Beautiful village of Durrow, Co Laois are hosting their annual Scarecrow Festival this week. It officially opened last Sunday afternoon, but a fantastic job of preparation and scarecrow making started long before the day. Colorful and happy looking scarecrows sitting on the perches, trees or simply on the ground follow you on your way through the village and promise a good time and lots of fun.
Oh, even the President and the First Lady are… wait… never mind…
The Scarecrow glorified by L. Frank Baum is one of the most loved characters in children’s literature. He is gentle and kind, honest and wise. Seeking to get a set of brains he still appreciates the straw he is stuffed with, and his logic is unbeatable:
Scarecrow: I haven’t got a brain… only straw.
Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven’t got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don’t know… But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking… don’t they?
Dorothy: Yes, I guess you’re right.
I will try to not do an awful lot of talking. The pictures will talk by themselves.
Scarecrow: Witch? Hmph, I’m not afraid of a witch. I’m not afraid of anything – except a lighted match.
Dorothy: I don’t blame you for that.
Who is the famous Scarecrow’s of Oz predecessor? It must be a Feathertop, the main character of the short story of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1852. It is an almost Kafka-esque, thought-provoking story.
“Poor Feathertop,” Mother Rigby said, looking at the heap on the floor. “He was too good to be a scarecrow. And he was too good to be a man. But he will be happier, standing near the corn all summer and protecting it from the birds. So I will make him a scarecrow again.”
There is a long forgotten, but nevertheless brilliant movie Scarecrow (1983) directed by Jerry Schatzberg. It is a drama starring Gene Hackman and Al Pacino. I was sure there is a comedy related to scarecrows, and I did find a 1920 short comedy The Scarecrow. You can watch it here on Youtube it is just a few minutes of laugh 🙂
When did scarecrows become the horror icons? Some say that it all started with the 1981 horror mystery thriller Dark Night of the Scarecrow, directed by Frank De Felitta. I haven’t seen the movie, and to be honest, I haven’t seen ANY scarecrow horror movie. I would be terrified, I hate creepy things like murderous clowns and scarecrows. I’d better stay with this cute Snow White 🙂
There is so much to see in Durrow this week. Humans are watching the scarecrows ( you never know…) and…
..Scarecrows are watching humans…
There is even a local war going on!
Cowardly Lion: Come on, get up and fight, ya shivering junkyard! Put your hands up, ya lopsided bag o’ hay!
Scarecrow: Now that’s getting personal, Lion!
Children are actually very quiet here. I cannot blame them: the real and the surreal are tangled and unclear 🙂
Watching the performance I thought I would take a picture of these fire red hair owners.
Suddenly all three of them turned back 🙂
That’s all for today. More pictures coming Friday.
I want to share a short fun video courtesy of Hattie Wilcox (the video is on this page of her website). It is filmed in Ireland, it is about the scarecrows, so it is quite relevant.
Hattie Wilcox is a terrifically talented composer, singer, poet, songwriter, photographer, and most humble and hard working person. Please check out her website and blog.
Photography tip of the day: Use the White balance feature of your camera. Take pictures with different settings and chose the result you are happy with.
Have a great week!
Making memories 
Love those terrific images! 😀
Thank you Jackie! That festival was something! 🙂
How Cool is that? Very!
Thank you! Very creative 🙂
This is fabulous! Thanks for posting.
Thank you so much for your comment, Cynthia! 🙂
Festivals, what fun. We don’t have enough of them in the US. Everything has turned so commercial, the festival’s we do have leave history on the sidelines.
Sheri, I do hope you have festivals in your area. They are not properly advertised, perhaps. I wouldn’t know about the Scarecrow festival if my friends didn’t live nearby, and if the festival didn’t last 10 days which is enough to spread a word across all the country 🙂
I’ve heard about these festivals but never come across one myself. Fabulous pictures and thanks for the research.
Thank you Olga! 🙂 It just happened that a few months ago I reread all the 14 books of The Wizard of Oz 🙂 So the image of beloved Scarecrow is still present in my mind. When I heard about the Festival I knew I have to go there:)
Oh my! How interesting!
Thank you for stopping by! 🙂
What a marvelous festival… Great scarecrows… And some of them are so unconventional!.
Really nice, dear inese.
Happy week ahead to you. Sending you hugs,
Aquileana
Glad you like my scarecrows Aquileana. Sometimes life is getting too serious and we need a break, right? 🙂
Hugs and best wishes for the coming week
Exactly.. Very well said, Inese.
Hugs right back at you, Aquileana 😛
🙂
Great post, love the way you interspersed the facts and the movie lines with the photos.
Thank you Andrea! Just posted Part II 🙂 Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Not exactly what I expected – but terrific! Pictures are great!!
Posting part II in a minute 🙂 Thank you for visiting!
The Snow White one was great, Ines 🙂
Yes, a beauty!:) Thank you for stopping by!
Wow scare crow festival so interesting…the picture of the children is amazing…makes me want to have hair of that color:-)
Thank you Natasha! Oh I too would love to have that curly red hair! 🙂
Thanks for this poetic post! I love your pictures, your reportage is very interesting!
Thank you so much for reading! I will post the rest of it Friday or tomorrow night. Have a great week!
Thanks Inese. My scarecrows are in great company!
Thank you Hattie! Your video is a cherry on top! 🙂 The festival page on Facebook found my blog on Google, what a surprise, and two more event pages shared it:) I wrote them that they can use your video if they link it to your website. So fun!:)
Great post! Thanks for the links 🙂
Thank you, and you are welcome:)
What a bunch of fun! 🙂 This is all new to me.
“Dress-up” takes on a different meaning
when you hit the hay, I see. Cute and sweet!
Thank you! Scarecrow culture in its finest:)
FIRE RED HAIR—WOW !!!
It is exactly what i said:) Thanks for stopping by!