Spotlight on Waldorf #8: The Lantern Walk

As winter approaches, Waldorf classrooms focus their stories and themes on the darkening days and the holidays that brighten them. As children paint, shape beeswax, and draw with colored pencils, they do so with the human capacity to bring light into darkness in mind.

In November, younger classes begin to prepare for one of the most beloved moments in the Waldorf year: The Lantern Walk. In preparation they make simple lanterns out of jars and tissue paper, needle-felted wool, stamped tin cans, or papier-mâché. No matter the materials, each is made beautifully with care so that it becomes a small vessel for light.

In the Waldorf tradition, the Lantern Walk honors the memory of Saint Martin, a young Roman soldier riding through a cold night many centuries ago. As he approached the city gates, he met a beggar on the street, freezing with the cold of the night. Martin was moved by the man’s suffering. He got off his horse, drew his sword, and with it, cut his soldier’s cloak in two. With one half, he wrapped the stranger warmly. That same night, as the story goes, Martin dreamed of Christ wearing the half-cloak and understood that his simple act of mercy and compassion had brought light into a dark world.

In honor of this story, every November, Waldorf students and their families gather at dusk, led by their class teachers. When the day gives way to evening, lanterns are lit and lifted, and together families sing into the night. This is not a performance but a practice of quiet celebration and community. Traditional Lantern Walk songs include "I Go with My Little Lantern", "High and Blue the Sky," and "Glimmer Lantern Glimmer." These and other Lantern Walk songs can be found here.

To begin the walk, Saint Martin’s tale is told without explanation. It is simply entrusted to the children to work on them inwardly as they walk and sing with their lanterns. As the seeds of the story germinate within, each child comes to understand that when the outer world grows dim, we all must kindle greater light within.