Evening at the Museum of the Orava Village

The programme of the Evening at the Museum of the Orava Village was created by the initiative of the Janoštín family from Zuberec, which began preparing activities for the Museum in 1999 with the aim to revive its exhibition and make it more attractive. They sought to present, in an interesting form, not only housing but also the life and culture in the Orava region in the past within an environment of the traditional folk architecture and with the support of the rich museum collection. At the beginning of the exhibition tour, the visitors are given lit lanterns with which they use to tour the the Museum, reminding them of the atmosphere of the period when villages did not yet have electricity. During the tour, they visit the school in which the famous poet Pavol Ország Hviezdoslav studied, a house built from a single tree, šoltýs settlements (it were šoltýses – hereditary reeves – who owned the largest dwellings within settlements established under German emphyteutic law), a 10-ton mangle for blueprint, a wooden church and many other interesting parts of the Museum exhibition. The guide, dressed in a folk costume, complements the professional explanation by playing the accordion and singing humorous songs from the Orava region, imitating the evening strolls of young men in the village. The music production with a Baroque organ in the church is reminisce of an evening mass. The meetings of villagers during social events, such as spinning evenings, parties or weddings, are demonstrated during the second part of the programme, where the family folklore team of the Janoštín family and their guests – members of domestic folklore groups and talented individuals accompanied by a band – present to the visitors with their music, song, dancing, verbal and playful repertoire of the region (goral dance with music played by zlobcoky violin, a fragment of a Bethlehem play with Christmas properties, bagpipers’ music of the Upper Orava region, shepherds’ dances, etc.). During the presentation of Orava dances, the visitors are involved in light dancing activities. The evening at the Museum of the Orava Village demonstrates the elements of material and spiritual culture of the region in an informal, interactive manner.