De Stejar Irina

De Stejar Irina

With Romanians, the winter feasts are full cry from 24 December to 7 January. There central events occur during the Christmas Day, New Year and Epiphany, with their respective events. The most important feature of these feasts is their incomparably reach repertoire of customs, traditions, and believes, of artistic, literary, musical, choreographic and other folklore events, which make the winter holidays to be some of the most original and spectacular spiritual manifestations of the Romanian people.

Children and lads go from house to house singing Christmas carols, or through the streets on New Year's Eve reciting congratulatory verse. The whole traditional village participates in waists, although this custom is practiced by children mostly. They are organised in troops, according to a well-ordered hierarchy, each with its own chosen leader and established meeting place. This is a the dominating structure in village life during the Christmas-tide festivals.

Another custom practised by children individually on New Year's Day is a 'sorcova'. This is a small branch or stick adorned with differently coloured artificial flowers, cooled sorcova with which they touch rhythmically their elders lightly, while congratulating them on the occasion and wishing them a long life to a hoary age and a Happy New Year in a specific recitative of forty words, corresponding to the forty touches with the sorcova (from Slav. soroku = forty), which runs somewhat as follows: The Merry sorcova Long may you live, Long may you flourish, Like apple trees, Like pear trees, In midsummer, Like the rich autumn Overflowing with abundance, Hard as steel Fast as an arrow, For many years to come! Happy New Year!

A similar custom is practised by the children of Hunedoara (in Transylvania) on Christmas Eve, when they go from house to house with a nicely printed headkerchief tied to a lance, locally called pizãrã, (whence the name of the groups of children: pizãrãi) which represents a kind of sorcova reciting: As many lumps of coal in the hearth, Just as many suitors to the lass; As many stones in the river, Just a many wheat stacks in the field; As a many chips from the cutter, Just a many children around the hearth!

Another interesting and decorous custom is the Star (Steaua). This is a large star made of coloured glossy paper, lighted inside like a lantern, which school children, in a groups of three carry in the evening of Christmas-tide from house to house, singing a star-recitative celebrating Christ's birth: The Star is rising high, Like a hidden mystery, The Star shines brightly, And to the world announces, That today the pure, The immaculate Virgin Mary, Gives birth to Messiah,

December 6 - the Orthodox calendar: St. Nicholas? On the evening of the eve (December 5), parents bring in children's footwear, which they and a carefully prepared, various gifts: candy, toys, small items of clothing, in some there are places to put together a “nuielusa” custom and moral course effect. Also on this day, in other areas (Wallachia, Transylvania) is organized bands of young men, as described above. ? December 20 - the Orthodox calendar: St. Ignatius? This day is killing pigs in the early hours, which is feeding the Christmas ritual for all Romanians.

With the Romanians, the goat was believed to be the animal that could show if the weather was to be fine or foul. Most certainly at first the "capra" dance (the kiling, the mourning, the burial, the resurection) was a solemn ceremony, a part of the cult. As part of the agrarian festivities the dance has become a ritual designed to bring fertility in the coming year, an increase in the number of animals in the shepherds’ flocks, bumper crops invoked and evoked by the grains flung by the host over the procession of the „capra".

The same as in the other dances with masks performed during the winter holidays, in the "capra" dance, besides the classical masks, the goat, the shepherd, the gipsy, the woodman masks of „devils" and of „greybeards" were introduced, where yells, lusty cheers, funny gestures, intensified the cheerful, humorous aspect, at times lending it a nuance of grotesque.

Bear Custom  * Ursul

This custom is known only in Moldavia, a part of Romania, on the Christmas Eve. In this case a young person dresses up in a bear costume adorned with red tassels on its ears, on his head and shoulders. The person wearing the bear costume is accompanied by fiddlers and followed by a whole procession of characters, among them a child dressed-up as the bear's cub. Inspired by the crowd’s singing: "Dance well, you old bear,  And I’ll give you bread and olives", the bear grumbles and imitates the steps of the bear, striking strongly against the earth with the soles of its feet to the sound of drums and pipes.

Bibliografie: -google.com http://www.roembus.org/english/com munities/copii/romanian_winter_seas on_tradition.htm#Bear%20Custom %20%20*%20Ursul