Lantern Walk at School

Well, we had an interesting night on Friday. Channing's school does a Lantern Walk every November where they celebrate the Festival of St. Martin. It honors the light we have within each of us, as well as how to keep it alight through times of darkness and cold. (Hmmmm...this sounds familiar in a Light of Christ sort of way)!

So Channing and Cameron each made a paper lantern and we went to the school on Friday night and had some yummy snacks. Then the teacher told a short story about a little girl who's parents died and all she had left was a golden lantern. (Hence the "lantern walk"). The little girl visited the sun because her light was growing dim, but the sun said, "look at your lantern, it is already growing brighter because the light is within yourself." A nice message for little kids I think.

We then proceeded to follow a path of about 300 luminaries through the garden and around the pond all while singing a "lantern walk song" and holding our lanterns (yes, they had real tealights with FIRE - can you imagine a public school doing this - heck no)! The kids were totally mesmerized. We lost Channing for the whole walk (Cameron's light went out and we had to go get it relit - I think he blew it out - he loves to blow out candles)! Channing went to the car at the end of the walk and we had no clue where he was for like 5 minutes. Silly Boy! Eventually we figured it out and he was already walking back to find us with another mom that we know.

So that was an interesting experience. Here's a picture of the boys back at home with their lanterns.