Earth Hour in Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes

The worldwide movement “Earth Hour” is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and is held annually encouraging people all over the world to turn off non-essential lights for one hour as a symbol for their commitment to the planet.

The lights-off event took place in over 184 countries and almost 7000 cities on March 25 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. It is that case when people switched off the light on their own initiative – in solidarity with those who care about the climate change.

Illumination of the most famous buildings and monuments of the world was turned off for this hour. The RIA news agency reported, “Such famous sights as Big Ben and Westminster Palace, the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Egyptian pyramids, the St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican, the Acropolis of Athens, the Sydney Opera House, the Empire State Building in New York and others were darkened for Earth Hour 2017”.

The record number of cities in Russia (150) participated in the event - it is half as much as last year. Illumination of the most well-known architectural monuments and numerous administrative buildings, including the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod, the Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky in Krasnodar, the Zolotoy Bridge in Vladivostok and others, was switched off in our country. Besides, actions, cycling races, concerts and other festive events were organized in different cities.

In 2017, Earth Hour took place for the 10th time. The Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes situated in the village of Ferapontovo was also darkened for one hour. It joined this large environmental action for the first time. E.G. Gudkova, head of the Department “Museum Complex Tsypino” in the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes, said, “This action has nothing to do with baseload electrical savings. It is a kind of a flash-mob when everybody who thinks about environmental problems of the planet can demonstrate his or her solidarity with the whole world, can say that we are here and we agree with you – we must protect nature. This movement grows every year. It turns out that 100 cultural monuments in Moscow participated in Earth Hour last year. This year there are 700! We haven’t stood aside either and are among this year’s participants. Everybody in Ferapontovo noticed that projectors were turned off. We had to explain to some people that it was an international action, but not a technical slip-up”.

But it was not the only event of Earth Hour 2017 in the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes. E.G. Gudkova organized an environmental game for children in the art studio (kids usually attend it every Sunday). Besides, they saw the film “Birds” demonstrating not only the beauty of the feathered friends, but also the difficulty of their life, the passage from one place to another. “The quality of this film is fabulous! The shooting in it is amazing! We have chosen the environmental subject for this lesson not by chance – we have joined the worldwide movement “Earth Hour” in such a way. We could remind the younger generation of the necessity to have a responsible attitude to the environment”, noted E.G. Gudkova.

By the way, our responsible attitude towards nature is not only the subject of Earth Hour 2017, it is the mode of life of all of us and it must become constant. The organizers of the action state with the slogan “Change Yourself, not the Planet!”. The whole world supported it several days ago. Well… We will try.