Employees of the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes prepared an interesting festive program for residents and guests of Ferapontovo during New Year holidays. Over 600 people participated in the events held from January 3 to 8, 2015, not counting the tourists who went to see permanent and temporary exhibitions of the museum.
The festive events began long before the New Year holidays. In November 2014, the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes announced two contests: for the best New Year card and the best Christmas-tree decoration. 440 (!) creative works were sent for them. Their photos were posted in a special album of the museum group in vkontakte. The number of cities which the contestants represented was amazing: Novocherkassk, Ivanovo, Kursk, Krasny Sulin, Moscow, Astrakhan, Krasnodar, Tula and many others. The articles sent by post from Belgorod, Vologda, Veliky Ustyug, Cherepovets, St. Petersburg, Mirny, Kirillov, Tonshalovo, Talitsy, Goritsy, Ferapontovo, the Mezhdurechensky and the Vashki districts, decorated the Christmas tree in the museum and the New Year cards were presented at the exhibition in the administrative building of the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes. Results of both contests were summed up on Christmas Eve.
The winners of the contest for the best New Year card are:
1st place – Alina Ilyushkina, Tonshalovo;
2nd place – Andrey Kruglov, Vologda;
3rd place – Olga and K, Talitsy.
The authors of the best Christmas-tree decorations are:
1st place – Tatiana Koksharova, Vologda;
2nd place – Karina Borodulina, Ferapontovo;
3rd place - Daria Pisklina, Talitsy.
The staff of the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes is very grateful to the children and adults from different cities of Russia and the CIS countries for active participation in the pre-New Year contests and for creation of the festive spirits to all guests of Ferapontovo who admired creative fantasy of the authors of the cards and Christmas-tree decorations.
On January 4, participants of the master-class “Apprentices of Dionisy” tried to learn the ropes of fresco painting by the example of the Christmas subject of Dionisy – “Journey of the Magi” (1502) from the Nativity of the Virgin Cathedral in the Ferapontov Monastery. And on January 5, museum visitors could see a sand show titled “New Year’s Fairy Tale in the Museum” on the lowest floor of the Refectory. Vsevolod Vakhrameev, artist, designer, teacher, member of the Union of Russian Artists, came from Cherepovets to give this present to children and adults. They were delighted with it and asked the master to come again and to teach them to create such magic things.
The festive events in the museum came to an end at Christmas. During the lecture, the audience was told about peculiarities of the monastery meal and about the dishes that the brethren of the Ferapontov Monastery used to eat. Special attention was paid to the meal on Christmas Day. Chicken and goose eggs, salted fish, millet porridge, pies with cabbage, carrots and berries, thick pancakes with honey, white bread, baked milk and kvass – the monks’ Christmas meal consisted of these very dishes. The guests of the festive event in the museum could taste all of them on that day.
The next holiday in the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes is scheduled for January 24. We invite everybody to take part in “Winter Amusements 2015” in Ferapontovo!
