The Museum has always displayed information about the Wheel
of the Year in the window. This year, we
have moved it from the shop window to the large window. This is enabling us to give more attention to
the different seasons.
In each window
display, we are going to try to achieve several things. We will display the text of the Wheel of the
Year and try to have a display that relates to it. This will involve objects hanging from the
stag’s antlers which link in with the festivals or with objects from the
Museum’s collection.
We will also place
an object (or objects) in the window to inform visitors about the collection
(and also entice them to visit) We will
also try to link this object to the season of the year but we always need to
take into consideration the well being of that object (the window gets a lot of
light and it gets very hot so we will need to take that into
consideration).
So far this year, we have had the stag’s antlers decorated
with Easter eggs for the Vernal Equinox (and Easter) The object for this display was a lovely
pewter hare.
We then had a display for Beltane which involves the
stag’s head being used as a maypole. It
is festooned with ribbons. The object
for this season was a statue of the Goddess.
The theme of the current window display is the Sun (as it is nearly the time of the Summer Solstice). The stag's antlers are festooned with yellow and orange flowers to symbolise the Sun. There is a large picture of sunrise at Stonehenge and we have a series of objects relating to the Sun and protection magic in the window (including horse brasses, an insurance disk and a door knocker).
"Time passed. God
was busy some place else, so mankind made do with the sun. He is not a bad god
at all, this god of light, without the warmth of his smile everything would
die, the only worry is that he hides deep in the sea at the end of each day.
Will he, won't he turn up again tomorrow? that is the question. So to help
things along someone came up with the idea of setting up big stones in a round
ring - temples to the sun. Here in the south west we still have some such left
and the witches still do the sun dances in them." Cecil Williamson
From now on, we'll write a blog on each window display and its links to the Wheel of the Year. Below is the text from the current Wheel of the Year window display...
Summer Solstice
June 21st
The Summer Solstice is one of the most important and
widespread festivals in Europe and throughout the world.
Midsummer's eve is a time for great magic - herbs picked at midnight have special protective qualities.
It is also a good time for love magic and charms.
The Summer Solstice is a fire festival and traditionally
fires are lit on hilltops to mark the sun’s change in course.
All witches will be celebrating this time of year- many will
stay up all night to watch the Sunrise
on Solstice morn.
The Christian Church adopted this ancient pagan festival as St
John’s Day.
The longest day, plants and animals flourish, light and life
are abundant.
CELEBRATE THE SUN KING!
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