Hats!

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge is HATS. While I had a few photos featuring people wearing hats, I hemmed and hawed in posting. I didn’t think them so interesting. And then I remembered this story.

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When kids at the Yangzheng Elementary School in China went back to school after COVID-19 confinement, they had a unique homework assignment. They had to design and make a hat with a one-meter, or three-foot, diameter. The hats were modeled after the ones worn by government officials during the Song Dynasty. Legend has it that the emperor Taizu, created the hats to prevent court ministers from standing too close together, to whisper and conspire against him.

Teachers at the Yangzheng Elementary School school thought the assignment would teach the children about social distancing. Plus it’d be a fun exercise.

When I first read this Goldthread news article, my immediate reaction was “Cute!” quickly followed by “I want to get me one of those!” But it was only tongue in cheek.

Imagine my surprise when I read that an art gallery in Paris, was handing out similar hats to encourage social distancing.

Called ‘deconfinement’ hats, they were created by artist Dominique Pouzol for 59 Rivoli. His hats were made with papier mache and while all were designed to encourage social distancing, some were also painted in rainbow colors to support gay rights.

He had this to say about his creations. “The hats are to protect us from Covid-19 … I said to myself perhaps they can also shield us from … human viciousness, from small-minded people.”

In the video we see a number of artists and 59 Rivoli’s director, Gaspard Delanoe modelling the hats for the gallery’s opening in early June. Whether any visitors actually wore the hats remains to be seen.

Personally, I prefer the versions worn by the school children.

Photos and videos taken from the Wacky Web World (WWW) of Covid19. June 2020