Freshwater Creek Steiner School has celebrated the Festival of Spirit and Word since 2022. This festival for the Primary School arose out of the anthroposophical understanding of Whitsun and our wishes to contribute towards Reconciliation as well as to celebrate our multicultural school community. As the date for Whitsun/Pentecost (the 50th day from Easter) is usually very close to National Reconciliation week (27 May to 3 June), we made this into a single event in the form of a special school assembly, to which a local Wadawurrung representative and members of the school community are invited.
Languages symbolise ‘communities’ as well as ‘divisions among humanity’. The biblical stories of the Tower of Babel (the Genesis) and the descent of the Tongues of Flame at the Pentecost (the Acts of the Apostles) give our students an imaginative picture of this division and unity. Our Festival of Spirit and Word celebrates the universal human spirit that exists among all peoples of the world, through which we recognise the Spirit in each of us beyond the barriers of languages, cultures and personal experiences, and we take this as an impulse towards Reconciliation.
Leading up to the festival, class teachers guide the students to reflect the cultural heritages of our families and mark on a large map which part of the world our families have come from. This makes it visible that the Indigenous peoples have always lived here while many others have joined since. Another activity is tracing our hands and feet on different skin-toned cards to symbolise how we all hold hands and walk together.
Using the event at the Pentecost as our inspiration, we place a low round table, on which stand a tall pillar candle and twelve unlit candles around it. As part of the proceedings, representatives from the classes light the twelve candles from the flame in the middle to symbolise receiving of the Spirit. We have a verse, songs, and a story with the theme of healing division. We learn a few key words or a phrase — this year it was “I believe your words” — in the Wadawurrung language, and the members of the community share the same expressions in their tongues, which we all have a go at speaking. Our Wadawurrung representative, Ash Skinner, shared the Indigenous perspective to their connection to country and to language with us this year.
Each class takes the lit candles back to their classroom as an affirmation of the flame of Spirit each of us carries into the world. This may then be linked to the flame we carry in our lantern at the Winter Festival.
Yasushi Hayashi, Japanese Teacher
Freshwater Creek Steiner School
