Happy Imbolc/Candlemas/Groundhog Day

If Candlemas day be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight.

If Candlemas day be shower and rain, Winter is gone and will not come again.

I decided to celebrate Imbolc/Candlemas/Groundhog day in a more spiritual way this year. Symbolicly around the begining of Feb the Sun is returning and the days are becoming longer. In a religious aspect it is the celebrating of The Goddess/Saint Brigid. Since I am not religious and there are so many explanations of the history for celebrating Imbolc/Candlemas, I have decided to take a more spiritual/natural connection that works best for our family.

We celebrated the return of the sun and the begining signs of spring in a very simple way. I felt an internal awaking as well. The past month I have felt much like a hibernating bear! This is also a time for Ryan and I to return to our homeschool rythm.

For our Watercolor painting this week I read the Candlemas story below that I found off of my Waldorfschoolonline yahoo group. I turned off the lights and lit some candles. Ryan really enjoyed the story and paid special attention to his painting. His is the one on top.

The Noble Candle by Kristie Burns

http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=102932

There once was the reddish glow of a candle that wanted to do something special for Candlemas. She would shine all night, even if someone tried to blow her out she would shine in a radiant circle all night long (color a bright red circle in the paper). She was so proud of her red glow that one day she thought to herself…why am I just shining at night? I can shine all day too! So she didn't go out in the morning she stayed glowing all through the morning and into the afternoon. Then when the yellow afternoon sun peaked into the window he saw her red glow and said, "what is this? A candle trying to be bright like ME! Ha! I am the brightest one on earth!" So the sun crept into the room with her beautiful yellow rays and she tried to blow out the candle (paint yellow all over the paper). In fact, the sun tried all day to put the candle out but the candle only turned orange! And soon the sun had to go to sleep and the candle tried really hard (paint the red circle again) and concentrated with all her red heart and soon she shown with a red glow again. But then the blue moon saw her as he peeked in the window at night and said, "What is this? A glow inside? I am the only one allowed to glow at night!!! I will take care of this!" So the blue moon crept into the room and tried to blow out the candle too. But he was weaker than the sun and any time he got close to the red glow he would not be able to touch it (paint the blue around the outside of the candle glow) but he tried and he tried…(paint blue all over the yellow but not on the red) and finally had to leave. When the children came into the room in the morning they found a candle burning read surrounded by green walls – the colors of Christmas and Candlemas. And the little candle smiled because she knew that if your red heart is strong that nobody can blow you out!



We also made floating candles. I used an old candle and broke up the wax while adding colored beeswax to it. They came out really cool. The picture at the top of the post is them floating in water while lit.

What a sweet face. I have decided to print this picture out and keep it handy on those difficult days. Ryan is a wonderful energetic,creative,intelligent boy who tests my limits every day!

We are off to look for signs of spring today. We are soooo ready for it.