Having your child at Wildcat Canyon Community School school means becoming part of a community that celebrates the cycles of the year through a rich festival life.
Festivals help us to nourish our souls and deepen our connection to the earth and each other through the sharing of stories, food, songs and activities linked to the seasons and expressed with beauty and reverence. In addition to the community-wide festivals listed here, teachers celebrate other festivals in the classroom, including those connected to families in our community and different cultures being studied.
Rose Ceremony
Each year on the first day of school, the incoming 1st grade class is welcomed into the school community with a Rose Ceremony. During this opening day assembly, the new 1st grade teacher and class are introduced to the school community and honored by our 8th grade teacher and students, welcoming each 1st grader with a rose. This celebration marks a reunion after the summer of our community and a grateful beginning of the new school year.
Autumn Festival
Autumn winds are blowing and the days are perceptibly shorter! The change of the season invokes in us the experience of a new mood. As nature begins to fall into its sleepy cycle, human beings awake into their own forces. It is customary for Waldorf schools to hold a festival in early Autumn, in which the whole community can live into experiences of the courage that must be brought forth in preparation for the winter season. As WCCS reopened, we began to reimagine this festival to meet the needs of our community in these modern times. In 2023, faculty and community members met during the summer and worked on adapting a story from Ethiopia, called The Monster who Grew Small, into a play that involves all grades students. This play will continue to evolve as we grow as a school.
Lantern Walk
In mid-November, our early childhood families mark the changing of the season to the dark winter with a traditional lantern walk. Along with their parents and teachers, the children walk in the dark with their own handmade lantern, to shine their light in the darkness. Our older grades sponsor a coat drive for a local charitable organization.
Spiral of Light
Imagine a class entering a darkened room in silence. A musician plays softly in one corner of the room. One by one, children walk in reverence along a spiral of evergreens laid on the floor, toward a single candle in the center. Each child carries a candle held in an apple candleholder, which they light at the central candle. They walk back out, leaving their candle along the spiral, which is gradually lit by a multitude of candles. Each child walks differently from the others, and differently with each year that passes, growing through the repetition of this ritual.
The spiral is an ancient symbol and one of nature’s many patterns, found in shells, pinecones, flowers, and the movement of water. Walking it represents a journey inward, as the natural world draws inward during the time of the Winter Solstice. Although the outer world goes to sleep, the inner life wakens during this time. The spiral can also represent our journey through life, cycling through seasons, years, different ages: our time on this earth.
Grandparents & Friends Day
This is a day when we open our doors and welcome parents, relatives, and friends to visit their students in their classes, and the school itself. Always a happy gathering, each grade presents an artistic work followed by lunch and refreshments.
Spring Jubilee
As Spring arrives, we celebrate the abundance of our land and our community. The earth is waking up again, our hills are green and flowering, and the sun is returning! In a celebration that is open to the public, we gather, weave flower crowns, dance, sing, and share food. Each class shares a dance or song as a performance, reflecting the many cultures of our school: Tinikling from the Philippines, the Cha Cha Slide originating in Chicago, Maypole dances from England and Ireland, and line dances from Israel, among others. After the performances, we celebrate with music by the community, including an open mic session for all ages. Alumni are particularly welcome!