A Bundle of Myrrh

Wonderful and Glorious Fall is coming! I’m very ready for this season, my favorite, so I get pretty excited to observe these Autumnal or September Ember Days, (Wednesday the 18th, Friday the 20th and Saturday the 21st). What are Ember Days you ask?

“The Ember days, which fall on a Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the same week, occur in conjunction with the four natural seasons of the year. Autumn brings the September Embertide, also called the Michaelmas Embertide because of their proximity to the Feast of St. Michael on September 29.  Winter, on the other hand, brings the December Embertide during the third week of Advent, and spring brings the Lenten Embertide after the first Sunday of Lent. Finally, summer heralds the Whitsun Embertide, which takes place within the Octave of Pentecost.” That comes from HERE

Being pregnant most of the year and because really I’m just not that disciplined, I’m not one to observe Fasting and Penance which traditionally in the Roman Church are emphasized during these days, but I do like to use this time to teach my babies to give thanks to God for His creation, to stop and notice the changes taking place in that Creation, reflect on what Season is passing and prepare for the next Season.

So, as is becoming our tradition, we took an “Embertide Walk” yesterday morning to bask in all that is beginning to change around us. It was interesting to notice how the natural changes up here are happening later this year than last. The pine cones are still green and holding fast to the trees, very few leaves have yet to turn yellow and even fewer have fallen to the ground.

The locusts are still singing in the trees and the lawn mowers are still humming away but the subtle differences from Summer are there…thankfully!

Here are some of the questions I put to the babies:

What changes can we see?
What changes can we feel?
What changes can we hear?
What are the animals and insects beginning to do?

And Fish Eaters HERE has more ideas on what to discuss with children during Embertide.

And as we see nature around us begin to die we could also use this time to talk with children about death and dying and how we look forward to the New Life Jesus gives us.

Some other activities we’ll try to get to during this Embertide are:

A Summer To Fall craft and song about Seasons
Listen to this Fall Song
Add a candle to the table during Supper
Round up Fall Books or Go to Library for Fall books
Enjoy the last of our garden’s fruits and veggies
Stay up to see the Harvest Moon:

“On the night of Sept. 18-19, stargazers will surely be celebrating once more as the 2013 Harvest Moon rises during sunset.

The term Harvest Moon likely originated from the fact that farmers used the additional light from the full autumn moon to work in the field before there was electricity according to Earth Sky.

Furthermore, the day after the Harvest Moon takes place is called the “Hunter’s Moon,” a name that is believed to have begun with Native Americans who used the bright moon while hunting.”From The Christian Post

I was up a lot last night and peeked out the window and was amazed at how light it really was outside. If I’d been more adventurous I may have done some Hunting or Harvesting under that Harvest moon but I just went back to bed instead.

How about you, how do you prepare for Fall?

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 19th, 2013 at 7:42 am and is filed under Church Year. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.