My friend Darlene wrote this puppet show twenty years ago and it’s a hit every single year when she performs it for all the children at her annual Martinmas celebration.
[a selection of related highly recommended Darlene links: Apple Days, a Tea Party, the playroom at Darlene’s house, a description of a summertime puppet show, some video footage of aforementioned events.]
Since St. Martin is the patron saint of the poor, Darlene celebrates by hosting a potluck of soup and bread only. Later in the evening there is the puppet show, and then children and adults alike sing Martinmas songs and swing lanterns in a long procession up a dirt road by their house.
This year I will hosting my own first Martinmas with my attachment parenting group. I’ll tell the same puppet show that I’ve heard Darlene perform for so many years!
MARTINMAS PUPPET SHOW
(Two characters, a child and the sun)
Boy: “Oh I just love the summertime! I love to smell the flowers, and play with the butterflies, and sing with the birds! But, I’m sad because summer is over and all my summertime friends are going away. The flowers are going away, the butterflies are going away, and even the birds are going away! What am I going to do? It’s going to be so lonely without my summertime friends! And the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer, and it’s getting cold! Brrr”
(the sun comes out from behind a cloud)
“Oh Hello Mr Sun! Mr. Sun, I don’t know what to do because my summertime friends are all going away and the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer and it’s getting cold outside! It’s so lonely without my summertime friends.”
Sun: “Yes, the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer and it’s getting colder because Autumn has come and I am not around as much, and soon it will be cold, dark Winter. But, if you will make a little house for it, I will give you one of my sparks to keep you company until I start coming back again at the end of December.”
Boy: “Oh thank you Mr Sun! But, how shall I…. Oh, he’s gone behind a cloud again. I guess I will have to figure it out for myself. I’ll go home and see what I can do.”
Narrator: “So the little boy went home, wondering what to do. What could he make a house out of?”
Boy (in front of a table): ” Well, I found this piece of paper. I wonder if I could make a house out of this.”
Narrator: “So the boy went to work fashioning a house out of paper. He worked on it all afternoon.”
Boy (showing paper lantern with tissue paper windows) : “Well, here it is! I like it. I wonder if Mr Sun will like it. I think I’ll go find out right now.”
(he moves outdoors) Mr. Sun, Mr Sun! (sun comes out from behind a cloud) Oh, there you are, Mr. Sun. I made a little house for one of your sparks. Do you like it?”
Sun: “Oh, that is a beautiful little house! I like it very much!”
Boy: “Then may I have one of your sparks please?”
Sun: “Yes you may!”
(an assistant lights birthday candle in lantern)
Boy: “Oh look how the spark dances in its new house! It must be very happy! Oh thank you Mr. Sun! Thank you!!!”
(Boy sings) “The sunlight now is dwindling, my little lamp needs kindling. It’s beam shines far in darkest night. Dear lantern guide me with your light!”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGedZR1xWUc]