sword play w/ dd's attacking a dragon. I'm almost positive that dh has wooden swords somewhere in the house. Am I the only one who thinks that a dragon pinata would be AWESOME for this holiday??? I will give them a dragon toy, too, b/c I love to give them gifts, heehee.

[teamsalem]

OOo, I love the blackberry jam idea. We have frozen blackberries that we picked in the freezer, I wonder if I can use those to make jam.

Someone enlighten me, is it the 29th this year?

[MammaG]

We're going to be on holiday this year, visiting my Dad, so we're going to make a big deal of Michaelmas and celebrate for a week or so. We're arriving two days before and we'll be tired and jet-lagged, so that first day I plan to read the kids lots of Michael and St. George stories (outdoors, so the sun helps them with the time change). Tuesday we'll make wet-felted comet-balls to play with...we're city-dwellers and Dad lives in an old farmhouse, so we're taking every opportunity to run outdoors! Michaelmas Day, the kids and I will bake dragon-bread and we are having a festival dinner that evening with a roast goose, followed by a bonfire and stories.

Thursday, Dad and DH are going to make kites with the boys. Dad lives on a spur of a hill and we'll walk up to the top where it's windy to fly them.

The next Monday, we'll make wooden swords and shields (Dad and partner have been refinishing the farm house for three years, doing most of it themselves, and we want to play with the huge assortment of cool tools they have accumulated!) There's a blacksmith in the village who makes armor for the many local historic recreations....we'll visit his shop that day.

Tuesday I want to read more stories and focus on sending a message of right-use for the kids' new weaponry!

Wednesday we'll have a scavenger hunt for signs of dragons in the neighbourhood. (pp, I LOVE the idea of a dragon pinata...maybe we'll make one and finish our hunt with a dragon-slaying in the barn?)

Thursday is market day...we'll pick out local produce and make Dragon soup.

We're going easy on homeschooling while we're there, and my two older boys are only in Kindy anyway, so one activity per day is about right. After a week or so with Michaelmas, we'll move onto Chestnuts, which are local and in season then. That will in turn lead us on to a week of Harvest. And then back home.

I'm so glad that our holiday is coinciding with Michaelmas this year, I think it will lay the foundation for some new family traditions.

[teamsalem]

wow, Gwen, you have quite the week planned! Awesome ideas! Where on the North Shore are you guys, btw?

[MammaG]

Sharon, I love that we'll be able to 'test-drive' ideas this year! I suspect this Michaelmas will be the one we look back to every year for inspiration. I'm looking for as many stories as I can get. We'll read them all and pick the few that really resonate for us to use in the years that we're celebrating on a less-grand scale.

We're actually in Lowell, and Gloucester for some of the Summer. Are you in Salem? We lived there as newlyweds. Right in the Historic District off of Essex. Loved it!

And, are you interested in a Waldorf Homeschooling group? A group of families just got one started and we are doing a 4-week handwork class with a Waldorf teacher. Several folks from the Beverly area, and from up in NH. I know a lovely Waldorf Mama in Marblehead I could introduce you to! Send me a PM if you'd like more info!

[ourdayourjourney]

we read the story of the harvest loaf from all year round. we also made dragon shaped bread later on, hopefully ours will rise this year. i still have yet to perfect breadmaking. the book "dragon baked bread" has the dragon helping to bake the bread that saves the town (if i remember correctly).

[onyxravnos]

I just did our michaelmas post
http://barefootedfamily.blogspot.com...lmas-2010.html

this year went great i can't wait to do it again next year!