Autumn is harvest time. The autumn equinox is a point of perfect balance in the year, when the length of the day is exactly equal to the length of the night. It is a turning point: from now on, the nights will grow longer as we move towards winter. This year the equinox is on 22 September at 7.21 in the evening.
Below is an extract from The Children’s Forest showing a fun way for children to mark the equinox.
Apple Flags
Apples have a secret deep inside: they contain a beautiful five-pointed star. Cut the fruit open and have a look at the chambers where the seeds live. Apple belongs to the rose family, along with many others of the fruits and berries. You can see five-petalled spring blossoms on the blackberry, the wild rose and the blackthorn. Find the secret star on the hawthorn berry too. Celebrate the apple, generous fruit, gathered since times of old.
TO MAKE:
1. Cut the cloth into the shapes you would like for flags. To cut the apple and reveal the star, imagine the apple is the earth, with the stalk as the North Pole and the brown-black base star as the South Pole. Cut the apple along the equator. Carefully remove any pips with the tip of the knife.
YOU WILL NEED:
- Apples
- Plain cloth, white or cream
- Sticks for handles
- Poster paint
- Sponges and bowls to apply the paint
- Scissors
- Knife
2. Use the sponge to thinly apply the paint to the inside of the apple. Then print the apple onto the cloth. It is important to do this on a hard surface for the best effect. Each flag can have as many prints as the artist wants.
3. The simplest way to attach the flag is to cut horizontal slots along one side of the cloth and insert a stick. Glue or stitches can be used for longer-lasting options.
4. Make an apple parade through an orchard or through the forest, waving the flags. ‘The Apple Star Song’ (p 203) can be sung to celebrate.
Cut some thin slices of apples with stars in the middle for the children to eat while you read ‘The Apple Tree Man’ (p 196).
