This week in our Monday morning circle, Helena lit the first candle for Advent and then we sang our advent songs and walked around the spiral and put down apples that had a candle on them.

An Advent Spiral

An Advent Spiral

After a short break we sat in Circle Hall and had a celebration and talked about the highlights and what we liked about our Mother Holle fairy tale. In the afternoon, we practiced for our Paradise play.

In our Thursday morning College, we learned about the history of the German Christmas market. We learned that the very first market opened in the middle ages during the 1200’s and the 1400’s in Vienna. The King of Vienna was extremely impressed so he wanted other European countries like Scotland, Italy, Ireland and Germany to have this market also. We also learned that the Christmas Market in Hamburg is much more magical than many with music, singing and dancing. After the wars, many German people moved to Vancouver. They lived on Robson Street where they kept up their tradition of setting up shops to sell bakedgoods and meats.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we broke in to our Shepherds play, painting, reading, writing, wreath making and games groups.

On Saturday evening, families came to Circle Hall to take part in the Saint Nicholas celebration. While Ruth T. played some quiet music, Saint Nicholas appeared. He told us about his travels and how he found Rupert. After that he read out the names of children and said something about them. Then Rupert gave each child an orange. It was really nice to see the young children meet Saint Nicholas.