Thursday, May 28, 2015

Window display for Summer Solstice

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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