Museum Night
“Movement in the Night”
From 18.00 to
23.00 on 20 May
Before our
ancestors settled down, they were hunters and gatherers who led nomadic lives
in search of food and shelter. When they started building farms and cultivating
fields, they did not cover such long distances any longer, but there was still
plenty of physical activity in everyday life. Before the invention of
agricultural machines, everything required hard work and bodily effort, from
logging to grinding grains into flour on a hand mill. Even children had to walk
a lot with the herd, keeping an eye on the animals and acting promptly if a
predator was nearby.
During the
Museum Night this year, the Estonian Open Air Museum invites you to move around
like people did in the old days, before modern vehicles existed. Get moving in
the nature!
The locations
open during the event are Sepa farm, Sassi-Jaani farm, Köstriaseme farm, Pulga
farm, Härjapea farm, Nuki farm and Aarte farm as well as Lau shop and Kolu inn.
Swinging is a
work-out
Flying high on the platform of the
village swing, singing traditional swing songs to celebrate the spring, and
awakening of nature (or even to help it along) was one of the common forms of
entertainment for Estonians in the old days.
Come to the village
square by 18:30, and the choir ‘Leigarid’ as well as other performers will be
there next to the village swing. Bring an Easter egg, ribbons to tie on the swing and your own swing
song; other than that, you can sing along, swing along, or push the swing.
The swings on the swing grounds,
village green and village square welcome visitors until closing time!
Köstriaseme
farm – move around to get warm
Köstriaseme farm
is where you can learn how much physical effort various farm chores required
and try sawing logs to see how much strength it needed.
Pulga farm – play
to move or move to play
Shepherd kids
played games that tested their speed, dexterity, flexibility, and balance. Try
to walk on wooden stilts, crawl under the shaft bow, and play ‘weighing the
year’s bread bag’ or ‘horse game’.
Härjapea farm
– home café; charity for movement
The 1930s saw
a number of societies whose operations included all kinds of charity endeavours.
Härjapea farm features a historical home café whose proceeds will be donated
for building a children’s adventure trail on the museum grounds so that moving
around in the museum becomes even more exciting!
Sepa farm – quiz
on how farm animals move
Farms had a
number of animals in addition to people: sheep, pigs, horses, chickens. Do you
know how fast these animals can go and what they use for movement? Solve the
quiz and learn something new!
Saarte summer café and shop in the
Hiiumaa itinerant fishing house
The Museum Night is when you can
visit the seaside summer café, which will stay open during the entire summer
season, for the first time. Come by to enjoy the charming atmosphere of an
outdoor café with a mug of warming tea or a glass of bubbly to the soundtrack
of gently lapping waves.
The farms and
the inn are open until 23.00; the shop is open until 22.00 or as long as
customers keep coming.
The Kolkhoz apartment
building and Kuie school are closed during the Museum night.
Ticket fee: €
1, free entry for children under 8
Cash-only
tickets!