Category Archives: Reenactment

#WeWalkforLivingHistory – an Initiative to Support Culture

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2020 will be a year to be remembered as a very special year, especially so for the living history communities. While we love getting out and live history on fairs, events and at museums, 2020 had very little of that.
In Spring during the lockdown with cultural institutions and museums bleeding, a spirit of solidarity and desire to help grew. As Denmark was not in a severe enough lockdown to force curfews, living history enthusiasts and reenactors took to the streets near their homes to remind people that museums and culture would need them to come back as soon as it was safe to do so.

It all started in the UK but it soon spread and was spearheaded by Thit Birk Petersen in Denmark by creating a Facebook group and using the existing living history groups to reach out.

Take a walk in your historical outfit – support living history. We live in crazy times and we can not meet and make living interpretation. Many museums and freelancers are bleeding and are affected by the Corona-pandemic. I would like to make awareness of this and therefore I invite you to walk with me – at a distance, where you are at, in your historical costume. So put on a historical suit of your choice and take a walk around your neighbourhood – talk to who ever you meet and give them a history lesson or two 😉 If you have contact to local media – good, but if not, take a picture and use the #wewalkforlivinghistory

Thit Birk Petersen in Gå en tur i dit historiske kostume – støt kulturen the Danish Facebook group

In 2021 with a second round of lockdown. We are back in the streets blaffling people and making them smile. This is a fun way of reminding people of the events, museums and culture and a good way of engaging people who may not have a knowledge of living history or history in general.

Spring 2020, Copenhagen. Advertising living history

So if you meet someone who looks a couple of centuries out of place, come say hello. We love to chat about history, our hobby and spread the word to ensure the living history events in 2021 or whenever they are allowed to continue will be successful and reach as many people as possible. We are not just people who like to dress up for the sake of it.

Pictures are taken from walks in Copenhagen, Spring 2020 and Winter 2021. But this is happening all over Denmark and hopefully the rest of the world as well. If not, please feel inspired and dress up for a walk. Support culture, make people smile and get to wear your historical outfits, what is not to like?

One of the really fun things are the mixing of living history communities in a way we have rarely seen as most events keep to a certain time period. But for instance in January vikings, Medieval, American Civil War and WWII were represented so even if you are a seasoned reenactor there is an opportunity to learn about other parts of history.

All pictures are copyrighted by Bo Herbst and used with permission.