Flower Moon Ceremony; Nature's Symbols
The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, May 23, 2024
The Flower Full Moon Ceremony was a magical evening performance at The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. With glistening ice sculptures, mythic music, flickering candles, and floral cocktails, Sarah Peoples ushered in the summer, guiding visitors through a ceremony celebrating the ever-unfolding act of creation and paying specific homage to the Kalevala, the Finnish National myth.
Guests quietly interacted with the sensory offerings that evoked feelings from mundane daily ritual to larger cosmic happenings. Myrrh incense and candles burned in small ice lanterns. Peoples began with a simplified description of the Kalevala, noting the sacred and symbolic connections. In the story, the air goddess Ilmatar came down to primal waters as a bird landed on her knee and layed six golden eggs and one iron egg. When the eggs became too hot from incubation, she reflexively moves her leg, causing the eggs to crash into the water to enliven the water and form the sky and earth, moon, stars, and sun.
Then playing composer, Jean Sibelius’ famed Lemminkäinen Suite, Op.22 - which emotively follows the narrative of the Kalevala - Peoples released seven large, ice eggs embedded with native plants and flowers. The ceremony commenced when the musical composition ended.
Guests quietly interacted with the sensory offerings that evoked feelings from mundane daily ritual to larger cosmic happenings. Myrrh incense and candles burned in small ice lanterns. Peoples began with a simplified description of the Kalevala, noting the sacred and symbolic connections. In the story, the air goddess Ilmatar came down to primal waters as a bird landed on her knee and layed six golden eggs and one iron egg. When the eggs became too hot from incubation, she reflexively moves her leg, causing the eggs to crash into the water to enliven the water and form the sky and earth, moon, stars, and sun.
Then playing composer, Jean Sibelius’ famed Lemminkäinen Suite, Op.22 - which emotively follows the narrative of the Kalevala - Peoples released seven large, ice eggs embedded with native plants and flowers. The ceremony commenced when the musical composition ended.