Community Lantern Walk (FREE)

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Date and Time for this Past Event

• Sunday, Dec 12, 2021  4:15pm - 5:15pm

Location

Details

Join us at 4:15PM on Sunday, December 12th for a FREE lantern walk at Virginia Highlands Park, hosted by your local Tinkergarten program. Email laura.holman@mail.tinkergarten.com if you’d like any ideas or help with creating your lantern.

We will gather at the intersection of the S Ives St walking path with the path that runs from the S 16th St side of the baseball fields to between the synthetic and natural soccer fields.

There will be a raffle for participants, with several seasonal and local surprises given away, including full tuition for one child to join our winter Tinkergarten season ahead!

Advanced FREE registration is required online. Tinkergarten will provide your battery-operated tea light candles. Free registration begins November 15th on the Virginia Highlands Park class website at https://www.tinkergarten.com/leaders/laura.holman so register early, to ensure your family’s candles arrive in time to participate.

Lanterns will be made in-class (bring your own canning jar), the week of November 21st, by those families who are signed up for the autumn season of Tinkergarten. Prorated end-of-season enrollment is permitted.

Pick-ups of clean, empty canning jars, floral or jewelry-making wire, thin colored ribbon/yarn or colored tissue paper, (clean, worn, taped or torn is fine!) from gift bags or wrapping, may be scheduled by emailing your local leader for a contactless-pick up at laura.holman@mail.tinkergarten.com

In previous years, your neighborhood Tinkergarten class leader hosted lantern walks for the families enrolled in her licensed home early childhood program, The Children’s Garden, recipient of Arlington’s 2014 Green Patriot Award for sustainability in practices of a business/organization, but this is the first time for the entire community to get to enjoy a FREE community-wide lantern walk event, where all families can gather to celebrate the season’s changes together!

In many parts of the world as well as in all waldorf schools, families enjoyed a Martinmas lantern walk on November 11th, but Tinkergarten has chosen to host ours a bit later in the year, more toward the end of fall, since many more traditions involve a festival of lights in so many cultures, from Chanukah to the Moon Festival, from Martinmas to Santa Lucia Day and Diwali, to be more inclusive in our celebrating the coming cold season together after two long years of this pandemic.

Social distancing and masking, when it may not be fully possible, are required by Arlington County Parks & Recreation, and your Tinkergarten leader and volunteers are all fully vaccinated, per county policy. This will be a covid-safe outdoor event, so that even high risk members of our community can enjoy safely gathering to celebrate bringing light into the darkness of the cold season ahead.

There are many ways to create a lantern (hammering a nail through a tin can with ice frozen within it, paper mache over an inflated balloon, tissue paper attached between sturdy paper rings, such as the kits Lidl is selling currently, or modge podging cut or torn tissue paper, with or without pressed leaves, flowers or paper cut out images layered beneath, for instance), and people can carry them with a ribbon, twine or floral/jewelry wire handle or affix their handle onto a sturdy stick, that they’ve found in the great outdoors, to carry it in the more traditional way.

Warm drinks and snacks shared before & after and the singing of lantern walk songs during the parade are traditionally enjoyed as well, so pack a thermos of cocoa, tea, coffee and or cider along with some popcorn, warm baked goods, apple slices, or other seasonal favorites to bring along, for your family.

Additionally, winter Tinkergarten classes, as well as the current (now prorated) fall classes and trial season classes are all currently live on the website as well, so secure a spot for your family in those, if your family would like to make lanterns with us. The early bird discount SUPER15 ends at midnight November 15th. Also note that a 30% discount automatically calculates at check-out, for families with more than one child signing up for Tinkergarten.

We hope to see your family, as we explore and adventure together for the rest of this fall Treasure Hunt season, at our FREE lantern walk and for the rest of this season’s or the Animal Heroes winter season classes ahead.

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