Happy Michaelmas!

St. Michael and All Angels
“Ye that excel in strength”

Service and strength, God’s Angels and Archangels;
His Seraphs fires, and lamps his Cherubim:
Glory to God from highest and from lowest,
Glory to God in everlasting hymn
From all his creatures.

Princes that serve, and Powers that work his pleasure,
Heights that soar toward him, Depths that sink toward him;
Flames fire out-flaming, chill beside his Essence;
Insight all-probing, save where scant and dim
Toward its Creator.

Sacred and free exultant in God’s pleasure,
His will their solace, thus they wait on him;
And shout their shout of ecstasy eternal,
And trim their splendours that they burn not dim
Toward their Creator.

Wherefore with Angels, wherefore with Archangels,
With lofty Cherubs, loftier Seraphim,
We laud and magnify our God Almighty,
And veil our faces rendering love to him
With all his creatures.

~ Christina Rossetti

Today, we celebrate Michaelmas - the slaying of the dragon, representative of the dark and the letting in of the Light of God. The fall brings a wonderful slow-down as we begin to prepare for the birth of Christ in a few short months.

I love my copy of "All Year Round". It keeps me prepared for the festivals and I turned to it again today.

We purchased some decorating beeswax this year.


The colors were so vibrant on each thin sheet.



The girls constructed our own dragon to celebrate the Feast of Saint Michael.


I helped a little bit...


Meanwhile, while they were creating, I was preparing dough for our dragon bread...

While it rose, the girls finished the dragon candle. We smoothed the edges and tried it out. Charley decided to add the moon, some stars and a fairy flying around the dragon's fire. We will burn it every night at dinner until the dragon has been destroyed, symbolically.

The girls shaped their dragon bread (we ended up with one bird, one dragon and a bunch of hearts)...

And I told them the story of "The Kite" from Wynstone Press' Autumn book.

And we'll be reading John Henry the rest of the day...

For a wonderful Michaelmas story, check out one of my very favorite blogs (OK my favorite one...I admit it...) Our Little Nature Nest here. And also, her activities for Michaelmas from last year here.

And finally, from another one of my favorite blogs, Parenting Passageway, check out Carrie's post last year in preparation of Michaelmas here.

We're continuing the amazing story of "The Dragon Boy", which I hope to review on Friday! The girls can't get enough of it! It has been a perfect read aloud for the beginning of autumn as we happened to read the two chapters about the autumn solstice on the actual autumn solstice! I love it when things fall into place like that!

Hope you are having a fun, festive day!

Happy St. George's Day & Friday Book Review: Saint George and the Dragon

Happy St. George's Day!

Today, we celebrate this Patron Saint of many countries (including: England, Palestine, Portugal, Germany, and Greece). I did an extensive post about him last year (more historically based), including a mini-tutorial on how we needle-felted a whimsical dragon. It can be found here. There is a lot online to be found about this amazing man. Here is one example.

As a relatively new tradition, we love to celebrate this day by reading this enchanting book by Margaret Hodges called "Saint George and the Dragon". It is actually a retelling of a section of Spencer's "The Faerie Queen" in which St. George follows Princess Una on a quest to slay the dragon who is terrorizing the countryside. There are fantastical illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman which will certainly fuel the imagination for a time when Knights and Dragons ruled the land.

The book begins as thus:

"In the days when monsters and giants and fairy folk lived in England, a noble knight was riding across a plain. He wore heavy armor and carried and ancient silver shield marked with a red cross..."

The Queen of the Fairies sends the Red Cross Knight to slay the angry dragon and the book begins with St. George riding his horse, along with Una on her white donkey, followed by a white lamb and a dwarf carrying food. Una has sought out this champion through the dangerous land on her journey to find such a knight. After many days of travel, they reach a hillside where an old hermit resides. The hermit tells the Knight,

"It is time for me to tell you that you were not born of fairy folk, but of English earth. The fairies stole you away as a baby while you slept in your cradle. They hid you in a farmer's field, where a plowman found you. He called you George, which means 'Plow the Earth' and 'Fight the Good Fight'. For you were born to be England's friend and patron saint, Saint George of Merry England."

The Red Cross Knight and Una depart the next day toward the countryside where the dragon resides. The onlookers cheer on their champion. Suddenly, a hideous roar is heard and the Knight prepares for battle.

George and the dragon fight three times and the first two times, George is almost defeated. He is given strength and healing from an ancient silver spring after the first battle, healing dew from an apple tree after the second battle, and then, at long last, the faithful knight slays the horrible dragon once and for all.

There is a great celebration throughout the land. The King, Una's father, rewards the brave knight with riches. George tells the king to never forget the poor people and he gives his newly gifted riches to the poor, himself. Una and George are wed, yet George never forgets his promise to the Fairy Queen and goes off to fight for 6 more years, before returning to Una and his kingdom that the King has promised. And at last, he earns his name:

Saint George of Merry England

This book is a fairly long read at 32 pages and is quite descriptive. It is marked as a book for ages 4-8 on amazon, but I would say age 6+ would be able to sit longer for it, unless it was divided into several days. Some 6 year olds might not yet be ready as it is very detailed.

This book would be a wonderful retelling for a parent in their own words, for a younger child, especially with puppets and props.

Overall, this is a nice fantastical book for your bookshelf that will grow with your children. Even as an adult, I love looking at the pictures and imagining the world this illustrator has captured.

Until next time, Happy St. George's Day to Merry Old England and to us all!

St. George's Day Celebration

The True Dragon

St George was out walking

He met a dragon on a hill,

It was wise and wonderful

Too glorious to kill

It slept amongst the wild thyme

Where the oxlips and violets grow

Its skin was a luminous fire

That made the English landscape glow

Its tears were England’s crystal rivers

Its breath the mist on England’s moors

Its larder was England’s orchards,

Its house was without doors

St George was in awe of it

It was a thing apart

He hid the sleeping dragon

Inside every English heart

So on this day let’s celebrate

England’s valleys full of light,

The green fire of the landscape

Lakes shivering with delight

Let’s celebrate St George’s Day,

The dragon in repose;

The brilliant lark ascending,

The yew, the oak, the rose

~Brian Patten

Today, we celebrate St. George and the legend of the dragon he slew to save the fair princess who was ill-fated to end her life in the fierce clutches of the beast.

At least that's one version of it...

St. George was named as the Protector of England around the time of King Edward III. Legend claims that centuries earlier, when Christians were being persecuted, St. George vowed to fight for the cause. He sold all he had, freed his slaves and set out on his quest. Along the way, he discovered a princess and a fierce dragon. He subdued the monster and slew the winged creature.

In reality, though he had fought bravely as a Roman soldier, the Roman Emperor Diocletian did not accept his plea to end the persecution of the Christians. He was subsequently captured and tortured before being beheaded by the Emperor on April 23, 303 A.D. To the end, St. George never renounced his religious beliefs.

He is now remembered and celebrated for his brilliant courage, his quest for truth and justice as a champion of the oppressed. He is associated with the rose, England's national flower. So on this day, in memory of his death, the English who celebrate him place a rose on the table to honour this brave soldier...

The girls and I wanted to do a bit more to mark this day. I had found the book, "Saint George and the Dragon" retold by Margaret Hodges at the library and bought it for 25 cents. We have been reading it all this week and thought it would be fun to felt the dragon and Saint George for our nature table.

I began with the dragon's head, going off of illustrations in the book...

And then sculpted the body around a pipe cleaner to give it strength and some flexibility in holding the desired shape.

The wings were fun - just a pipe cleaner with green wool wrapped around the edges.

Here's a top shot of the dragon's head. I added "fire" coming from his nostrils and mouth. He didn't look as angry as the illustrations in the book, which was good :)

I used two shades of green wool and then on his underbelly, I used a little yellow to represent his scales.

And finally - VOILA! Here is his basic body without his claws...

He ended up being pretty darn big!

Here's a side-view to see the fire coming from his nostrils and mouth.

I kind of liked him better without the claws, but the girls really wanted him to have them, so we added them - looks a little godzilla-like now, but I did like his nails and now he stood unsupported...

The flower-fairies huddled together at the arrival of the Dragon...

But never fear - Saint George is here!

Take that, Dragon!

Oops - forgot George's famous shield...he needs that to fend off the flames!

Finally, our scene was ready. The candle was lit, the book was read and we could stand back and admire the scene on the nature table and imagine a time of dragons and magic and princesses!

And let us not forget...

Our Rose...

Happy St. George's Day!