Sunday, September 21, 2008

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

I so enjoy celebrating and observing the seasons. It's my "thing" (well, I guess along with many other things). So once again I present you with our Autumnal Equinox tea. I know I always write about this and it's repetitive, but life is repetitive, huh? And it's this repetition that makes a tradition and is so warm and comforting to our little ones (and ourselves, too, really). Every equinox and solstice we sit down for a little tea time to observe the change of season.
We mostly have the same things: cucumber sandwiches, fruit, sweets, and deviled eggs. Little meat pies are a new addition. And we drink tea of course. I am very happy to welcome autumn this year--the change of season energizes me and gets me excited about the fall holidays that I like so much--Rainer's birthday, a simple Halloween, Thanksgiving, and this year I'm determined to have a little lantern festival--just us, of course, as always. I've been reading about it--Martinmas--in Festivals, Families, and Food. So there's that to plan for. Oh, and about the change of seasons in Southern California. I do wish sometimes that we were in a different location--somewhere with real seasons. But alas, it's not so. So we just have to be more attuned to the change of seasons, because they really do exist, even here. The mornings are cooler now, the days too, the leaves are changing a little bit, and when we went for our Saturday morning hike, there was a dusting of pretty fallen leaves that had not been there the time before. The days are getting shorter and our school routine is getting more routine. It's actually quite nice. Happy Autumn!

12 comments:

Iris said...

I love your seasonal celebrations Mary Beth! This looks really special and will provide such wonderful memories for your children. The change of season really energizes me too, but this is particularly true of autumn. It's such a relief when things cool down here after the summer. (Can't shake those Irish roots!)Wishing you lots of autumn joy!

Maymomvt said...

Happy Autumn to you too. We celebrated with wood chopping and needle felting. Here's a link to a tutorial I did last year about making balloon lanterns for Martinmas: http://maymomvt.blogspot.com/2007/11/making-lanterns-for-martinmas.html

The Three Little Bears said...

Abosolutely beautiful! I am so glad I found your blog. I am really enjoy following it!

Our Green Nest said...

Love your whole table setting...looks like you had a wonderful tea (what a great idea!).

ames said...

Lovely lovely lovely! M'dear, you must get up at the crack of dawn, I'm just now having lunch and really wishing it was those cucumber sandwiches! What a sweet tradition to celebrate the season.

Anonymous said...

Hi MaryBeth,
We will celebrate St. Martinus here, in Holland. Pelle will make a latern at preschool and around 5 o'clock we will visit our nabours and sing a song in return for a sweet.
Usually we make paper laterns but chldrens also use sugarbeets or tins. If you like, I will sent some pics by then. It's always so enchanting.
Love, Ria

Its_Lily said...

It's funny because I always forget that other places around the world don't experience the change of seasons like we do in Michigan. It's the feel of the air, it's the scent of fall, it's a change in the arc of the sun as it moves across the sky. Enjoy your tea. It looks beautiful.

taisa said...

Such lovely traditions you have. Today we pulled out our Autumn books and collected leaves, but no special teas or table settings!

Chris said...

I agree that the changing of the seasons is more subtle in southern Cali, but we should celebrate them anyways. My son is currently obsessed with Hallween, but my husband is looking forward to St. Martin's day, so we will make lanterns later in the season.
I loved your idea about quality art supplies, by the way - you inspired me and my son to use oil pastels today and he loved them!

MystikMomma said...

I love this post with the routine of our lives. It really hit home with me today. I have been making special little things for my little guy who is turning 4 tomorrow. Along the lines of your tea ritual, I want to make his birthday special and fun, so he has those memories to build on each birthday.
Thank you for sharing.

Anonymous said...

How special to have a little celebration like this! We in Slovakia have real seasons but this year unusually it was from very hot weather to very very cold weather practically in a day which caused that lots of people are sick all over the country :o(
A nice celebration we have these days in the part of Slovakia where I live (famous for its good quality wine) is a Vintage festival - celebration of wine including rich cultural program and tasting of regional specialties{food and wine} in the streets of the city center :o)

Babiebluz said...

Thank you for sharing this celebration with us, we celebrated it at our Montessori school and the kids just totally enjoyed it. It brings such a great sense and appreciation to our Mother earth...:)