Lighting of a candle for meals, story time, nighttime prayers or other special moments is a deeply meaningful act for a child to participate in. Keeping a little glass jar with matches next to the candle provides a safe place to deposit the match after lit. We cover our match boxes with beautiful paper or little paintings.
When we light our candle we sing,
Light faeries come to us,
Bring to us your golden light.
Having a candle snuffer also brings a level of reverence to the act of extinguishing. Children LOVE to snuff the candle.
When we snuff we sing, "Thank you candle for your light..."
Here are some blessings I sing with young children and we use at home at mealtimes. They are common in Waldorf kindergartens. They are usually sung with hand movements.
Earth who gives to us this food,
Sun who makes it ripe and good,
Dear Sun, Dear Earth,
Our loving thanks to you we give.
For the golden corn,
For the apples in the trees,
For the golden butter,
For the honey for our tea,
For fruits and nuts and berries
that grow along the way,
Dear Father Sun and Mother Earth,
We give our thanks this day
Blessings on the blossom,
Blessings on the fruit
Blessings on the leaves and stems,
And blessings on the root.
The nighttime verse I used with my girls when they were young was a slight variation from Shea Darian's found in her book Seven Times the Sun.
The dark comes like a blanket
hugging us at night.
The Moon shines like the heart of God
providing gentle light
The stars call forth our sparkling dreams
like waves upon the shores
To greet the nighttime pilgrim
as we journey through sleep's door.
Then we would move into all the people we loved, "I love..." and go through our list, say goodnight and snuff our candle. This followed story time.
