Kindergarten Visit to the Folklife and Ehtnological Museum

Visiting the Folklife and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia-Thrace in Thessaloniki is always a cultural experience, particularly with Kindergarten students. Their innocent points of view help us better understand what D. Loukopoulos said back in 1938, «Just as it is true that the right to develop is identical with the right to eternal youth, so it is true that tomorrow is always shaped using the materials of yesterday. […] Only then can a civilization have sturdy foundations, when it is rooted in a profound awareness of its past, of its immediate past».

On the 26^th of March we visited the two permanent Museum exhibitions focusing on food, shelter and clothingin traditional society.
The first of these exhibitions, ‘At the Watermills of Macedonia and Thrace: Gristmills, Sawmills, Fulling Mills, Cloth-finishing Waterfalls in Traditional Society’, presents pre-industrial technology and the exploitation of water as source of energy for the grinding of grain, the ripping of logs and the pounding of woolen clothes.

The second permanent exhibition ‘Macedonia-Thrace: Traditional Costumes, 1860-1960’, includes 55 costumes from Macedonia and Thrace.

Our Kindergarteners were greatly impressed by both exhibitions. They admired the various reconstructions of Watermills, but they really loved the Greek Traditional Costumes. So, our tour focused on Costumes, and our students were taught to distinguish the differences between city and rural costumes, woolen or silk materials, forms and shapes, colours and embroideries, jewelry and symbols. Back to school they were able to put into practice what they learnt in the Museum creating their own paper rural aprons.

Amalia Spiliakou

Host Country Studies Coordinator