Celebrating Autumn

In Moldova I find that there are celebrations for everything. Recently, I had the opportunity to go to “Toamna Galben” at the kindergarten where my work partner’s son attends. It is a celebration at the school which means “Golden Autumn” and they celebrate the fall season with songs, dancing, and exhibiting fun food creations from each class.

I had the opportunity to go with my work partner to see this fun celebration and to meet her son’s class whom I will be getting to know better in the near future.

This is one of the tables from one of the classes - each child brings in some form of creation made from fruit and/or vegetables. — This is one of the tables from one of the classes – each child brings in some form of creation made from fruit and/or vegetables.

P1000807 — So creative – little porcupines made from grapes and pears or squash.

P1000799 — Penguins and ladybugs… in popcorn! Adorable.

Each child came with two bunches of leaves, kind of like pom-poms for fall which they used throughout most of the songs and dancing. Each class got in a circle with their teacher while parents stood off to the sides taking photos and making videos.

A class makes a circle and sings and dances along with the songs about the autumn season.

Big and small bunches of leaves are everywhere and used throughout the songs... — Big and small bunches of leaves are everywhere and used throughout the songs…

And then… at some point in one of the songs all of the kids threw their leaf pom-poms into the center of the circle and the festivities continued with more songs and dances.

The leaves were thrown into the center - it was quite dramatic really. — The leaves were thrown into the center – it was quite dramatic.

More singing and dancing continued complete with a song about a watermelon (my partner made a watermelon hat the night before just for this part), traditional Moldovan costumes, poems, and a clown. The kids loved it and the parents were so proud of their little ones.

P1000789 — Check out my partner’s creative handiwork – the little guy with the watermelon hat is her son.

P1000788 — A clown came and did some singing and dancing with the kids as well.

It was fun to get a glimpse of a fun autumn celebration at one of the local kindergartens. My host mom is a kindergarten teacher and she said that all schools have a festival like this – theirs is next week. This is just the beginning of working with this age group here in Moldova, I’ll have more to share on that later on. 🙂