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Glencairn Museum celebrating Halloween Oct. 27 with Harry Potter scavenger hunt, visit by 'Dumbledore'

Dumbledore and his office, the Room of Requirement and the Pensieve can be found in the fictional Hogwarts Castle of the Harry Potter book series. But visitors to Glencairn Museum Oct. 27 will find them in a castle in Bryn Athyn.

Glencairn, a museum of religious art and history, housed in a nine-story Romanesque-style castle at 1001 Cathedral Road, will host its fifth annual Halloween Festival from noon to 4 p.m. Among the activities is a Harry Potter scavenger hunt with depictions from the popular series, including a Dumbledore look-alike. 

The scavenger hunt is “new and improved,” said Joralyn Echols, Glencairn’s outreach and public relations coordinator. “Following the clues through the building to answer the questions - keeping an eye out for places and objects from the books - gives visitors an outstanding opportunity to view the museum’s many galleries and displays,” she said. The Pensieve, for example, is an Egyptian libation bowl, and when visitors peek through the keyhole of Dumbledore's “office,” they’ll see a replica sword as the Sword of Gryffindor.

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Scavenger hunters may not believe their eyes when they bump into Albus Dumbledore, portrayed by Stephen Cole, a Bryn Athyn father of eight and professor at Bryn Athyn College. Looking the part with his white beard, Cole has played the infamous Hogwarts headmaster before.

“I like to think that I am, of course, Dumbledore all the time and that I occasionally masquerade as a college professor,” he said. “I made the costume myself – though some ‘elves’ did help out. One of my favorite times wearing it was at the opening of a Harry Potter movie and being photographed. Several years later, one of my philosophy students, halfway through the term, realized she had been photographed with me there.”

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The festival also features a look at the ancient harvest-time art of wheat-weaving, with demonstrations by Kirsten Gyllenhaal, as well as wheat-weaving workshops by Bryn Athyn College students. Guests may create their own design ($2 per love knot).

Other highlights include free face painting by volunteers from Bryn Athyn College and the Academy of the New Church Secondary Schools in Bryn Athyn, and seasonal light lunch items and treats by Elcy’s Café and coffee by Valley Green Coffee Co., both of Glenside. Plus, visitors may make a free “Magic Door Hanger” in the museum’s Upper Hall. Anyone wearing a Halloween costume will receive candy before leaving.

Admission to the Halloween Festival is $8; $6 for seniors and students with ID; and free for museum members and children four and younger. Also available is a family rate of $20 for up to four individuals in the same household; each additional guest in the party is half price.

A visit to Glencairn, once home to the Raymond Pitcairn family, also affords guests an opportunity to take self-guided tours, travel by elevator to the museum’s tower for a commanding autumn view of the surrounding countryside, and to see an award-winning 15-minute museum orientation video. There’s also a special “Angels, Devils and Spirits” cell phone audio tour of Glencairn’s collections.

During the Halloween Festival and through Nov. 16, visitors also may see Glencairn’s temporary exhibition, “The Way of the Cross: Sculptures by Thorsten Sigstedt.” Guided tours of the museum are given weekdays at 2:30 p.m., or by appointment, and at 1, 1:30, 2 and 3 p.m. on Saturdays. On Saturdays, from 1 to 4:30 p.m., the public has free access to the museum’s first floor, on which the exhibition is located. Donations are welcome.

“The Way of the Cross,” also known as the Stations of the Cross, is a series of 14 artistic representations depicting events from the Passion of Jesus Christ. Traditionally they are arranged in a sequence around the walls of a church and used for prayer and meditation. In the early 1950s, Thorsten Sigstedt (1884-1963), a Swedish woodcarver with a studio in Bryn Athyn, carved the Stations of the Cross for St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.

            Prior to Glencairn’s Halloween festival is the annual Candy Apple Workshop at the adjacent Cairnwood Estate from 10 a.m. to noon which includes complimentary apple cider and ginger snaps. Admission is free; a candy apple workshop is $5; and a keepsake photo in Victorian-era clothes is $15. For additional information, call Cairnwood at 215-947-2004 or visit www.cairnwood.org.

            Glencairn Museum and Cairnwood Estate are part of the Bryn Athyn Historic District, a National Historic Landmark since 2008 (www. bahistoricdistrict.org). The District includes Pitcairn family residences – father John Pitcairn’s Beaux-Arts mansion, Cairnwood, and son Raymond’s Glencairn – and the renowned Bryn Athyn Cathedral. Each was constructed between 1892 and 1939. Today, Bryn Athyn Cathedral remains a place of worship for the New Church; Cairnwood serves as an educational, cultural and hospitality center, and Glencairn a museum of religious art and history.

            For additional information about Glencairn Museum and its events, call 267-502-2600 or visit www.glencairnmuseum.org.

 

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