Novosibirsk Museum of World Funeral Culture saw a record number of visitors during the night of museum (4780). No one museum in Novosibirsk had such great attendance, we can compare the visitors boom with the museums of capital.
Night at the Museum of death was really unforgettable for people living there and for tourists. The Night lasted far longer than in other museums, it was open to the public from 18 pm to 4 am and attracted around 5000 visitors of different ages. According to the coordinators of the museum about 1,000 cars were placed in parking and surrounding areas. Many people took advantages of special offer “Bring 4 friends and get one ticket for free”.
Four rooms of museum were so crowded that sometimes it was a bit difficult to come in. Near the expositions dressed in costumes of various characters the guides told fascinating stories on the topic of “What’s next? ”.
The most intriguing collection of exhibits was the newest ones specially prepared for the Night of museum. The copy of Lenin’s body made by artist Ivan Plotnikov, the copy of second sarcophagus, which was in the mausoleum of Lenin before the start of the Great Patriotic War. Completely restored retro Mercedes hearses, GAZ-21, "Victory" were exposed with the open doors so that visitors could take a chance to sit behind the wheel of such a rare car. There were hundreds of hearses’ models of all countries and times in the exhibition.
Horse-drawn hearse of nineteenth century turned out to be a photo zone especially for those who wanted to try on a mourning dress and become a cab driver of funeral vehicle.
For the first time the visitors could see the exhibition dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812, the life and death of Napoleon with a copy of the sarcophagus.
On the eve of the Museum at night exposition was updated and supplemented with new exhibits, for example “Balzomatorskaya”, where people could learn thoroughly what happens to the human body after death. For this purpose, specialists of workshop Free-art manufactured realistic figure simulated stages of body decomposition and other features of biological death of the human body. The guide of this location, the doctor-pathologist told everyone the peculiarities of causes of death, post-mortem changes.
Each location lured visitors with fascinating stories about the culture of mourning, the history of the funeral rites, the idea of the afterlife in different religions and quizzes with prizes and gifts for the winners.
The building of the crematorium was open to visitors during all that night, where several employees were ready to show and tell about contemporary culture of funeral ceremonies, security of funeral rituals as well as about the modern techniques of embalming and postmortem makeup, cremation technologies.
Mournful music was filling the great hall of the crematorium all night; it was performed live by the musicians and the master of ceremonies Kristina Klekovkina and Olga Gokova. Also the visitors could see the documentary film Ceremony”, shot by the Moscow director Elena Lascari and received several awards at international documentary film festival.
Under the huge Dome of the building in the columned hall of the crematorium new exposition of the Museum of Funeral Culture was presented to guests. It was dedicated to the First World War and includes unique objects like military equipment, uniforms of soldiers of the Austrian, German and Russian armies, rare items of everyday life, awards and a huge collection of postcards, documents and campaign posters of 1914 – 1918.
Novosibirsk Kunstkamera presented visitors wax figures of famous personalities: Peter I, Elizabeth II, Lenin in the same hall.
Outside the museum straight in front of doors people could notice the trench of the First World War, recreated by SibPatriotCentre. Despite the cold weather and wet clay around we could feel cozy in a trench next to the real Austrian trench oven.
Anyone wishing to make a photo with soldiers, re-enactors dressed in Austro-Hungarian and Russian uniforms, hold in their hands the moment the weapons and equipment of the First World War. Next to the trench stood first production armored “RIA” with a machine gun “Maxim”.
Exactly at noon the orginizers raffled off prizes such as the certificate for 30,000 rubles for a tourist trip, iPhone7 and a certificate for repeated attendance of Museum. Death Museum thanks all the guests for their visit, all friends, partners, sponsors, associates of the Museum for their help in organizing this unique event for Novosibirsk!
The narrative was given by the Museum of Funeral Culture.
