Every festival has a special place in the heart of our school community, but possibly none more so than the Winter Festival.
We gather, quiet and reverent, on the eve of the Winter solstice and, as children and adults alike, we carry our own light into the darkest night of the year. The festival calls on courage and faith to carry us forward in life. As a school we enter the spiral by lantern light, walking the ever-tightening circles, feeling the challenging constriction of it all, only to turn at the centre and be released back into widening, freeing circles that lead us towards the expansive days of summer.
This year’s festival theme was Hope and it was reflected everywhere: in the Hallelujah blessing of the Eurythmy, in the narrated story Return of the Sun, in the sweet voices and dancing of the primary students, in the resonant singing of Deep Peace by the high school, and in the poignant lighting of the individual candles by each Class 12 student who will soon take their blessing out into our world.
After walking the spiral silently, we then celebrated with more music by our talented Class 11 Music students, and then were treated to the first-ever whole Class 6 Fire Dance led by movement teacher Hannah.
Seeing the firesticks blaze was a reminder of the spark that is carried in each of us, that united forges the heart of our school community.
Alix and Tim, College Chairs
