HEI- House of European Institutes invites the Timisoara public to a party celebrating summer and love, at the Maria Theresia Bastion, to mark the inauguration of the new European cultural centre HEI - House of European Institutes!
On Saturday, 24 June 2023, the public programme starts at 16:00. The room housing the Circular Catalysts exhibition, on this day only, is specially transformed and designed by Marlene Herberth (KraftMade) to offer visitors, a sensory experience. An experience designed to awaken our senses, inspired by the summer solstice and the customs of the Romanian, British and Saxon communities, united by the lime tree and flowers!
Organisers will be handing out bread, shots of wine soup, edible candles, edible earth, floral waters and honey, and from 7 p.m. Dragoș Ilici will start a long DJ set for all guests to dance the night away.
Access to HEI - House of European Institutes public events is free and open to all, visitors to Timisoara and members of the city's communities alike, regardless of age, ability, beliefs, lifestyle!
Party concept imagined by Marlene Herberth (KraftMade): Solstice Foods of Love: on Community & Lore / Solstice, Foods of Love, on Community & Lore.
The Summer Solstice marks the beginning of astronomical summer, with the longest day of the year, when the Earth reaches the part of its orbit where the North Pole has its maximum tilt to the Sun. It is a time when fertile energy is at its peak. All around us, new life is being born, growing, developing, thriving and flourishing. It is a time when the intense vibration of nature is expressed in the vibrato of the bees, and the love we feel and smell around us is captured in the sweetness of their honey.
For millennia, cultures around the world have devised ways to celebrate and venerate this celestial event, from building structures that align with the solstice to holding festivals and rituals in its honour. What seems to be a common symbol that spreads across cultures in their solstice celebrations is the ritual use of linden trees to make wreaths, infusions, teas, syrups, honey, potions, cakes, remedies, medicines, magic and so on.
Initially, communities not only gathered to celebrate and dance under a linden tree, but also held court sessions to restore justice and peace. It was believed that the linden tree preserved the truth and that what was done under the linden tree could not be undone.