The classic tale of a mummy's reanimation fueled our imaginations this year. As this blog went "alive" for the first time a few months before, our online teaser text read: > Suddenly there came a wrapping.
Timid? You might want to bring your mummy for this one.
> The Backstory
An archaeologist and her assistant welcomed visitors to Egypt, and to our excavation of the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep. Stepping inside, they were treated to a tour of the chamber featuring mummified animals (one of which had some disturbing eyes), archaeological tools and bones that had been dug up, hieroglyphics and, of course, the sarcophagus of Amenhotep himself. The mummy box, crated in preparation for shipping to a museum, was covered, so the lead archaeologist slowly revealed the fine art work on top of the box. As more was uncovered, it was discovered that a hole had been made in the lid. Some bandages were strewn about, and the mummy appeared to be gone.
Just then, Amenhotep appeared from underneath the crate with a moan. He was promptly chastised and told (apparently yet again) to get back in the sarcophagus. Guests were promptly hastened out by the much embarrassed and apologetic tour guide, and her assistant handed them something else to remember them by. Hopefully. How embarrassing.
Early work on the mummy box.
Egyptian artists seem more rare these days.
Anyone notice a theme?
Wonder if that archaeologist noticed the desert spiders in back.
The garage wall may never be the same.
Hey, the light's on. Should we go in THAT garage?
The archaeologist and her sidekick.
Some more archaeological finds in the tomb.
Wide-eyed explorers are we while documenting the excavation.
What could have possibly happened to the mummy?
Oh, yeah. That can't be good.
Not exactly where one expects to find a mummy.
There is something seriously wrong with that cat.
He is really happy to be out of that thing.
Wait, does that mummy have tennis shoes?
Amenhotep says "farewell."
> The Trick
We had some expert help on this one, as my own mummy, er, mum... I mean mom.., who also played my assistant, has done a bit of digging in the dirt herself. The archaeological tools and books were hers. She actually purchased the posters featuring artifacts of Ramses III after we saw his mummy and items from his tomb on display at Canada's Expo '86 World's Fair. (Teachers save everything.)
Also from the Expo was an unopened Egyptian alphabet set which helped us to phonetically spell out the words, "The mummy rests in its tomb," on the chamber wall. (Who knew that would come in handy after all these years?)
The symbol "hotep" is real, and can truly be translated "at rest" or "at peace." It is a picture representing bread on a table.
Freaky Fact: The art on top of the box was very loosely based on the mummy case of Amen-Nestawy-Nakht displayed in the St. Louis Art Museum.
While Amenhotep was the real name of several Pharaohs, we named our mummy specifically for Pharaoh Amenhotep III as featured in Universal's classic film "The Mummy" who stopped Imhotep (played by Boris Karloff) from practicing evil. Or so he tried.
We had a great deal of inspiration during a visit to Universal Studios California's Halloween Horror Nights event earlier this month. Mazes and scare zones aside, they feature the indoor roller coaster "Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride" based on the Brendan Fraser films. Within we saw how they created their mummy outfits, as well as a coffin with a hole in the top where Imhotep (who was portrayed again in the new films) had busted through. Yep, we could do that.
Take a tour through the mummy's tomb...
We learned to modify our technique for the youngest visitors. (Sorry, princesses.) A mummy's hand, we found, is a lot less scary if you're small, but not so much if you're a teenager. We hope the duckies made everyone feel better.
> The Treat
This year's treat bag included skeleton duckies (which took some effort to track down), mummy suckers, gummy mummies, and our standard issue pretzels and Wonka Mixups. Thankfully, it didn't take much effort to determine what Biblical story we'd focus on here. The story of Lazarus immediately came to mind. Cards were printed on parchment paper again this year for that classic look, and also included the address of our brand new and highly requested blog:
JUST THE TEXT: Thanks for visiting our excavation of the Pharaoh’s tomb. Hopefully you weren’t disturbed any more than he is. Sometimes he comes a little unwrapped, if you will.
Alright, enough of the nonsense. Sure, Egyptian mummies are real. You can even see them in museums. But mummies that come back from the dead? Not so much.
Still there’s an amazing resurrection you can read about in the Bible that really did happen. A man named Lazarus got sick and he died. Four days later his friend, Jesus, called him out of the tomb. Lazarus got up, still wrapped in burial cloths something like a mummy. Lazarus was alive!
Amazing? Yes. But even more amazing was when Jesus Himself walked out of a tomb. No one called Him back to life. See, Lazarus’ friend just happens to be the God of the universe who came to Earth, and the only perfect man who ever lived.
God promised long ago that someone would come to set things right in this world, and that someone was Jesus. God said people had to live perfectly or face punishment. Since none of us are perfect, Jesus took that punishment by dying for imperfect people who would trust and believe Him. Then He proved He was God by walking out of a grave. Death couldn’t hold Him down. And, similar to Lazarus, it won’t keep down anyone who believes in Jesus as Lord. They’ll live with Him forever.
If you want to know more about all that, stop by MiniMinistry.com. Look for our Halloween blog post. As an extra treat, if you don’t have one (and parents give the “ok”) we’ll give you a Bible absolutely free so you can read about Jesus and Lazarus for yourself.
Have a great year & happy Halloween. :-)
>> New for 2011... Step back in time to see our previous garage haunt themes athallowsgarage.blogspot.com
