Mask and Doll
Listen to my story
This type of object would never normally make its way into a museum. It was created in the Swiss villages of Lotschental Valley, with the intention that it would collect evil spirits and then be destroyed in a river. The doll, made in the likeness of an old witch, was paraded through the houses of the village at the climax of the Spring Carnival. Young men wearing masks would carry the doll through the villages, blowing soot from bellows at the girls. The ceremony began at dusk, starting at the uppermost house of the highest of the Valley's three villages, and continued through every house in all three villages, cleansing every home of “evil spirits”. The parade ended at midnight by the river near the lowermost house, when the doll was tossed in; taking all the evil it had collected from the houses with it. That should have been the end of the doll. However, it was ‘rescued’ from the river and end up here; in the museum’s storage.
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Join Dr Tom Trnski, Research Manager and John Early, Curator of Entomology and get closer to the stories, tales and historical information for this unique collection of objects.
Click to listen or
to save to your computer or media player - right click link and select "Save Target As" (3.14 mb). Download before you visit the Museum.
Download the Audio Tour Transcript (pdf 152kb) |
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