The Metropolitan Museum of Art during winter. GIF by the author
«The days are shorter and the hot chocolate is flowing, which means it feels like winter in New York! Friends and families all around the globe are getting ready to celebrate. Start off your festivities at The Met! You can discover these three December traditions from around the world in the Museum's galleries.»
Goru
Ritual Vessel: Horse with Figures (Aduno Koro). 16th–19th century. Mali. Dogon peoples. Wood, H. 52.1 cm (20 1/2 in); L. 236.2 cm (93 in); D. 47 cm (18 1/2 in). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.255)
On December 21, the solstice marks the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the half of the earth that lies above the equator. In Mali, a country in West Africa, the Dogon peoples celebrate a plentiful harvest during the winter solstice with a ceremony called "goru." This seven-foot-long vessel was used during "goru" to hold offerings to Amma the Creator and the ancestors. It represents a mythical ark, or a very large boat, that held the eight original human ancestors and everything they needed for life on Earth. You can find it in gallery 350 at The Met Fifth Avenue.
Hanukkah
Hanukkah lamp, 1866–72. Polish, Lviv (also called Lvov or Lemberg). Silver: cast, chased and engraved, 33 9/16 x 23 1/8 in., 60 lb. (85.3 x 58.7 cm, 27.2 kg). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, On loan from The Moldovan Family Collection (L.2016.65a–qq)
Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, is an eight-day celebration of light over darkness. People around the world add candles to the menorah, or ceremonial lamp that holds eight candles, one for each night of Hanukkah. The menorah represents the lamp in the Holy Temple that, during troubled times, stayed lit for eight days when there was only enough oil for one. You can discover this Eastern European silver menorah and the traditions of Hanukkah in gallery 556 at The Met Fifth Avenue through January 12, 2017.
Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche Display
The Met's Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche display. Twenty-foot blue spruce with a collection of 18th-century Neapolitan angels and cherubs among its boughs and groups of realistic crèche figures flanking the Nativity scene at its base, displayed in the Museum's Medieval Sculpture Hall. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Loretta Hines Howard, 1964
Families aren't the only ones who can have traditions. The Met has its very own winter holiday tradition. For about the past 60 years, The Met has displayed a 20-foot Christmas tree every year for the holiday season! It is decorated with almost 200 nativity figures from Naples, Italy, that are over 300 years old. You can watch the tree-lighting ceremony at 4:30 pm in gallery 305 at The Met Fifth Avenue through January 8, 2016.
Before you leave, warm up with some hot apple cider and hot chocolate in The Cafeteria! And check out all the events at the Museum during the winter season with Holidays at The Met. There's more to enjoy at all three Met locations!