Events & Festivals
Community Events & festivals
Connecting to the cycles of the year through festivals and rites of passages is an important touchstone of Waldorf education. Celebrating Earth's seasons joins us to something much bigger than ourselves, and this sense of belonging is key to building the resilience needed to be a part of the whole world community. It also encourages relationships with fellow human beings and reverence for the natural world of plants and animals.
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If a child has been able in his play to give up his whole loving being to the world around him, he will be able, in the serious tasks of later life, to devote himself with confidence and power to the service of the world.
Rudolf Steiner
awakening natural reverence
At the Davis Waldorf School, we honor the spirit in all living things. Our goal is to awaken the child’s natural reverence for the wonder and beauty of humanity and the natural world. While religion is not taught at our school, we tell stories from and observe celebrations associated with faith traditions from around the world, honoring the beautiful diversity of humanity. We strive to foster empathy, compassion, connection and inclusion.
A deeper significance in many everyday occurrences
We like to acknowledge and share the religious customs and celebrations enjoyed by our families. If you are interested in celebrating special holidays in your child’s classroom, we encourage you to give suggestions to your child’s class teacher. Parent participation helps to make these festivals meaningful and special. Parents are welcome to keep their children home in observance of their own religious holidays.
The ceremonies and rituals associated with the rhythms of the seasons of nature help reveal the deeper significance in many everyday occurrences. The living rhythms of the year, though taken up by each class in different ways, help provide a common foundation for the students. Nature stories, songs, poetry, and special tales help bring the deeper significance of the season to the children in a pictorial way.
Fall Events
All School Beautification Day
“Many hands make light work,” by John Heywood
Let’s work together at the All School Beautification Day, an event that brings our community together to connect, collaborate, and prepare our beloved campus for the new school year. From weeding gardens to sprucing up classrooms, every contribution helps create a welcoming and inspiring environment for our students. It’s a day of teamwork, laughter, and preparation. Let’s roll up our sleeves and make our school beautiful!
New Parent Orientation
The Davis Waldorf School is thrilled and honored to welcome new parents and caregivers! The purpose of the evening is to provide caregivers an opportunity to become connected, informed, engaged, and enlightened about the Waldorf Principles we teach from and how parents can help support their children’s education and development. There will also be some business to take care of; communication, volunteer opportunities, festivals, info from the office, time for questions and so on. This is an educational gathering not to be missed! Start the school year off right, by showing up for an immersive informative night with your DWS community.
Opening Day - Rose Ceremony
On the first day of school for the grades, we gather as a full school community to begin the new year with reverence, joy, and intention. Students, teachers, faculty, staff, and families are welcomed back to campus for this meaningful opening of the school year. Together, we introduce the new year’s classes and teachers, offer parents a glimpse into the curriculum ahead, and honor the special threshold of beginning again.
A cherished part of Opening Day is the welcoming of the new first grade class into the grades by our eighth grade class. Each eighth grader presents a rose to a first grader, beginning their bond as first and eighth grade buddies for the year. The first graders then pass under the rainbow bridge, held by their former kindergarten teachers, and continue on toward their new classroom, where they are warmly welcomed into the next chapter of their school journey.
Back to School Picnic
The DWS community picnics on the Grove lawn to kick off the new school year. Families are invited to bring a blanket and enjoy an evening of live music, dinner, baked goods, contra dancing, and camaraderie. Dinner and baked goods support middle school class fundraisers. This gathering is also a time to receive important information for the year, welcome new families, rekindle old friendships, and celebrate faculty and staff milestones, including recognizing who has been part of DWS the longest.
Michaelmas
The Michaelmas festival takes place in late September with an all grades play and pageant about courage, transformation, and facing a troublesome dragon. Michaelmas is commonly celebrated in Europe, yet its message of courage in the face of fear and difficulty is universal and timeless. Michael, an archangel named in several spiritual traditions, is often pictured as a protector who inspires strength, compassion, and steadfastness.
In the Waldorf curriculum, the image of Michael overcoming the dragon with a sword of light becomes a living picture for children: we can meet challenges with courage and transform what is difficult. Students participate in this grades collective play, with younger children watching the older students and looking forward to the roles they may one day play themselves. Like many Waldorf traditions, Michaelmas reflects how our K–8 curriculum, festivals, and class experiences build year by year.
This play is developmentally appropriate for children in the grades, not for younger siblings or preschoolers, who hold their own age-appropriate Michaelmas events.
Protected Path - Halloween Festival
All Hallow’s Eve, better known as Halloween, has roots in one of the four Celtic “cross-quarter” festivals, marking the time between the Solstice and Equinox. Falling in the season of lengthening shadows and growing darkness, it was once celebrated as a time of both ending and beginning. Traditions held that the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds was thinner at this time, making it a season for honoring loved ones who had passed, as well as for purification and protection. By acknowledging the darker side of existence, people sought the courage and strength to resist what is harmful.
At DWS, we celebrate Halloween with a blend of the old and new. The Protected Path is a journey through a world of vignettes, fairy tales, and far-off lands. Led by an “Angel Guide,” the children hear stories and gather treats along the way. Our evening ends gathered around a bonfire for singing, food, and sharing treats and tales of wonders seen.
Costume Note: We ask that children wear a traditional Halloween costume rather than one that reflects a commercial character theme. Suggestions include pirate, fairy, princess, dragon, knight, and similar imaginative costumes. No scary masks or makeup, please.
Dia de los Muertos
The altar created for Día de los Muertos is called an ofrenda, which translates to “offering” in Spanish. The ofrenda offers a meaningful space for our community to remember, honor, and celebrate loved ones who have passed, while sharing in the traditions of Día de los Muertos. Students, teachers, faculty, and staff are invited to bring photos of loved ones who have passed on to be placed on the ofrenda. Classes and the wider school community may visit the ofrenda for a quiet moment of remembrance and reverence.
Martinmas
Winter Events
Winter Spirals
The chilly winds and blowing leaves remind us all that winter approaches; soon all will seem barren and lifeless. As the days continue to darken, we seek the comfort of warmth, light, and togetherness. Across the world, festivals of light are celebrated during the waning autumn, and here at the Davis Waldorf School, one way we participate in this tradition is with the Winter Spiral.
With an expectant hush, the children, their teacher, and parents enter a darkened room to find a beautiful spiral of evergreen boughs on the floor with a single candle burning at the center. A gentle mood of peace prevails as one at a time, each child slowly walks to the center of the spiral with an unlit candle. After lighting their candle from the center, each child slowly retraces their steps to the outer edge, finding a place to set their candle along the way. This spiraling journey makes manifest in the outer world our inner journey to find the true light of our own hearts. In the very center of ourselves, we discover our beauty, strength, insight, and gifts. Candle by candle, as the spiral becomes filled with light, we see that together, our light enlivens the darkness, offering us hope that light and life will come again as we share the gift of ourselves with the world.
Everything about the spiral is filled with symbolic meaning. The spiral itself is one of nature’s repeating patterns, found in shells, pinecones, flowers, fingertips, and galaxies. The evergreen boughs represent ongoing life and its power to regenerate even in the midst of winter. The apples that hold the candles contain the seeds of new life, waiting for the light of spring to burst forth. The seeds represent our hidden potential, that which we do not yet see, but that is slowly gaining strength to burst into new capacities. The light of the candles represents our own inner light, our warmth, our joy, and the light of love.
Celebrating the cycles of the year together gives the children important touchpoints, building a deep sense of reverence for and trust in the world.
Advent
– Rudolf Steiner
Classes with nature tables add to their displays each week: stones or crystals in the first week, berries or pine cones in the second week, and so on.
Family Craft Day
Family Craft Day offers live music, storytelling, food, and the opportunity to make seasonal craft projects together. Dipping candles, tin-tapping ornaments, building gnome homes, and folding window stars are just a few examples of the day’s possible activities.
This non-commercial holiday event offers families and friends a meaningful space to connect, create, and celebrate through handwork. Rooted in the Waldorf tradition, Family Craft Day provides an alternative to the hectic and consumer-driven pace of the season by honoring the beauty of handmade gifts, natural materials, and shared creativity.
Handwork invites both children and adults into a process of transformation, supporting inner growth, patience, skill, and a sense of well-being. The event also gives our 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students an opportunity to help host and support the day, building responsibility, social skills, and work ethic while raising funds for middle school class trips and our handwork program.
Saint Nicholas Day
Celebrated on or around December 6 for Preschool through Fourth Grade, St. Nicholas Day brings a quiet sense of wonder and generosity to the season. Children leave out their shoes, and a special visitor leaves small treats for them to discover. St. Nicholas, known as the original inspiration for Santa Claus and as Sinterklaas in Dutch tradition, is remembered for his kindness, humility, and care for children. At DWS, this simple celebration offers young children a meaningful way to experience the joy of giving and receiving, the warmth of tradition, and the magic of the winter season.
Santa Lucia
Each December, Davis Waldorf School honors Santa Lucia Day, a tradition with roots in both Italian and Swedish culture. In the dark days of winter, Santa Lucia is remembered as a bearer of light, kindness, and generosity.
At DWS, the second grade holds this simple and beautiful celebration. The oldest girl in the second grade is chosen to represent Santa Lucia. Wearing a white dress with a red sash and crowned with a wreath of candles, she leads the second grade class in a quiet processional through the school. Together, the children sing traditional songs and visit classrooms, offering cookies or bread to students and teachers.
This simple and reverent celebration brings warmth, beauty, and light into the school day, reminding the community of the gifts of service, sharing, and hope during the winter season.
Winter Concert
The Winter Concert is held on a December afternoon or evening and features seasonal instrumental music and songs performed by grades students and faculty. A special part of the concert is the 4th–8th grade strings program, where students share songs from around the world that they have been learning and practicing since September.
Through steady practice over many months, students develop musical skill, focus, patience, listening, and the ability to work together as an ensemble. These qualities reflect the Waldorf approach to education, where the arts are woven into daily learning and help strengthen the whole child—intellectually, socially, and emotionally.
The concert also gives students the meaningful experience of performing for family and friends, sharing their talents, and contributing to the beauty of a school community gathering. This joyous event is a way to welcome the holiday season and is a signature gathering that many grandparents, relatives, and friends look forward to attending.
All School Open House
Held during the first week of February, our All-School Open House showcases the work, growth, and creativity of our students. Classrooms from Preschool through 8th Grade are open for families and visitors to explore, with samples of student work on display in the grades classrooms. Each classroom is transformed into a gallery that offers a joyful glimpse into the Waldorf journey, and includes a free snack inspired by that grade’s curriculum.
The Multi-Purpose Room highlights our grades subjects, with subject teachers on hand to meet families and share about their programs. The Davis Waldorf Fiddlers help round out the experience with live music. Open to the public, this is a wonderful event to bring friends and family to see what a Waldorf education looks like in action.
St. Valentine's Day
Celebrated on or around February 14, Valentine’s Day is also a day to honor friendship, kindness, and care for one another. Classes may mark the day by creating special crafts, sharing stories and songs that focus on kindness, and exchanging sentiments of friendship. February 14 is also recognized as Douglass Day, honoring Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist, writer, and speaker who chose this date to celebrate his birthday. Observation of Valentine’s Day and Douglass Day is at the discretion of the class teacher.
Spring & Summer Events
Annual Benefit Auction
Our Annual Benefit Auction is an annual celebration and fundraiser that brings our community together in shared support of our students, teachers, and school. This event is not to be missed! Parents, friends, family members, alumni, and the wider community are invited to gather for a festive evening of connection, dining, dancing, and generosity. Guests can enjoy the silent auction, raffles, live auction, food, drinks, and the opportunity to bid on unique items and special class projects. Whether attending for a fun night out, participating in the auction, or giving generously, the Auction is a joyful way to celebrate and support all that makes DWS thrive.
Spring Concert
Our springtime evening concert is performed by our 4th through 8th grade strings and music classes and features a variety of musical offerings, from small ensembles to large group numbers, including 8th grade soloists. Students practice for months, sometimes since the beginning of the school year, depending on the difficulty of the music. Their preparation reflects not only growing musical skill, but also patience, discipline, listening, and collaboration.
For the 8th graders, preparing a solo is a meaningful commitment that reflects years of practice, dedication, and musical growth. Their performances offer a beautiful glimpse of what can unfold when students are supported over time through the Waldorf curriculum.
Younger grades attend this special concert and often look up to the 8th graders with admiration, imagining what gifts and talents they may one day share when they reach their final year. In this way, the concert becomes more than a performance; it is a culminating event that shows how the curriculum and school traditions build upon one another year after year. It is an impressive and heartfelt evening that many grandparents, friends, and community members enjoy attending.
May Faire
May Day celebrations reflect an ancient tradition of celebrating the seasons with its light and warmth. It is traditionally held on the first Saturday of May, a date midway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. May Day is a joyful celebration of life, an outward manifestation of the spirit we turned inward during the winter season, now refreshed and renewed, full of zest for life.
The children in each class weave a crown of flowers and walk the circle, coming to bow in front of the Royal Court before being seated in the circle. Grades 3 – 7 offer a performance in celebration, and then it’s time for the 8th graders to enter! They skip in and circle the May Pole, which is topped by a garland of flowers with colorful ribbons trailing from it. The first and second graders skip among them, strewing flower petals as they go. The kindergarteners join the circle, sitting under the May Pole to become an integral part of the celebration. They look up in awe as the 8th graders perform the May Dance, weaving the ribbons into intricate patterns to the delight of all. This is a special moment for the 8th graders and their parents, one of the final steps on their journey through the grades. The celebration also features festive music, arts, contra dancing, crafts, games and activities, food, a puppet show, and a petting zoo.
Closing Rose Ceremony
At the end of the school year, Grades students and families come together for our Closing Rose Ceremony, a gathering that marks both completion and transition. Each class is “promoted” to the next grade, and students offer their current grade’s final closing verse as a way of honoring the year they have completed. The Director offers an address, and the eighth grade class is recognized by their teacher in acknowledgement of this meaningful milestone and the completion of their education at our school. Eighth grade parents create a sunflower arch for the class to enter the ceremony, and each first grader presents a rose to their eighth grade buddy as a parting gesture of warm appreciation. All families are welcome to join us as we celebrate the year’s end.
8th Grade Graduation
The 8th grade graduation ceremony in a Waldorf school is no ordinary farewell; it is a rite of passage, steeped in reverence, beauty, and the quiet triumph of becoming. Beneath the golden warmth of the summer sun, each student is seen and celebrated not just for their accomplishments, but for who they are and who they are becoming. It is a moment when teachers speak not only to the crowd, but to the core of each graduate, recalling their journey with tenderness and awe.
Graduates also have the opportunity to speak about their middle school and elementary school experience at DWS, offering reflections on their growth, memories, challenges, friendships, and the school journey that has shaped them. There may be music, poetry, or theatrical echoes of years past, each one a living expression of the students’ growth. For families, this ceremony is a deeply moving culmination of years spent nurturing wonder, courage, and integrity. It is a pause to honor the unfolding of childhood into adolescence, and to release these young people toward high school not with haste, but with deepened love, gratitude, and hope.