Download our Moonlight Programme
Friday 15 November 2019, 6–10pm
Family Friendly
Step in to the History of Science Museum for an evening of lunar-inspired activities, talks and close encounters with objects for all ages. Our award-winning Multaka-Oxford team will also be hosting activities, bringing together many different cultures and their perspectives on the moon.
Giant lanterns will be displayed outside the Museum before and after the procession, and the building will be lit-up, inside and out. Lightning talks inside the Museum will illuminate the detail of the giant 1795 John Russell moon drawing and the Selenographia Moon Globe, and about the moon in astrology. See Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon (1902) silent film on a loop in the Entrance Gallery.
For families there will be the opportunity to try your hand at making lunar dials and drawings of the moon with Galilean telescopes, and to learn the famous nasheed (Islamic song) ‘Al Beddur’ about the moon and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and sing along together.
The Multaka-Oxford team will share stories about the cultural meaning of the moon in China, Iraq and Pakistan, in the Islamic faith, and they will demonstrate how to write and talk about the moon in different languages. Short performances of poetry and prose from Iraq, and traditional story-telling from different countries inspired by the sky and the moon, will be interspersed through the evening.
Mbira music and story-telling by Kennedy Chinyere from Zimbabwe, and exhibitions of photography by Mohammed Al Awad and Syrian artist Akram Sweidan, will add to the global feel of the evening.
Suitable for all ages.
Drop-in, no need to book.
