From the earliest days at Raphael House Festivals have been a strong feature of the schools character and an integral part of ‘classroom life’.
Six celebrations: Michaelmas, Easter, Pentecost, Matariki, Raphael and Advent, punctuate our school year like a heartbeat, that renews and enlivens the life blood of the community.
For each event students and staff gather to celebrate through song, movement, poems and stories and in the days leading up to, and following these occasions the content of the Festival is kept alive through various activities within the classroom and in this way the ceremony itself is simply the highlight of a Festival Season.
Through the festivals we seek to celebrate that which defines our common humanity in the broadest sense: seeking to acknowledge both the earthly and the cosmic aspects of our human condition.
Turning to themes from the life of Christ, the Saints and other leaders of humanity and to Folk Tales of various kinds we look for inspiration that might help bring definition and meaning to the deeper questions of life, questions that arise through our spiritual striving, that deal with the great enigmas of existence – Birth, Death and the reason for Life itself.
Through the cycle of the festivals we also give our attention to the tangible world around us, to elements of the daily environment in which we live and work, in order to rediscover processes and patterns of the natural world that might reflect our own humanness and renew our sense of belonging.