Who would think an apple,
Red, gold, green and round,
Would have a secret deep inside,
When cut it can be found!
I thought this secret only shone,
In deep and darkest night,
But when I cut my apple,
It shines with five points bright!
And now you know the secret,
Where shining stars are found,
In every crunchy apple,
Red, gold, green and round.
Apple Secrets :: Betty Jones
Easter in Autumn is such a beautiful celebration. I remember when Chilli was a wee bubba, approaching her very first Easter, I attended an evening talk by our playgroup teacher – such a wise woman who was a wonderful mentor to me in those early years. Much of our home rhythm, traditions and celebrations have grown from her inspiration in those first years. Following on from that evening, I purchased the book ‘Easter in Autumn‘ by Collette Leenman, and now, to be honest – I couldn’t imagine celebrating Easter in any other season. I have no doubt the energy of Spring is so beautiful to the message of Easter, but amongst our own Southern Season, there is such strong archetypal messages and activities that we can bring to share the story of Easter gently with wee ones.
One story and activity that is synonymous of Easter to Chilli is related to a favourite and iconic Autumnal fruit – Apples. As Easter approaches each year, I know that Chilli looks forward to and is always excited when we have the story of the ‘Little Round House’. When she was a young child, it was told every Easter at her playgroup, with a slight variation to the end. I brought the story into our home in the weeks that it would be at playgroup and now it is just entrenched in our Easter traditions. You’ll find many variations of the ‘Little Round House’ story online, but I couldn’t find a link that told the story in the way we do, so I’ve created a downloadable file for you with the story as we tell it.
As part of our ‘immersion’ in this theme, we often go out to watch the night sky. As the moon waxes to the final full moon before Easter, it’s lovely for the children to each night, see ‘just a little more’ of the Easter Hare ‘hopping across the face of the moon’. You might even like to look to the stars while you are out there and ‘look for the new baby stars’ that were born from your apple stars! We’ll definitely be doing that this year. I know the children will have such fun looking for the ‘new stars’ they can see each night.
A lovely activity to accompany this story and time of year is of course apple stamping. We cut the cheeks off the apple for snacks or apple and blackberry pie and then cut the core ‘block’ through the middle and reveal the ‘stars’. The ‘blocks’ then make handy little ‘stamps’ to create beautiful ‘starry night’ scenes.
This beautiful little story and apples are always such a treasured part of our Easter celebrations. Are you celebrating Easter in Autumn? What are your favourite Autumnal Easter celebrations and traditions?
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