School Event - Festival of Lanterns

This last week we received an invitation to attend our school's Festival of Lanterns, which is a yearly event they do to honor St. Martin. St. Martin was apparently kind to the poor and indigent, so what better role model for our Waldorf educated kids.

All the kids had made lanterns of various types - our second graders covered balloons in paper mache, and then cut out holes to hold a candle, and a pipe-cleaner handle. Other grades had different styles. We gathered in Parque Juarez at 6 PM, and after everyone got organized, Maestro Javier (the awesome music teacher), played a song about St. Martin and led everyone through some "surprises" in the park. At various stations, there were people handing out fruit, someone who appeared like a witch, a warrior on horseback, some dancing apparitions, and more. At the end, Maestro Thomas told the story of St. Martin (all in Spanish), of which I got a few bits and pieces, apparently relating to the various surprises in the park.


Maestro Thomas telling the story of St. Martin


The Warrior

As with all the school events, there is a lot of singing, and food for all to share afterward. It may seem sort of kumbaya, but it works to make everyone feel special and welcomed.

All of the families we have befriended were in the park tonight, so it was a nice sort of reunion too. Plus, I got to talk to the owner of Burrito Bistro, who it turns out has a kid at our school, and moved here from San Francisco 16 years ago. We also tried to arrange a play date for Laurel with one of the Mexican kids she's been trying to get to know, so hopefully we'll be able to pull that off. Sue and I haven't spoken much Spanish in the last couple of days, so we were a little rusty talking to the Mom, but we managed.