looduskalender.ee

Nice winter weather, Shrovesday and HOLIDAY make a good time for building snowmums*. The snow is not quite packable, but with some forethought and some aid our own snowmums will grow and stand up.

 

Our snowmums protest against the global warming for the third year. The organisers are Eesti Roheline Liikumine (Estonian Green Movement), and Humana Eesti  (Humana Estonia).

 

 

Tell Christin Lunts (christinlunts[ät]gmail.com, 53322209), that you want to join the campaign and enclose information about:

or

So we can collect information on the impact of the campaign and can then let all snowmum builders know. Also please make a digital photo of your snowmum when she is ready, and send it to the Estonian Green Movement, info[ät]roheline.ee. Add information on where the photo was made. The photos will be shown on the ERL web.

 

You can put up the campaign call on the message board at your work, school or free-time activities place.

 

Building period: best February 23rd or 24^th, 2009, or some days before or after that. Snowmen from other materials and snowmen for (Humana shops) windows we recommend to build and put up before February 23rd, and leave them up for at least a week.

 

Selecting a site: choose the outskirts of a park or a green area, a house front or roadside, where the snowmums catch the eye of people passing – walkers, drivers.  Places near important institution are good  – such as ministerial departments, environmental services, municipal offices, large business enterprises, plants, parking spaces and any other places with many people, such as shopping centres. In cities do not choose your building site too near driving paths (crossings are particularly dangerous), because all traffic hazard situations must be avoided. At motorways and highways snowmum building is less risky. Build at least two or three snowmums, then the impact will be greater; but they can be built singly too, for instance spread along a highway verge.

 

The snowmums catch the eye in showcase windows along a road too. The snowmum can be made from paper, textile fabrics, packaging stuff or other materials. Put a climate message in her hand and place her in a window in your home, working place or school. If needed we will find a home for your snowmum in the Humana shop windows.

 

Get a nice company of likeminded friends together, have warm clothes on, and find the necessary trimmings for your snowmum, if possible from nature: carrot, twigs, pieces of coal, ashes. Also make a placard for your snowmum with a suitable message. On the placard you can for instance write: “They don’t leave me cold!”, “We demand snow!”, “Use your head not tings!”, “Help, we melt!”, “Snowmums or fast tracks?”, “Vote for the snowmums!”, “Hey, listen to us!” and so on

 

When it is cold the snow does not hold together very well. Sprinkling it with water helps, because wet snow can easily be shaped. It also helps to pack the snow in big bags – when the snow has been in these “moulds” for some time the balls can be lifted on top of each other and reshaped. You can make differently-shaped snowmums too, or snow sculptures, the snowballs must not necessarily be stapled on top of each other: see some snowmum examples from earlier years:

NB! Make sure that no parts of crumbling snowmums will be left as litter in nature or in cities. Collect placards and all other attributes from man-made materials from the building site in the beginning of March at the latest.

 

We invite you to show pictures of your snowmums in the Humana shop windows:

* Please note – Snowman vs. Snowmum:

The gender of Snowpeople has been seriously considered and researched; see the Ilm.ee site here http://www.ilm.ee/index.php?45368, short summary in English in Looduskalender Forum. http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/viewtopic.php?p=12384#p12384, with the firm conclusion that proper old-fashioned Estonian Snowpersons should be Lumememmed, Snowmums.