The sun always(?) shines – a review of the year

2008 wasn't the best of summers; at times it seemed as though it never stopped raining. However looking back at the photographs from some of the events Ya Raqs attended over the year, we had a surprising number of good days, some days which were at least dry, and one very wet day!

Our year started with the Festival of Minerva in May. Chester has the only rock cut Roman shrine remaining in situ in the UK and Deva Victrix, Chester's Roman legion, hold an annual festival at the site. This was also the first time we used our tent, which over the summer became our home from home.
Meroe

In June we were invited to the Welwyn Festival Roman Day, held at the Roman baths on the outskirts of Welwyn. This event included displays of Roman and Celtic daily life, recreated by Colchester Roman Society and Celtic Harmony. Military might was provided by Legion XIIII and II Augusta Legion.
This was the first Roman event we had attended without Chester's 20th Legion. However it was also the first event at which we offered temporary and henna tattoos, and as Mish-mish had found the emblem of the original Legion XX in Chester museum we were able to demonstrate that we remained firmly Deva girls!

The sun shone, and it was a beautiful day. There were lots of things to see and do, but Noor managed to find some time to make a few repairs to the tent (with help from Hebba!)


July saw us back in Chester, performing at the Roman amphitheatre as part National Archaeology Weekend

Phoenece, Noor and Aisha

Meroe's sword dance, with Kebi drumming

Later that month we danced at the Chadkirk festival, again in brilliant sunshine.

So far we had had dull days and sunny days and a few showers, but nothing serious.
August was when our luck with the weather finally ran out. We accompanied Deva Victrix on a weekend event at Beeston Castle, an English Heritage site in Cheshire. On the Saturday we managed to get the tent up in the dry, but then the heavens opened.

The day looked like being a complete washout. However the English Heritage staff kindly rearranged their (indoor) display area to make some room, we made some quick adjustments to choreographies to adapt to the smaller space, and we were able to perform for the hardy souls who had braved the atrocious weather to come out.
Sunday couldn't have been a greater contrast. The sun shone again, and we were able to perform outdoors.

waiting to start

Aziza, Aisha, Mish-mish and Kebi

Kebi and Meroe

Hebba, Aisha, Phoenece, Aziza, Kebi, Meroe,
Noor and Mish-mish

Our final outdoor event of the summer was the Harlow show in August.

Phoenece, Mish-mish, Aisha, Hebba and Aziza resist the temptation of ice cream!

We have one more outdoor event this year, the Saturnalia parade in Chester on the evening of Thursday 18 December. More details will be posted nearer the time.

Festival of the Ancestors, posted by Meroe

Ya Raqs embarked on a slightly more sombre event on 2nd November by supporting Chester’s very own Deva Victrix in the Festival of the Ancestors. It was arguably one of the coldest events we’ve taken part in this year and all I can say is thank goodness for thermal underwear – not terribly authentic, but what the eye doesn’t see………!

Meroe, Hebba, Kebi and Mishmish traded their usual dance costumes to become official mourners at the re-enactment of a Roman funeral – that of a poor dead gladiator called Pisces Phalanges. Although his name brought smiles to those who had worked out what his name meant, the sentiment of the event was authentic and was approached with the professionalism for which Deva Victrix is famous. For our part, Ya Raqs provided not only the professional mourners but also the dancers who were bought in to entertain the family and friends after the funeral – as would have been the norm in Roman times.

Our funeral procession left the Grosvenor Museum at 2pm and soulfully wound its way through the streets of Chester, finally making its way back to the museum. Each member of Deva Victrix has taken on the name of a real Roman who lived and died in Chester and one by one they made offering to their namesakes in the Stones Gallery –as with many ancient religions, the Romans believed that by speaking the name of the dead they were restored to life.

The mood then lightened as we changed from our mourning outfits to our dance costumes to celebrate the lives of the ancestors that we had just honoured. At 3:30pm, the procession left the museum and headed down to the Groves by the river where there was an opportunity for everyone to set free candle lights on the River Dee in remembrance of their own lost loved ones. In the dusk of that cold November evening, it was truly magical to watch our little lights of remembrance making their way downstream.

As with all good funerals, there was a party to bring possibly one of our chilliest events this year to a close.