In recent years, I have met more and more people, both in social networks and in reality, who claim to envy those living in the country, in the bosom of nature. For the overwhelming majority of them, this is either hypocrisy or simply a lie, because I am convinced that lacking the comfort of the city would leave life in the countryside in a few days. In these isolated villages, where the water does not come from the tap and the heat from a button, where autumn you swim in the mud and winter in the snow, where you have to grow vegetables and animals if you want to eat, life is not at all bucolic.
The Dacians were a Thracian people who were the ancient inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. In the absence of historical records written by the Dacians (and
Thracians) themselves, analysis of their origins depends largely on the
remains of material culture. From roughly 500 BC, the Dacians developed a
distinct civilization, which was capable of supporting large centralised
kingdoms by 1st BC and 1st AD.
3356 The twelfth postcard of the series
"100 years since the Great Union of Romania" (12/12)
- the Michael the Brave 30th Guards Brigade
on National Day parade
The last meeting of the Romanian postcrossers in the year of the Centenary of the Great Union took place on Bucharest, of course on December 1, the National Holiday of Romania. Mihnea Răducu chose for these 12th postcard an image from the parade that took place with this occasion, featuring the Michael the Brave 30th Guards Brigade. This unit is a primarily ceremonial, as well as combat unit of the Romanian Land Forces, and was established on 1 July 1860 through a decree issued by Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza as the 1st Honor Guard battalion of Tirailleurs, which ensured the security of Royal palaces.
The seventh meeting of the Romanian postcrossers in the year of the Centenary of the Great Union took place on July 14, 2018, in Bucharest, and Mihnea Răducu chose for the postcard a traditional Romanian folk dance named horă. The dancers hold each other's hands and the circle spins, usually
counterclockwise, as each participant follows a sequence of three steps
forward and one step back. The dance is usually accompanied by musical
instruments such as the cymbalom, accordion, violin, viola, double bass, saxophone, trumpet or the pan pipes.
Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region in southwestern Romania, bounded to the east by the Olt River, south and west of the Danube, and to the north by the Southern Carpathians. It is also an ethnographic area with a highly expressive artistic individuality, with a wide variety of costumes. The ethnographic sub-zones, crystallized over time in this region, generally correspond to the old administrative units: Mehedinţi, Gorj, Vâlcea, Romanaţi and Dolj.
2839 Moroşeni from Şugatag village
in traditional clothes
Posted on 25.10.2016, 13.02.2017, 07.12.2017 Maramureş is a geographical, historical and ethno-cultural region situated along the
upper Tisza River, and partitioned between
Romania and Sub-Carpathian Ukraine after the WWII. With its picturesque countryside of small villages, rolling hills, pastures, and meadows full of wildflowers, Maramureş epitomizes all that the rural lifestyle encompasses. It is a small and unique location in the geographical heartland of Europe that has carefully and distinctively preserved the culture, traditions and lifestyle of a mediaeval (or even older) peasant past.
2950 Little girl from Maramureş
Little has changed in the centuries gone by. Families remain in the same villages as their ancestors. Traditional skills and crafts are passed down from generation to generation. Traditional hand-woven clothing continues to be practical. The church continues to be the soul of the village. Neighbours know one another and continue to lend a helping hand. The mystery of rural traditions unfolds before the visitor as a living museum that is at once within reach yet simultaneously beyond the grasp of the traveller.
3211 Maria
The traditional costumes of the Moroşeni, as the people of Maramureş call themselves, are impressive through beauty and simplicity, and each region has a local specific. For instance, the costume of the Land of Lăpuş is much more elegant and sobre. The defining elements of the women's clothing are: kierchief, white shirt with sleeves ended in cuffs and flounces, ample skirts, covered by the two aprons (zadii) with horizontal stripes (usually black alternating with red, yellow or orange). Over the shirt, women wear a jerkin (pieptar) richly decorated. Often have at neck collars of colored beads.
3058 Romani man from Transylvania
at the end of the 19th century
(then Transylvania was part of
Austro-Hungarian Empire)
The Romani, or Roma, are a traditionally nomadic ethnic group, living mostly in Europe (mainly in the Balkans, in some Central European states, in Spain, France, Russia and Ukraine) and the Americas and originating from the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, apparently from the region that is currently occupied by the Indian states of Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab. They are widely known among English-speaking people by the exonym Gypsies, considered pejorative.
3021 Johann Schaas, the last Transylvanian saxon in Richiş
In Târnavelor Plateau, at five km from Biertan, one of the emblem-communes of the Sibiu county, with a fortified church inscribed among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, is located Richiş (Reichesdorf in Transylvanian Saxon dialect), a small village with a few hundred inhabitants, documented for the first time in 1283. In 1939 in Richiş lived 1,300 Saxons, but after the WWII many of them either went to Germany or were expropriated and / or deported by the communist authorities, so that in 1989 only 800 remained.
The Hârtibaciu is a river in the Transylvania historical region of Romania, which develops in the South Carpathians and flows into the Cibin, a tributary of the Olt River. King Géza II of Hungary settled the initial Transylvanian Saxon colonists along the Hârtibaciu (Harbach), who established many towns along the river. In Romania, as in many other regions of the world, peasants have used since ancient times cattle and buffalo for traction. But a team as the one from the postcard, formed of two animals of different species (an ox and a buffalo) is rare. Obviously, the stronger animal is disadvantaged.
As everywhere else, in Boholţ, a village located at 12km from Făgăraş, in the right side of the Olt River, at the confluence of the Târnave area with Făgăraş Country, the customs linked by wedding are conducted after an orderliness rooted with a long time ago. The first step is the wooing. For the wooing, at the bride's parents are going only men: the future groom, his father, the godfather, brothers and uncles of the groom. The wooing was also named la învoială (to haggling), because on this occasion was established the girl's dowry.
For the Romanians, the pastoralism is one of the ancient traditional occupations, but also a way of life, both north and south of the Danube, based on which was developed a whole culture. The men involved in this occupation, be they ciobani (shepherds - those caring for sheep) or baci (who handles the processing and conservation of meat and milk) have specific clothing, with very small differences by region. Among the specific elements is the clop, a hat with very small brims, or even without brims. I don't know if the man in the postcard is shepherd, but he wears such a clop.
Located near the place where Orăştie River discharges into the Mureş, not far from the heart of the Dacian Kingdom, from which survived until today the ruins of Dacian fortresses, Orăştie was documented for the first time in 1224, but there is archaeological evidence proving that the area was inhabited since Neolithic. The traditional costume in this area congealed as a costume of hilly area, suffering significant changes over time, being influenced by the mountain costume, which presents several pastoral elements.
2649 Braşov - Junii Braşoveni (The Brasovian Lads)
When
the heavy snows of the harsh Brașovian winters are gone and spring sun
shines again, it is the time for people from Şcheii Brasovului, the old Romanian
district of Braşov, to start celebrating the renewal. Yearly, they have a
festival, called The Brasovian Lads - Junii Brasoveni (In Transylvania, june means
unmarried young lad) which stretches over weeks, having its climax on
the first Sunday after Easter (when the Orthodox Christians Romanians
celebrate Duminica Tomii - The Sunday of Thomas the Apostle).
2650 Braşov -Junii Tineri in 1905
In
that day, a group of horsemen from Şchei, in nowadays with ceremonial
role, parade through the streets of Brașov, in specific costumes. Feast
is a complex of habits that combines pre-Christian and Christian
practices, to restore the myth of ritual death and rebirth of the
calendar time. The oldest document recorded in which this procession is
mentioned is from 26 March 1728 but it is assumed that the celebration
already existed in antiquity.
2626 The Pentecost in Şona - Lads and girls in the courtyard of the host.
For residents of Şona, a village located on the right bank of the Olt River, at 5 km from Făgăraş, in the ethnographic area of Târnava Mare, the Pentecost (the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus), celebrated by Christians at 50 days after the Easter, is the most important holiday. On this occasion, the group of lads constituted at the Christmas resumes its activity and sing carols to the householders homes, along with the village girls.
2627 The Pentecost in Şona - The cart with girls in the courtyard of the host.
The group of lads on horseback, accompanied by a cart to which, until the 1950s, were yoked the most beautiful oxen, and now the most beautiful horses, is the pride of the village. Even if the celebration has undergone in time changes, it kept some significant archaic elements. After Christmas, the lads chose another leader, named summer mayor, which coordinate the activities of the year, and designated the host (the owner of the most beautiful horses), from who will start the showiness on the day of Pentecost.
2628 The Pentecost in Şona - The showiness of lads
In the past, on the Pentecost eve, the lads gathered oak leaves and twigs of hazel in the woods, and the girls picked field flowers to decorate the cart and horses. In nowadays are made crepe paper flowers. The next morning, the lads wash the horses in the River Olt, and go to the girls, who put woolen blankets with tassels (lepedeu) under saddles, and adorn the harnesses with flowers (căpeţel). Then the lads and girls gather in the courtyard of the host, where is the adorned cart, and go to the church.
Mărțișor
is a Romanian celebration at the beginning of spring, on March the 1st,
in Romania, Moldova, and all territories inhabited by Romanians. The
word Mărțișor is the diminutive of marț, the old folk name for March
(Martie, in modern Romanian), and thus literally means "little March".
It is a red and white string with value of talisman, a symbol of the
coming spring, and in the past was believed that the wearer will be
strong and healthy for the year to come.
The Csangos (Hungarian: Csángók, Romanian: Ceangăi) are an ethnographic group of Roman Catholic faith, living mostly in Moldavia (especially in Bacău County), and speaking an archaic Hungarian dialect. Some Csangos live also in Burzenland, in Săcele area (once called Şapte Sate, which means Seven Villages), but they are of Evangelical Lutheran faith.In three of these villages (Ţărlungeni, Purcăreni and Zizin) was preserved an ancient dance named borica, in the past a rite of fertility addressed to the family, the homestead, the earth, the animals, and also a practice of initiating the young men.
2157 Borica dance - Kuka
The dance is performed in the third day of Christmas, the Day of the Holy Children, at the performance participating young men from 15-16 years of age (in even numbers), best dancers and connoisseurs of the traditional customs.They wear the traditional costume of Csangos: fur hat adorned with a red carnation and a nagara (a red feather), white shirt, black cloth waistcoat, black pants and boots with sleigh bells. In the past, during the dance they kept in his right hand a hatchet, replaced in modern times with a little wooden shovels named lapocka (in Purcăreni and Ţărlungeni) or pyrographed sticks (in Zizin).
2158 Borica dance - little wooden shovel (lapocka)
Above all, they form a procession after a well-established order. In front are the fiddlers, then follows the vatáf (the usher), the two rudas (the main dancers), one or two kuka (a masked man), and then the rest of the dancers. The vatáf holds a bull leather whip (bikocsok), a symbol of power, with which coordinates the movements of the dance. The kuka bears a zoomorphic wooden mask, adorned with feathers. At the waist has bells, and in the right hand a leather whip, with which frighten the people. He is a speechless character, all his actions being linked to the pantomime.
The lads stop at each house, and the kuka and one of the dancers ask permission to perform in the yard. The dancers are arranged in half circles, with the vatáf at one end, and at the other with the two rudas, who go backwards. The dance is composed of four distinct moments. While the lads dance, the kuka try to attract attention to himself, walking in the yard and collecting various objects, which the host must redeem them. In the past, the dancers were rewarded with meat, sausages, sauerkraut and bacon, which they put on a long stick or in baskets. Today they only get money and drink.
As might be expected, the main occupation of the inhabitants of the Danube Delta, be they Romanians, Lipovans or Hahols (Ukrainians - descendents of Zaporozhian Cossacks), is fishing, which provides the main source of food and income. However is not neglected the animal breeding (mainly pigs and cows), which is made there in a special way: the animals are let loose on the grinduri (oblong strip of land formed from alluvial deposits), where they seeks the food.
