Seasonal celebration and workshops for children and adults.
Wheel of the Year
Celebrating festivals throughout the year is central to Creative Roots – Outdoor Learning offering.
Festivals gently lead the us to awareness of changing seasons and the world around us. Festivals are part of how we keep our life vibrant and meaningful. They invite the us to have a sense of awe, wonder and reverence for the spirit that lives within all humanity, encouraging diversity, community and acceptance.
We will be running workshops in our woodland camp. Join us with your family and friends to mark and celebrate changing of the seasons and to learn spinning, weaving, natural wreath making.
Seasonal Celebration
Imbolc – Candlemas
2nd of February
Marks the beginning of the lambing season and signals the beginning of Spring and the stirrings of new life. It is the promise of renewal, of hidden potential, of earth awakening and life-force stirring.
Spring Equinox
21th of March
A point of perfect balance on the journey through the Wheel of the Year. Night and day are of equal length and in perfect equilibrium – dark and light, masculine and feminine, inner and outer, in balance.The egg (and all seeds) contains ‘all potential’, full of promise and new life. It symbolises the rebirth of nature, the fertility of the Earth and all creation.
Beltane /May Day
1st of May
Beltane honours Life. It represents the peak of Spring and the beginning of Summer. Earth energies are at their strongest and most active. All of life is bursting with potent fertility and at this point in the Wheel of the Year, the potential becomes conception. Abundant fertility, on all levels, is the central theme.
Summer Solstice
21st of June
Here we are at Midsummer, we have arrived at the longest day and the shortest night of the year.This is the peak of the Solar year and the Sun is at the height of its life-giving power. The Earth is awash with fertility and fulfillment and this is a time of joy and celebration, of expansiveness and the celebration of achievements.
Lammas
1-2nd of August
Lammas is the celebration of this first, Grain Harvest, a time for gathering in and giving thanks for abundance. The word ‘Lammas’ is derived from ‘loaf mass’ and is indicative of how central and honoured is the first grain and the first loaf of the harvesting cycle.
There are many customs throughout Europe around the cutting of the grain or corn and they applied to all cereal crops including wheat, barley, rye and oats. Both the cutting of the first gain and the last grain are significant.
Mabon /Autumn Equinox
21st-22nd of September
Night and day are again of equal length and in perfect equilibrium – dark and light, ,in balance. This is the Second Harvest, the Fruit Harvest and the Great Feast of Thanksgiving. Mabon is a celebration and also a time of rest after the labour of harvest. In terms of life path it is the moment of reaping what you have sown, time to look at the hopes and aspirations of Imbolc and Ostara and reflect on how they have manifested. It is time to complete projects, to clear out and let go that which is no longer wanted or needed as we prepare for descent, so that the winter can offer a time for reflection and peace.
Samhain/Halloween
31st of October
All Souls Night, Feast of the Dead, Festival of Remembrance, Feast of Apples.It is the third and final harvest festival of nuts and berries and a fire festival. All the harvest is in, all is complete, it is the end of the cycle of birth and growth, it is the point of death.Traditionally the veils between the worlds are at their thinnest now. Boundaries dissolve and all is laid bare. It is time to honour and offer hospitality to, our ancestors.
Martinmas – Lanter Walk
11th of November
Martinmas, or the festival of St. Martin, is celebrated around November 11 with a nighttime lantern walk. The festival provides us with an opportunity to consciously mark the point in the cycle of the year when the light and warmth of the sun is retreating.As the sun sets earlier and the world grows darker, this tradition of making and carrying lanterns into the dark evening symbolizes that the inner light of humankind wants to shine forth.
Advent Spiral
3rd of December
This festival is unique ion our calendar of the year.This is a celebration of quiet confidence, of carrying light in darkness, of sharing that light with others. We gather in silence – candle is lit in the center of a spiral of evergreen boughs, a symbol of life amidst the dead of winter. Then, as quiet music plays, each child in turn takes a candle into the center of that spiral and lights it, then places the candle in an apple along the path.
Yule/ Winter Solstice
21st of December
At the Winter Solstice we reach the depth of that darkness with the longest night of the year. Darkness has reached its peak.At Yule a wonderful thing happens. The Sun stops its decline and for a few days it rises in about the same place. This is the crucial time, the cusp between events. The Sun stands still, and everyone waits for the turning. he Sun does start north again and the light comes back. In the world, in our lives, the light comes back. This is indeed something worth celebrating,
“Such a lovely time”
I had such a lovely time learning how to make a wreath today. Such a nurturing experience, You are both such warm, patient teachers. I can’t wait to join future workshops..