The City of Delta is inviting residents to learn more about heritage, all from the comfort and safety of their own homes.
From Feb. 15-21, the city is celebrating its annual Heritage Week through a series of online programs, activities and media, hosted by staff at the new Douglas J. Husband Discovery Centre, geared towards learning and framing how we look at Delta’s heritage.
For fans of light-hearted competition, the city will be hosting a virtual trivia night on Wednesday, Feb 17. Billed as a “can’t-miss opportunity to flex your historical knowledge while socializing with others,” participants are invited to work as a team with their household or try and claim a solo victory as they compete for the coveted “certificate of knowledge.” The competition gets underway at 6:30 p.m.
On Thursday, Feb. 18 and Sunday, Feb. 21, Deltans are invited to unleash their inner artist with Historic House Drawing. From 10-11 a.m., participants will take a guided and informative virtual tour of some of the cities historic homes and buildings as they sketch whatever calls to them.
For a more passive experience, tune in to Silent Movie Night at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 20 for a watch-a-long of some of the strange, funny and innovative short silent movies from the pioneering years of film. Participants will have the opportunity to chat with Discovery Centre staff, Delta Stageworks Theatre Society founder Peg Keenleyside and other film buffs about the movies, what to eat and drink, and how grand their outfits are before and after each viewing. Films shown will include Cendrillon (Cinderella) by Georges Méliès, Kid Auto Races at Venice by Charlie Chaplin, and Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon) by Georges Méliès.
Registration is required for all three events at deltareg.ca.
As well, residents are invited to experience Delta in a brand new way through the Around Delta ambient soundscape series. Released during the first day of Heritage Week, the series is a soothing recording of ambient soundscapes from around Delta, including Tsawwassen Beach, Watershed Park and downtown Ladner. The series will be available to stream at delta.ca/heritage.
Want more heritage programming? Last year, the City of Delta and the Delta Heritage Society put together a pair of video series: Delta Treasures, a storytelling series dedicated to artifacts from Delta’s colourful past and their stories as told by the people connected to them, and Fisherman Oral Stories, a collaboration with the Delta Fishing Heritage Society to collect oral histories form Delta’s fishing community. Both series are available on the City of Delta’s YouTube page.
Also, through the city’s Virtual Recreation Centre, anyone who’s curious can take a quiz to learn “Which Historic Site in Delta Are You?”
(Fun Fact: North Delta Reporter editor James Smith, as it turns out, is Burrvilla. The 1905/06-built home was the first in Delta to receive a heritage designation in 1981 — coincidentally, the same year that James was born — and was relocated to Deas Island Regional Park the following year as part of a heritage grouping with the Inverholme School and the Delta Agricultural Hall. How about that?)
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editor@northdeltareporter.com
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