Advent Week

Dear Parents and Students,

The theme for this week is Advent. This comes from the Latin word ‘adventus’ which means ‘coming’. This week begins the Christian season of advent where believers anticipate the birth of Christ or the coming of the Messiah. There are 4 pillars of advent for the 4 weeks and these are hope, peace, love and joy. These are great themes whatever our beliefs or religion. Many Orthodox Christians also fast or avoid eating meat in the 4 weeks before Christmas and you will see fasting menus and cafes and restaurants here in Cyprus. In school this week we have been playing a song called Light the advent candle. In many churches and communities a candle is lit each Sunday running up to the final one on Christmas eve. Advent is symbolised by light and the hope that light brings in the darkness.

In Waldorf this afternoon and evening, we are celebrating advent with our spiral light festival.

The Advent Spiral is an important part of the Waldorf calendar. It symbolizes finding light in the darkness and is a spiritual and calming experience for all the children.

Advent is not just one moment, it is a period of time. In the four weeks before our Winter Break, advent is a time of quiet preparation as we go into the darkest days of the year. The shortest day (in the northern hemisphere) is close to the end of December, so by the time we celebrate our holiday traditions, we have reached a turning point and the days begin to lengthen again, the daylight increasing. Nature will begin very slowly to reawaken.

By the end of the ceremony, the spiral is bright with light, illuminated with all the children’s candles. This offers the children a powerful picture of light in the darkness, of one’s candle contributing to the great light with others in the dark world, of the coming of light from each of us. It offers a reminder of the reliable turning of the sun from weakness to strength each year at the Winter Solstice.

Waiting quietly in the darkness for the return of the light, contributing a little bit from each person to make the world bright, are important lessons to learn for life.

The Winter Spiral is a truly moving ceremony that celebrates community and the individual. The room is quiet and filled with a mood of wonder and inner anticipation. Each person in turn, holding an apple with a small unlit candle, walks to the center of a spiral path of evergreen boughs and lights their own candle from the candle in the center (symbolising the inner light we will need to draw from during the dark season ahead), and then walks back out and places their lit candle on the floor on a golden star of their choice. As candle after candle graces the spiral, the room becomes increasingly filled with light. Nothing formal is explained; it is a lived experience that takes place within us at a level beyond words.

Last weekend our Island F1 racing team were very successful winning the pan Cypriot F1 racing competition. Congratulations to the whole team and to Mr Stelios for his hard work preparing the team. Also on Saturday our boarding students enjoyed an amazing visit to Limassol castle with members of the boarding team and Miss Taylor learning all about local history.. PYP 5 enjoyed an amazing and creative trip to a pottery workshop led by their wonderful homeroom teachers and Miss Cristiana. This weekend a number of our MYP and DP students will be attending a Model United Nations Conference in Nicosia at the Senior School. Thanks to Mr Konstantin for taking the lead on this and we wish the team every success representing the Island School!

From an academic perspective, our CP students received their first results in their Careers related Study course delivered by SUMAS in Switzerland. They achieved an average of 90%, which is outstanding and has really driven their intrinsic motivation.

Next week is service week and we are looking forward to focusing on helping others and philanthropy!

I wish you all a pleasant and relaxing weekend, full of hope, peace, love and joy!

Best Regards
Deborah Economou
Head of School