village
DESCRIPTION
a magazine about rural lifeTRANSCRIPT
Promoting rural culture and tradition - October-December 2009
Portraits of Cata
Traditional Crafts
Fundata Village - how we captured the real spirit of the village, in less than 20 minutes
Pottery with a Deep History
Reflexions on Saxon Identity in Romania’s Multi-cultural Society
The Plescoi Sausage Festival
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3 EditorialPreserving Traditional Romania
4 Romanian VillagePortraits of Caţ a: One Village, Two Experiences
7 Traditional FoodThe Plescoi Sausage Festival
8 Interview“We should not forget one thing: traditional culture lives in motion”,- Dr. Speranţa Rădulescu, ethnomusicological researcher
10 EventsSaschiz Festival - pictorialUnited through Dance - at the Halchiu village traditional festivalBig Bang for the Buck - the ‘Golden Stag’ International Festival
14 Rural DevelopmentA Dip into Traditional Crafts - Visiting the village of Lisa
16 Travel JournalDisturbing the Peace: How we captured the real spirit of Fundata Village, in less than 20 minutes
18 Arts & CraftsPottery with a Deep History
20 FeatureCultural identities: Reflexions on Saxon Identity in Romania’s Multi-cultural Society
October-December 2009
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w w w . r e v i s t a - s a t u l . r o
Manager: Ana A. Negru
Contributors: Brodie Robertson (UK),
Ilaria Parogni (Italy), Eleina Margaux Novak (USA),
Susanne Persson (Sweden), Norbert Schwarzenbrunner
(Austria)
Photos: Ana A. Negru, Brodie Roberston,
Eleina Margaux NovakProject Coordinator:
Alexandra Ichim
DTP & graphic design: Mircea Samoila & Adrian Andrei
Cover:
Director Projects Abroad:Mircea Samoila
Promoting rural culture and tradition
Painting by Gheorghe Ciobanu
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www.projects-abroad.org
Most Romanian villages are stuck in past times. They seem to be moving nowhere,
separated from the rest of the world, lost in their own tranquillity. You may think
this is a bad thing: I mean, in the Western world, who could imagine living in a
place with limited internet connection or barely any mobile phone reception, after spending
most of our lives in a world dominated by new technologies and wireless communication?
Some Romanian villagers are deprived of so many things, they must be so unhappy. Their
life-long goal must be to escape the ghost-towns they live in to find a job in one of the many
business buildings located in crowded and buzzing cities. So do villages serve any purpose?
Most of us have childhood memories of long hazy summer days playing outside with
our friends, lying in freshly cut grass gazing up at the clouds above wandering what animal
they resemble most. Perhaps you spent afternoons down by a riverside, organizing pebble-
throwing competitions or trying to catch the fish you could see through the cold, crystal-
clear water. I remember losing track of time speaking to my best friend in a field of daisies
as we were gathering flowers for our neighbour or building a tree house in some woods close
to our house. And who hasn’t closed their eyes, took a deep breath of fresh air and enjoyed
the rare silence, as a soft breeze gently caressed our rosy cheeks and the sun set behind a
rolling green hill?
Nestled in the Transylvanian landscapes lies numerous small villages in which people can
live the experiences recited previously on a daily-basis. Here, the roads are not cemented,
there are very few cars, geese and hens all roam freely around the streets and the gentle chim-
ing of the bells around the cows’ necks and the clip-clop of horses over a nearby-by bridge
is all the noise you can hear. In these villages, only a few hundred people reside in the cen-
turies-old houses, but this in no way reflects a flaw in the country lifestyle: it just means that
the sense of community and unity is enhanced even more. People here respect and appreciate
one another. They take time to speak to one another, laugh or cry with one another, pushing
whatever else they had planned for the afternoon aside. In this stress-free environment neigh-
bours come round to see how you are doing, if you are feeling better or if you have need of
anything or if you have been injured in some way, a kind neighbourly act that people don’t
see very often in busy cities.
In these well-preserved villages, traditions that vanished from town-people’s thoughts
years ago are still being kept alive today. Some women still weave on a traditional loom and
create amazing embroideries that can only be described as pieces of art, others centre their
talents on their amazing cooking abilities in order to provide their family with a good and
healthy traditional meal every night. Wood-carvers proudly talk about the many symbols
and meanings behind every carved door-frame while shepherds tend to their flocks in the
nearby fields to prevent any of them from becoming scared and lost.
During my entire stay in Romania, I have been told that the heart of a country can be
found in the village. Nothing describes a country more than its traditions, its people and its
landscapes. If you take away these villages, the centuries-old traditions and the people who
represent them, a piece of the country’s culture will be lost forever. All in all, these villagers
may not have the latest laptop, the fastest car or even the new fashionable pair of shoes but
they have something that many other countries lost years ago: pride and joy in the knowl-
edge that they are the ones who are keeping some precious aspects of past days alive. Don’t
you want to be a part of it too?
Preserving Traditional Romaniaby Brodie Robertson
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Leave Stress Behindby Susanne Persson
www.revista-satul.ro
If you are longing for tranquillity and want to experience a place
where time almost seems to stand still, a visit to a Romanian vil-
lage is truly recommended. The fascinating and colourful coun-
tryside is worth visiting for a variety of reasons. It offers the visitor
a meeting of traditional customs and rural life, a unique world wait-
ing to be discovered. The villages in Romania have every chance of
attracting those tourists in search of something authentic, people who
are curious about places that have not yet been globalized.
One such place, the village of Cata, particularly appealed to
me and will always have a special place in my heart Rural life in a
village, seemingly frozen in past times, is something completely
different from the way of living I am used to.
Our journey starts in Brasov, a city situated in the heart of Ro-
mania. As we leave the city behind, the busy traffic is soon replaced
with magnificent scenery of corn fields, shepherds, carts and
horses. On bumpy roads we make our way through a picturesque
landscape and finally end up in Cata, about two hours drive away
from Brasov. As we make our way along the streets, we are greeted
with curious glances. I assume the inhabitants are not that used to
having foreigners strolling around their village. However, we are
received with a warm and generous welcome by the people pass-
ing us by. Everybody nods politely and says hello to us, or "buna
ziua” in Romanian. I cannot help thinking that in Sweden, where I
come from, people would probably give you strange looks if you
started greeting everybody without knowing them.
Whilst walking around in the village we discover a world full
of traditions and cultural heritage. Furthermore, it is extremely easy
to get in touch with people. Although there cannot be particularly
many tourists coming to Cata, people seem to have a natural way of
bonding with foreigners. As soon as you start speaking to them they
will give you an interesting account of their lives. By chance, we
meet an old woman who openheartedly tells us about her life and her
children. She also tells us about her skill of making Romanian dolls
dressed in traditional clothing. She does not sell the dolls however,
but gives them away as presents to friends and family. Admiring the
dolls, I think what an important part of the Romanian cultural her-
itage they are and what a great loss it would be if the skill and knowl-
edge of making themvanished. Hopefully, traditional handicraft will
receive more appreciation if the number of tourists coming to the
area increases. If so, this may encourage her to continue making dolls
and passing on her skills to coming generations.
After a while, we say goodbye to the friendly woman and her
dolls and head for another street. As in lots of other Romanian vil-
Portraits of CaţaOne village, two experiencesPhotos: Brodie Robertson & Ana A. Negru
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lages, there are beautifully painted houses almost everywhere you
look. While continuing our walk we pass by elderly men and
women, peacefully resting on wooden benches. Every now and
then the silence is interrupted by a horse and cart passing us by.
Apart from this noise, it is quiet and restful. It seems to me that
stress is a phenomenon that does not exist here.
However, the daily life in the countryside should not be idealized.
In many ways it is tough, a day by day struggle for survival. Most
of the people who live in Cata are engaged in agriculture and ani-
mal keeping. There is only one factory in the village. Ten people are
employed there, five men and five women. Only about twenty peo-
ple commute to Brasov. The unemployment rate is high, especially
among the Rroma people, who often lead a harsh life. One part of
Cata is only inhabited by the Rroma and during our visit I saw the
poverty and poor living conditions that they endure. When ap-
proaching that area I have to admit that I was slightly worried since
I was aware that the Rromas are said to be marginalised by society.
However, we were soon surrounded by friendly and curious chil-
dren who all wanted to have their photo taken. For a couple of min-
utes our cameras clicked frequently. When we finally stopped
taking pictures, there were not only children curiously looking at us
but also adults. A woman started to talk to me and even though I did
not understand a single word I could tell that she was saying some-
thing friendly. It seemed like she appreciated that some foreigners
had come to visit their village.
A significant feature of Cata is that it is a multicultural vil-
lage; Romanians, Hungarians and Rromas live here, side by side.
Although it is said that the Rromas in many ways are marginalised
by society, the overall impression we got from the men and women
we met in Cata was that people are living a peaceful life and that
the idea of multiculturalism is working pretty well. In my opinion,
this brings hope for the future.
As we leave the Rroma area and Cata, some of the children
follow us through the village. A girl gives me a friendly smile and
I smile back at her. We come from different worlds, do not speak
the same language and our living conditions differ enormously. But
still, I felt a bond between us during that walk. My visit to Cata
will indeed be an everlasting memory.
After a peaceful two-hourdrive, through the thick and im-
pressive forest of Bogata, we set foot on the soil of Cata.
The weather was perfect for our visit: blue skies and pecu-
liarly warm temperatures. One could easily forget that it was actu-
ally the beginning of autumn; the only sign of this change being
the numerous pumpkins lined up close to a field of old sweet corn
stocks. We didn’t really know what to expect from this village as
we stepped out of the car, but we ended up being pleasantly sur-
prised. Why? You’ll soon find out.
Cata is part of a group of five villages located in the commune
of the same name. In this commune, four villages out of the five are
Saxon and the fifth is Romanian. Although bigger than many places
we have visited during my stay in Romania, Cata has managed to
maintain the same country charm we find in smaller Saxon villages
across the country. The streets were lined with pastel coloured
houses; tractors sped by us on their way to the fields and horses
pulling heavy-loaded carts trotted gracefully across a nearby
bridge. Needless to say, we definitely found ourselves in a typical
Transylvanian village. Everyone out for a stroll made a point of
saying “Hello” to us, something unusual to me as not many people
speak to strangers in the street back home in France. I enjoyed the
friendly spirit that seemed to overflow from this village as we were
looking for people to interview.
One of them was a Hungarian woman, Mrs Margareta
Dibernardo, 56 years old, who kindly told us about the village in
general and the kind of life that they live in this secluded part of Ro-
mania. She told us about a gathering that takes place every year on
the 24th of January. Saxons, Romanians and Hungarians all turn
up dressed in their traditional outfits and eat together. Then, when
the clock strikes midnight, they all join together and dance in front
THE VILLAGE - issue no. 3, October-December 2009 5
Stepping on
Unfamiliar Groundby Brodie Robertson
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of the town hall. This very open and welcoming woman also
showed us some doll’s outfits that she is well-known for making
herself. Mrs Dibernardo presented to us some examples of the Hun-
garian traditional costume worn by a few of her children’s dolls,
and then let us see a Romanian bride’s gown that she hand-stitched.
We were informed that there are around forty Hungarian fam-
ilies here and that the number of gypsies living in the village is
much higher than the number of Romanians. She told us that the
common problem of the inhabitants of Cata is the lack of job open-
ings in the area. This is a problem that we have seen not only in Cata,
but also in many other villages of its kind. Areas in Transylvania are
sadly lacking in job opportunities and many of the younger genera-
tion are leaving their families behind to find jobs in nearby Italy, with
the hope to one day return to the quaint village where they grew up.
The factory close to the entrance of Cata only employs five men and
five women, which, in turn, forces around twenty men from the area
to go to Brasov everyday in order to work. It may not seem like many
people to us, but for the villagers it is. The idea that most men in Cata
have to go so far away to earn a decent living is quite appalling to
them. That is why the other main source of income in the area is the
ever-present agriculture. People here have turned to the breeding of
animals, for a number of different reasons, in order to gain a stable
and good enough salary.
As we continued our tour of Cata, we wandered into the part
of the village in which the gypsies live. At first we thought it would
be wise to turn back but we thankfully didn’t. We had heard so
many things about gypsy villages, how the people living there may
be aggressive towards us or want to steal items from us. Well, all I
could see was a group of lively and friendly children gathering
around us, asking us to take their picture. It was amusing to watch
them gasp as they saw their funny faces on our supervisor’s cam-
era screen! Then after about five or ten minutes of picture-taking,
we were surrounded by other villagers who simply wanted to talk
to us. Some of them kindly asked us who we were and what we
were doing here, so I did my best to explain in my very poor Ro-
manian. I think I got the message across: their faces lit up with de-
light as they found out we worked for a magazine, as perhaps not
many journalists come to visit them. Other members of the village
showed us their horses and poneys and talked to us about their liv-
ing conditions in general. One woman informed us that they almost
starved a few months ago as they had to save enough money to pay
for their horse. As I watched these people with great admiration,
laughing and playing around together, I wandered how it is that
they are pushed aside by society, even in the modern times we live
in. They are known in the village for being peaceful gypsies, they
are friendly and, as we saw some of them building a drain pipe
from a house, obviously trying their best to earn a living. And yet,
they are still cast aside to live in such poor conditions. These peo-
ple told us that they have no perspective for their future. They get
the opportunity to do odd jobs here and there, helping others in
moving houses or cultivating fields, but they are left wondering
what will happen in two or three weeks time. Will they be able to
eat or will they have to tighten their belts a little more? With the
winter season fast approaching, it is hard to imagine how they will
be able to cope. But I suppose they will find a way; they have had
to deal with this lifestyle year in, year out.
To me, gypsies were people who lived on the road in cute lit-
tle painted caravans, playing music and dancing all night long.
They would travel the world, see amazing places and all the while
they would be spending time with their families. To me, it was a
perfect way to live. A famous French singer even wrote a song
about their nomad life and how great it would be to grow up in.
Well, I learned on this day that the gypsies I had standing in front
of me are humans, like you and me, who are just trying to stay
alive. Nothing more than that.
As we walked back to the car, surrounded by a group of chil-
dren asking us various questions we didn’t quite understand, then
watched as they all waved goodbye, we felt overwhelmed and con-
fused. We remained in silence, each of us thinking of what we had
just experienced. All of the things we had been told about the gypsy
people dissolved, as what we had just witnessed became our new
and better vision of these people. Even our supervisor, who is Ro-
manian, never expected them to be so friendly and open. This goes
-to show that we shouldn’t base our knowledge of people on a pre-
conceived and biased opinion before actually facing them ourselves,
even if the society we are surrounded by tells us to. We should learn
and discover more on our own, ask people questions and not settle
for something that, to many people, is considered as “right”. That
afternoon, I felt as if I had learned something, not only about the
gypsy people, but also about the way we live our own lives.
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THE VILLAGE - issue no. 3, October-December 2009 7
The people of Romania definitely know how to enjoy food. That is
one thing I have noticed during my stay in the country. The Ro-
manian cuisine has been influenced by different countries and cul-
tures, such as Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Serbia, Austria and
Greece. Beef, lamb and chicken are common ingredients in Ro-
manian cooking but the preferred meat is pork. Romania is also
a country of festivals. Throughout the year, festivals that attract
both locals and tourists take place in various areas of Romania.
An excellent combination of these two pleasures - the joy of food
and the joy of celebrating - is the Plescoi Sausage Festival. Ple-
scoi sausages are world famous and named after the Plescoi vil-
lage situated in the county of Buzau. They are traditionally made
in and around this village and their main ingredients are mutton,
chili peppers, garlic and thyme. The festival is arranged every
year in the beginning of October. This year the event was held on
the first weekend of October and I was lucky enough to get the
opportunity to attend it.
As we leave Brasov at nine o’clock in the morning, we are
greeted with magnificent scenery. It is the beginning of autumn and
the leaves are just about to change colours. On winding roads we
find our way to Berca Village - the place where the festival is held
- passing through villages and valleys surrounded by billowing
hills. After a three hour ride we finally arrive at the guesthouse Casa
Matei where it all takes place. Unfortunately, the rain is pouring
down and it is a bit chilly, which does not seem to stop the visitors
from coming to the festival. The event appears to attract people of
all ages. Children and elderly people gather together to enjoy a culi-
nary experience, listen to Romanian folk music or simply just to
stroll. In the market stalls in front of the guesthouse I have the op-
portunity to get samples from a variety of sausages, bread and wine.
The local producers are displaying their goods and generously of-
fering pieces of their products. I do not have to wait very long be-
fore I get the chance to try a slice of a famous traditional product
from Buzau area. It is called ´Babic´, a smoked salami made of
pork, beef, red chili peppers, tomato sauce prepared after the old
recipe of the Serb gardeners from Buzau. It has an oval shape and
when produced it is pressed with the help of a bottle. As I expected,
the Babic sausage is spicy and tasty. As it is melting in my mouth
I keep on wishing that I could find these amazing products in the
Swedish town where I live.
Suddenly people gather around one of the tents in the mar-
ketplace and I am told that there is a sausage-eating and a beer-
drinking competition about to start. There is a sense of expectancy
among the waiting crowd. Then, the cameras start flashing and I
realize that the competition has begun. Unfortunately, I am not able
to get a glimpse of the competitors since there are too many peo-
ple standing in front of me. Some thrilling minutes pass by before
the lucky winner of the competition is chosen and awarded with a
medal and some cans of beer for his achievements.
I continue my walk and in one of the stalls I find Constantin
Moldoveanu who represents a local bread producer. For him, the
Plescoi festival is a way of making his company’s products known
and hopefully getting some new customers. I am tempted by the
smell of the freshly baked bread and decide to buy some. I pick up
two buns but, to my surprise, Constantin refuses to accept my
money. At first I feel uncomfortable and a bit embarrassed. But
then I realize that this is another example of the great friendliness
and generosity of the Romanian people and I come to the conclu-
sion that he indeed wants me to have that bread loaf for free.
It is not only the local producers that have the opportunity to
promote themselves, but also the different guesthouses from the re-
gion. Within the Casa Matei guesthouse tables are covered with
specialties such as sausages, steaks, meat rolls, the traditional pas-
trami (salt and smoked mutton), shepherd’s pie and many other tra-
ditional dishes prepared with sausages. I get to try some of them
and, indeed, it is a wonderful culinary experience. After a while, the
main chef himself makes his appearance and teaches the curious
audience how to prepare two different types of sausage salads,
which all seriously stirred my appetite.
After another stroll among the stalls, it is time to head back to
Brasov. It has been a day full of impressions and an opportunity
for me as a foreigner to get an insight to rural Romania, its food,
traditions and customs. The sweet memories of the mouth-melting
sausages of Plescoi will surely last for a long time.
The Pleşcoi
Sausage Festival:
A Real Taste of Rural Romania
by Susanne Persson
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8 www.revista-satul.ro
“We should
not forget one thing:
traditional culture
lives in motion...”interview with Dr. Speranţa Rădulescu
by Ilaria Parogni
- How did you develop an interest in Romanian traditionalpeasant music and the urban ‘lautareasca’ music?
It happened gradually. I finished university and found a job atthe Institute of Folklore from Bucharest. At that time – in the70’s - it was in fashion to study especially Romanian archaicpeasant music: the communist government was obsessed withthe idea that its intellectuals must produce irrefutable argumentsto prove the antiquity and continuity of the Romanian people onthis soil... Still, I changed focus pretty quickly towards the musicplayed by the ‘lautari’ (professional traditional musicians); firstthose in the villages (I even wrote a book about them and theirmusic back then, in 1984: The Traditional Music Band and theHarmonic Accompaniment in Traditional Dance Music) andthen those in the cities. The reason I became interested in the music played by ‘tarafuri’(rroma musical ensembles) was that I must have felt that pro-fessionalization was the major phenomenon affecting the oralmusic traditions in the XXth century.
- How did this happen?
The peasants started to increasingly entrust their festive musicto professional musicians who were of rroma ethnicity (Gyp-sies). They took it over and committed themselves to play it ondemand and be paid for it. At the beginning, ‘lautarii’ had toplay the music exactly as their beneficiaries wanted it; in otherwords, they were under control. In a short while though, the mu-sical competence of the peasant communities weakened, and sothe evolution of traditional music became more and more en-trusted to the rroma ‘lautari’. As their assignments were en-hancing, their prestige, autority and their right to have musicalinitiatives became more powerful. Nowadays, musicians oftenplay what they want, not what their audience wants. The massmedia had also a great influence, offering musical models thatare pretendedly superior, but actually questionable. Globaliza-tion has had its say too. As a consequence to all this, peasantsplay very little nowadays, often only because they are driven bythe ambition to be on the stages of festivals of folklore, not be-cause they feel the need to...
- How was urban ‘lautareasca’ music perceived at the be-ginning and how is it seen today?
The urban ‘lautareasca’ music – my second area of interest – isthe music of the great Wallachian cities (Wallachia is a histori-cal and geographical region of Romania, located north of theDanube and south of the Southern Carpathians – ed.n.). At firstit was created by the rroma professional musicians, not at the re-quest of their regular clients, but for themselves, for their ownparties. Everybody liked it though, including Romanians, whichis why it slowly became the music of the common, simple folk,an emblem of the marginalized people. This music is subtle anddifficult to understand, especially at its peak, towards the mid-dle of the XXth century. It is even today the trying stone for thosewho practice the trade of ‘lautari’. It is also one of the mostbeautiful and original type of oral music in Romania. I like itthat young people nowadays – especially the educated ones –listen to ‘lautareasca’ music, find themselves comfortable in it.It is a pity that it is played now in forms that have lost a lot ofthe refinement found in older days.
Dr. Speranta Radulescu is an ethnomusicology re-searcher at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant inBucharest, co-founder and manager of the ethno-musi-cologic project - Ethnophonie. She is considered to be anauthority in the field of Romanian traditional music, avery important part of Romanian cultural identity. Whenshe kindly agreed to meet us of Satul – The Village andanswer a few of our questions, we were positively sur-prised by her personality and passion for her job.
It took us a few seconds to understand that we werein front of someone with a well-defined goal in life:to make Romanian traditional music known and under-stood for what it really is.
The interview takes place in Dr. Radulescu’soffice at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant,in Bucharest. A small and energetic woman, whoturns out to be Dr. Radulescu, welcomes us withthe most open smile and introduces us to herworld.
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THE VILLAGE - issue no. 3, October-December 2009 9
-What can you tell us about the emancipation of the
rroma musicians?
A new foray into history I see... Until the middle of the XIXthcentury, the Rroma – including the rroma lautari – wereslaves: they belonged either to the ruling court to nobles ormonasteries. The slaves from the ruling court were in an ad-vantageous position: in exchange for a tax, they were free topractise their trade to the benefit of anybody willing to payfor it. The peasant rromas that belonged to nobles andmonasteries though were tied to the land. In the halls of theirmasters, they played the musics that were in fashion at thetime, that is, successively: Turkish, Greek, ‘German’ music...The nobles however used to rent them out to pub, where the‘lautari’ became accustomed to the music of the commonpeasants. For ‘lautari’, the abolition of slavery meant ob-taining all the freedoms that they had longed for. This free-dom also created problems for them though: they now hadto sustain themselves, to find clients. That’s how they startedoffering their services to peasants, learned their music, re-placed the village fiddler or bagpipe player at the Sunday orwedding dances. Then they organized themselves and formedmuscial bands – ‘tarafuri’.
- Returning to our own times, what do you think about
the traditional music promoted by the media?
The music promoted by the media is purported to be the su-perior form of peasant music. In reality however, it is a musicstandardized according to the model of the soviet ensemblesand its purpose is the re-invetion of the peasant and its cul-ture according to the national-communist ideology. Themedia have remained attached to this model even after thefall of the communist regime, without realizing that they arebecoming more and more untruthful and old fashioned.Noticing this is easy when we watch on TV a ‘taraf’ dressedall in white, doctor-like, lead by a conductor that has neverexisted in peasant culture, accompanying a young ladydressed head to toe in a costumes that doesn’t match hermake-up or her high heels; everything in a bucolic back-ground featuring an imaginary village, of an indiscript placeand time, singing a music from an indiscript place and time.The trouble is that the peasant music nowadays is strongly in-fluenced by this music the media promote; and this meansit’s becoming standardized, suffering thus a dillution of itsidentity.
- What could those who promote culture do about this?
As I’m already horrified enough by what those who promote“culture” intend to do, I would be very happy to know thatthey do absolutely nothing for a couple of decades. This sothat people have time to de-tox and to reabilitate their artis-tic tastes. Then they could try a more intelligent revitalisationthan that attempted nowadays by some. They could go backto the documented sources of the true rural culture.
As for ourselves, here at the Peasants’ Museum – CostinMoisil, Florin Iordan and myself – we are doing something:putting together an anthology of Romanian traditional mu-sics, through our collection of recordings - Ethnophonie.Today, Ethnophonie maintains its role as a genuine alterna-tive to the official folkloric music, but has added a new func-tion: that of an alternative to globalizing musics (fusion,world music), which have been gaining ground all over theworld, including Romania. Our belief is that, in a quicklyglobalizing world, the seekers of the new must not stifle thevoices of those who, for various reasons, wish to preservetheir regional, ethnic, professional identities and displaythem emblematically, as in music.The collection could later (after de-tox) serve those who areinterested in the cultural past of their people.
-
Here are some CDs, part of this wonderful collection of
Romanian traditional music. You can search for more de-
tails about Ethnophonie project on the following web-site:
www.ethnophonie.ro
What is your message for our readers?
We should not forget one thing: the traditional culture livesin motion, and at one point, the motion transforms it andchanges its fundamental features. We have to acknowledgeand accept it, if we want to preserve at least a small part ofRomanian patrimony.
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10 www.revista-satul.ro
The motto of this special festival of the Saschiz
village is: ‘Just like the trees are tied to theirroots, the perfume to the flowers and the buds to
spring, we also wish that all the children of this villageremain tied to its heart – and that this tie endures for-ever’. Having reached it’s sixth edition, ‘The Childrenof the Village’ was organized this year in August by the
Townhall and the Local Council together with Fundatia
Adept. The festival also celebrated 700 years of docu-
mentary attestation of the village.
Through singing, dancing, drama, arts exhibitions and
all-round fun, the festival seeks to celebrate the conti-
nuity of rural traditions and promote cultural under-
standing between the different ethnicities that live
together in Saschiz.
“The Children
of the Village”An annual festival in
Saschiz
photos by Jackson Matthews & Tali Farine
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12 www.revista-satul.ro
When asked if I wanted to attend a traditional festival in the
rural village of Halchiu, I became very enthusiastic; I had
never really seen Romanian dancing, singing or even the
costumes worn by people on special occasions before. I was going to
get my first taste of a traditional event during my stay in Romania, so
how could I refuse?
This annual festival has been a part of the village’s lifestyle
since 1998. Its aim is not to draw tourists from around the world but
it is simply a way to celebrate ethnic differences and the unity of
Halchiu and surrounding villages. Romanians, Saxons and Gyp-
sies stood together wearing their traditional costumes in front of
the town hall, all waiting to parade proudly through the streets of
the village to reach the main stage, where the afternoon’s event was
going to take place. Children and older teenagers smiled happily for
the camera while the band warmed up for the march. I couldn’t
help but be surprised as I watched eighteen or nineteen year-old
teenagers wearing their traditional costumes without feeling any
shame or embarassment whatsoever. This is such a culture shock
for me as, back home in France, the same aged teenagers would
never dream of wearing the traditional Breton costumes, far less
parade around in them in front of hundreds of people and dance on
a stage! Needless to say I was impressed that they felt so strongly
about their culture and traditions.
As the participants started to march towards the stage led by a
brass band, a wide display of costumes passed us by, ranging from
little simple white dresses with red embroidery to brightly coloured
tassels and hats with peacock feathers on them. It was interesting to
see so many different costumes but to be honest, I think we only saw
the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Romanian folk costumes!
After a while, we finally reached the park where the event was
going to take place. We passed through thick clouds of smoke com-
ing from the numerous barbeques and walked by many stalls over-
flowing with toys before arriving at the wide basketball court where
the main dancing stage had been set up. As people gathered around
the stage, the Mayor of Brasov followed by the Mayor of Halchiu
said a few words to mark the start of the festival. Then the fun re-
ally began. First a class of children from the village of Halchiu sang
a few Romanian songs, with some aid from their teacher of course.
Each child tried to get their moment in the spotlight by singing right
into the microphone; it was adorable to watch how their faces shone
with delight as they heard themselves sing through their feedback.
After that show, a few younger classes danced and presented
a play before it came the turn of a group of young Rromas to show
off their talent. Those children blew us all away with their passion
for dancing. They obviously loved their time on that stage and
didn’t seem to notice that people were watching them; they just
stood up and danced. It was truly amazing to watch.
The afternoon continued with various dance groups showing
the public a particular dance. Some dances were especially for cou-
ples, some others for large groups of people, but, in a few of them,
men took center stage, hitting their legs and boots and jumping into
the air as a sign of their virility. As I watched the dancers with great
admiration, I noticed that traditional Romanian dancing involves a lot
of shouting. There is a verbal exchange between men and women
throughout the duration of the song. I maybe didn’t understand every-
thing they were saying but it felt as though there was a different story
to each dance. These calls are known as “Strigaturi” and represent a
unique Romanian phenomenon. These calls aren’t just shouted at any
given time, they have to fit in with the tempo and melody of the song
the participants are dancing to. So there is a lot more organization to
these calls than what first meets the eye. They certainly add to the at-
mosphere and give the dance a feeling of joy and fun.
I watched with great enjoyment a number of people form a
circle in the middle of the basketball court to dance together, whilst
a woman sang traditional songs on the stage. The fun and relaxed
atmosphere in which this
scene took place reminded
me of the Kermesses we
used to have in our local
village. During such
events, children would put
all of their effort into their
end of year performance to
proudly show their parents
what they had achieved,
and people would sit and
talk to one another long
into the evening. Everyone
seemed to be having so
much fun together: drink-
ing, laughing, dancing and
singing (sometimes out of
tune) to the songs they rec-
ognized. In this little vil-
lage of Halchiu, we felt as
if we were welcome into a
big family event where the
dancing wasn’t displayed
for competitive reasons,
but it was purely to amuse
the public and remember
important traditions. Even
though we weren’t from
this area - or Romania it-
self for that matter - we felt
as if we were part of this
culture, thanks to the peo-
ple promoting it. I must
say it was good to see how
Romanians, Saxons and
Rromas all seemed to mix
together on that Sunday af-
ternoon, in a society that
holds many judgments and
dislikes. Who knows,
maybe traditional dancing
is the key to a better, more
united Romania!
United through Dance- at the Halchiu village traditional festival -
by Brodie Robertson
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THE VILLAGE - issue no. 3, October-December 2009 13
The unsuspecting viewer might be inclined to think the
prize giving ceremony had been the highlight of the
“Golden Stag Festival 2009”(September) – but the real
finale went down with a Romanian folklore show, “hora satului”.
The last evening of the event was filled with traditional music
and dancing, several live bands and dozens of singers, and it
proved quite difficult to keep track of all the action, as most of
the time just so much was happening at once. On stage and off,
that is, as the bandstand proved to be far too small for all the
dancers, so they simply moved to the front of the boards and
even involved some more or less willing audience members in
the show. Needless to say the traditionally clothed dancers on
stage gave it their all, skipping, hopping, and bopping to a fare-
thee-well, beating their boots until they sparkled and giving the
good people from “River Dance” a run for their money. Never
have men in tights looked this good since the ’93 Mel Brooks
film. The spectacle was accentuated by numerous singers shar-
ing the stage and the bands playing at a general velocity that
would make Steve Vai blush with shame on his best day. As an
added bonus, no one even attempted a Dracula joke, unless said
Mr. Vai the day before, saying that he brought his band with him
but hasn’t seen nor heard of them since their trip to Bran castle.
Naturally, a rather long and awkward silence ensued, something
that didn’t happen for a single moment on Monday night, ex-
cept maybe when a flute player miraculously conjured up a bag-
pipe seemingly out of nowhere and started playing, but that
silence didn’t last long and was quickly replaced by a crowd
going wild.
And speaking of wild, unsurprisingly the name of the festival is
derived from an actual stag, well, the “Legend of the Golden
Stag”, to be exact. The myth tells the story of two siblings, a boy
and a girl, who were abandoned in the woods at their evil step-
mother’s behest. The boy then drinks from a pool of rainwater
gathered in the tracks of a stag and is therefore turned into one.
The rest of the tale involves a noble prince, an old wise woman
cunningly luring the stag’s sister off her tree by pretending not
to know how to boil water, a wedding, the wrath of an old lover,
a failed plot for revenge and last but not least a prince and a
princess – and a golden stag – living happily ever after.
Although it may not have been around for as long as the
legend has, the festival does have quite a history itself. The first
edition was held in 1968 and since its beginnings many interna-
tional artists have come to perform in Brasov, including the likes
of James Brown and Ray Charles. In addition to these guest per-
formances, contests have been held with competitors from all
over the world; in 2005 the first place winner came from as far
as Vanuatu, a small island nation on the other side of the planet.
With all the international pizzazz going on, the unsuspecting
viewer might think that a traditional evening offers the tran-
quility of a later summer evening alongside some placid enter-
tainment easily overshadowed by the stars and starlets, but once
more reality tells a different story. “Hora satului” was the undis-
putable highlight of this year’s “Golden Stag”, ending the festi-
val not with a whisper, but a nice bang indeed.
by Norbert Schwarzenbrunner
The ‘Golden Stag’ International Festival
Big Bang for the Buck
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14 www.revista-satul.ro
Harvest season came early this year. A tractor breaks up the soil, the po-
tatoes are then picked by hand, packed into bags and loaded upon the
horse carts to be sold to the mini markets or directly at the front doors.
In Lisa, some thirty kilometers southwest of Făgăraş, pretty much
everyone is out on the fields, except for the priest. He’s surveying the
renovations in the bigger one of the two churches in the village. For
two years a single man has repainted the interior, and with the outside
already restored, it shouldn’t be too long before sermons can be held
again. The priest estimates the size of his congregation to be around
200 families. Keeping in mind he isn’t counting the large Rroma com-
munity, it’s still a considerable drop from the census held in 2002, when
Lisa had a population of 1,701. The reason is a common phenomenon
in rural Romania: young people between twenty and forty leave their
home to work abroad, mostly in Italy. Ioan Sucaciu, retired topographer
and part-time farmer, says his daughter and her husband live in Rome
with their children and that they visited Lisa for one month per year.
It’s a peculiar blend between migration and commuting.
The reason for leaving is economical, yet even though Ioan’s
daughter has built a life in Italy and her children go to school there,
the final aim is still to come back to Romania. And it’s not an isolated
case: Depending on the source, between 1 1/2 and 3 million Roma-
nians are currently working abroad, the lower number being the offi-
cial one. The World Bank estimates the remittances at 9 billion dollars
for 2008, which is more than half of what foreign investors put in the
countries’ economy. A huge advantage of these remittances is that
they go directly to the people, without any agents demanding their
cuts in the middle, drastically increasing the living standard. When
asked what change she would like to see the most in the village, Ioan’s
wife answers without hesitation: connection to Romania’s sanitation
and gas grid, but that’s of course something that only the
government can provide. Another thing Ioan would like to see from
the government is more support for small time farmers like him and
most others in the village. He says there were almost no subsidies for
the crops they are growing and that they used to have cows but now
they weren’t allowed to sell the milk anymore.
With an incredible view of the Făgăraş Mountains, Lisa and its
surroundings like La Valtori, a museum hosting a 150-year-old, water
powered installation for wool blankets, the Sâmbăta de Sus
Monastery and the fortresses in Breaza and Făgăraş are truly worth
a visit.
Lisa is well worth seeing especially in winter, when the locals in-
dulge in their holiday custom, Ceata de Feciori, a custom that has
even made it onto YouTube. For this tradition, young men gather in
a circle spanning a blanket between them and they then throw one of
their fellow village lads up in the air until his girlfriend comes to his
rescue.
Driving away from Lisa towards Făgăraş, the scenery once
more is dominated by the mountain range looming over the fields.
Smoke is rising from the plains; the farmers are burning the potato
plants. The ashes are used as fertilizer and the farmers are already
preparing for next years harvest.
A Dip into
Traditional
Crafts
Visiting the village of Lisa
by Norbert Schwarzenbrunner &Brodie Robertson
Photos by Brodie Robertson
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THE VILLAGE - issue no. 3, October-December 2009 15
After a relaxing drive through Brasov’s beautiful country-
side - not to mention getting lost a few times - we arrived
at the peaceful village of Lisa. The village itself looked like
the desolate places one can see in Wild West films. Shutters on the
windows were closed tight, the streets were empty and not a car or
cart was to be seen on the roads as many of the inhabitants were out
on the fields gathering their potatoes. The only few remaining peo-
ple who were actually on the streets glared at us going by in a shiny
silver Polo, amazed by the car’s brilliance (or so the other journal-
ism volunteer who drove us there wanted to believe!) .
Following a drive up a tight country lane, we finally walked
up to the museum we had been searching for. La Valtori, located
just outside the quaint village of Lisa, is a well-known family busi-
ness that makes amazing woolen carpets in a traditional fashion.
Indeed, this museum prides itself in only using the power of the
river’s current that passes by their house to fluff and clean any
woolen rug. Angelica Lungociu kindly received us and gave us the
tour of what is the Greavu family business. Indeed, it was her great-
great-grand-father who set up this processing unit 150 years ago
and she is now the fifth generation out of seven to continue mak-
ing these traditionally crafted carpets.
She first showed us the whirlpool or “valtoare” in Romanian,
thus the name of this outdoor museum. This whirlpool is a wooden
tub plunged in the water in which the river’s current is trapped and
turns quite fast before finding its way out again, allowing whatever
the tub contains to soak and spin. There is a secret to making these
wooden sumps as no sand found in the stream can penetrate and
damage the woven woolen rug it contains. The making of these
basins is a family secret that has been handed down from genera-
tion to generation and is therefore unique to this outdoor museum
in Lisa. Many locals use this system regularly to clean their rugs as
it is more ecological than the use of detergent. Back in the 90s, the
whirlpool was located in the nearby forest because the debit of the
water there was stronger. So people used to go on picnics nearby
and bring their carpets along to clean them as they were eating and
having fun. There is no doubt that this whirlpool is the main at-
traction in this little rural village.
Once the rug is clean, it is taken out of the whirlpool and dried
for one or two days, depending on the weather. After this step, the
dry carpet is attached to “the real”, which is a long wooden tube
that spins. Using the power of the stream below the wooden floor-
ing, the real spins the rug and, as it hits the floor, it is pressed
against a long metallic comb. In doing so, the wool thickens and
woolen strands become stronger and more apparent. The woolen
rug is then dipped into the whirlpool to fix the plucked-out hair, a
process that takes around six hours, and is dried in the sauna room
for five hours to give the rug time to thicken and strengthen. To
complete the process, the carpet has one final dip into the tub to do
as it has to be washed and the hairs have to be arranged before dry-
ing entirely for two days. The creation of these traditional carpets is a long process, tak-
ing up around two weeks to make a single rug. As the weather getspretty bad during the wintertime, the Greavu family spends theirtime weaving, therefore creating the rugs, and keeps this wholefluffing process to the summertime when the river is at its best andof course, when there are more tourists around to see them doingit. La Valtori rug processing workshop is promoted by the Ethnog-raphy museum of Brasov and it receives funds from the BrasovCounty Council to continue producing these marvelous rugs in atraditional and non-polluting way. Before it received these helpfulfunds, this little gem in the middle of the Lisa countryside was onlyknown locally. Indeed, women used to bring their woven creationsto be fluffed up by the whirlpool and strengthened by the real andsauna room. Now that they are helped to preserve this craft, thefamily has the will and the interest to keep making the carpets andby doing so they are helping the local tourism, as their rugs are be-coming known internationally. Little by little people are recogniz-ing their work and it is becoming more popular. “It is our business”,Angelica Lungociu said,”We live off of this alone.”
As the owner shows us around the museum’s grounds to seethe objects used to create such beautiful rugs, one cannot help butnotice the peaceful surroundings that these people work in day byday. Not a sound was to be heard but the slow trickling of thestream we had to walk over and the playful bark of their few dogs.Who could choose a better backdrop for such an intricate crafts-manship? This museum is fast becoming a place not to miss whenvisiting villages in Transylvania as it strives to protect local tradi-tions and crafts by using only the natural resources given to them.La Valtori is an incredible outdoor museum that allows us to dis-cover more about the traditional Romanian way of life, also throughthe friendliness of the Greavu family who are thrilled to show us themaking of what they have believed in for the last five generations.
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16 www.revista-satul.ro
Nestled in the Transylvanian mountains at approximately an
hour and a half drive away from Brasov, Fundata is known
as the highest village in Romania. Indeed, it towers over
1400 km above the ground and is therefore a perfect place to begin
various hiking expeditions. However, this is not the reason that
brought me, a volunteer, “the Village” manager and her husband
to this beautiful and desolate place. We had actually come to see an
annual traditional ritual called Sumedru’s fire. However, we ended
up experiencing one of the most memorable days of my trip that
will never leave me.
Before coming to this village I was told that we would be hik-
ing a lot throughout our visit as the village doesn’t have a “normal”
layout. As I found out, the village is scattered over many various
hills. To explain this clearer, the town hall found in the center was
located four or five kilometers from the local primary school, after
numerous bends and climbs. So as we parked the car, we set off on
foot through the hills in order to find the local church, known to be
on the Unesco’s World heritage list, as the priest would probably
give us some much needed information about the village and the
festival that was to take place that evening.
Sumedru’s fire is an annual event that takes place every 26th of
October, which celebrates the end of autumn and the beginning of win-
ter. The legend comes from a Romanian god called Sumedru, a usual
villager who, during the ceremony, becomes a fir tree that is then
burned during the night. Villagers gather wood and create a huge bon-
fire that symbolizes the purification and regeneration of the seasons. In
some rural areas, local teenagers jump through the fire to show off
their virility. Children dance around the fire as it burns and the women
of the village distribute fruit and home-made treats to the guests. At the
end of the night, each family takes home a piece of the last embers of
the bonfire and throws it in their garden in order to fertilize the land and
bring good luck to the home and all who live in it.
The landscape around us during our walk through the village
was truly breathtaking. We had been informed that the village of
Fundata (and its surroundings) is one of the most beautiful areas in
Romania, with its stunning scenery and pure cleansing air which is
known its therapeutic abilities. Many guest houses are set up
around the main street in order to attract tourists wishing to spend
a tranquil vacation among the Bucegi and Piatra Craiului mountain
ranges. In the distance, the magnificent snow-covered mountains
became a perfect backdrop for all of our scenery photographs.
We passed random cows and horses gently grazing on grass in
fields. The bells around the cows’ necks chimed each time the an-
imals moved, and this pleasant sound was the only noise that could
be heard in this vast countryside. The area is also well-known for
its traditional cooking, many dishes consisting of locally bred live-
stock including sheep, goats and cows. The villagers use their an-
Disturbing the Peace
How to capture
the real spirit of Fundata
a Heavenly Romanian Village,
in less than 20 minutes
Photos and text: Brodie Robertson
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THE VILLAGE - issue no. 3, October-December 2009 17
imal’s milk to make a traditional dish called “bulz” (which is in
fact polenta and cheese).
Having spent some time discovering the up-lifting environ-
ment, and having a fore-knowledge of the customs and traditions,
we felt the need to uncover more about the local people themselves
in the heart of this rural village. After laughing at Adrian (Ana’s
husband) who was seen running away from a fast-approaching
horse he wanted to photograph in a field, we noticed an older man
sitting outside his house at the foot of a steep hill. As journalists do,
we decided to investigate.
After descending a slope covered in crunchy green grass, we
approached the mysterious man and asked to interview him. He
kindly invited us into his garden where we were soon joined by an
elderly woman. She seemed delighted to speak to us and quickly in-
vited us into her home. As we entered the house, Ana and I looked
at each as we were obviously thinking the same thing: We were
very fortunate to have found such a talented woman! We had
walked into a room covered in multiple hand-embroidered cush-
ions and rugs, as well as hand-painted flowers on the roof. It was a
wonderful insight into what this woman is passionate about and we
felt thrilled to have found her. Sadly we had to leave this house and
this wonderful woman due to a miss-understanding with her neigh-
bours, who were clearly very anxious about her safety as she had
strangers in her home. This situation led us to speaking with a local
policeman and he informed us that his community is a very friendly
but protective village. They all look out for each other here so they be-
came very worried when the three of us walked into an elderly
woman’s house, not knowing who we were or what we wanted to do.
We were still talking and laughing about this unusual experi-
ence for days afterwards. Even although we barely spent twenty
minutes inside the woman’s house, we had the wonderful opportu-
nity to catch a glimpse of the heart of Fundata. We discovered how
the inside of a traditional house should look like, we saw the strong
sense of community that reigns between villagers but most of all we
now understand what Fundata is… I strongly believe this is a clear
demonstration of the strong bond a community can have in these
Transylvanian villages. Although we explained to them who we
were and what we are doing, these people wouldn’t trust strangers
who seemed to be threatening the tranquil peace of Fundata. I
maybe didn’t understand what was happening in full detail, but one
does not need to speak the language to see that the people living in
this beautiful mountain landscape are sensitive neighbours who are
simply trying to protect the elders of the village as best as they can.
We did not see the traditional Sumedru’s fire as we didn’t want to
disturb the peace any longer; however the memory of this village
in particular will warm my heart for years to come.
reclama Casa Muntelui
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18 www.revista-satul.ro
Potterywith a Deep HistoryText and photos: Eleina Margaux Novak
Traditions in Romania epitomize the Romanian way of life; withsimplicity at its core. In the villages that have survived inva-sions, dictatorships, and so far, democracy, these traditions havestuck with the inhabitants as a preservation of their own uniqueculture regardless of what changes the nation on a whole hasundergone. Because of this, the traditions that are still pre-served today are invaluable to those who have been taught toappreciate and purport them.
One such long established craft is the art of pottery. The re-
gion of Transylvania, specifically, is most famous for its
pottery, but all parts of Romania still participate in making
and painting pottery. Since this craft has recently become valued by
tourists, families continue this trade as a way to earn money, though
most now use shortcuts designed to make the task easier; however,
these are not as wonderful or historically accurate.
I had heard from several sources that I would not be able to
find a family near Bran that kept the traditional way of pottery mak-
ing that had been passed down generation to generation. Discour-
aged, I confess I also gave up on the idea. But when I went to the
town of Bran on a tourist outing, I saw in a field, away from the
business of everything else, several tables. Intrigued as to what was
set up on these tables, and relieved to escape from the crowded area
filled with Dracula masks and mugs, I walked over to investigate.
I found that the table contained colorful dishes—mostly various
shades of green—that were stacked with rows upon rows of
uniquely painted, and incredibly beautiful, pottery. Drawn to the
collection originally out of curiosity, I asked the woman about the
pottery she sold. What she replied made my head reel! She began
to tell me that her family had learned the art from generations and
generations ago, and that they made it now in the same way they
did centuries ago.
Another day, armed with pen, paper, and a camera I returned
to see if she was still there. Thankfully she was. I approached nerv-
ously; I knew she had spoken English before, but I was unsure as
to how much, and my Romanian was severely inefficient to conduct
an interview in. She was obviously on her break, but I timidly asked
anyway if I could interview her and told her I had been there a few
weeks before. Heart thudding as any new journalist going on their
first mission alone, I courageously waited for her reply. And I was
just as amazed as before. She said that she remembered me and I
could interview her! Thankfully a kind tour guide from Bran’s cas-
tle, Matei, graciously served as a translator and explained processes
I would not before have been able to understand. With his assis-
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THE VILLAGE - issue no. 3, October-December 2009 19
tance, and her kind patience, I began to piece together the process
that produced such works of art.
Once I learned her name, Raluca Popa, I asked her how her family
was able to preserve this tradition when so many other families are
struggling to or have lost interest. She replied that while the knowl-
edge has been handed down from family member to family mem-
ber, it helps that this is something her parents work on together.
Her father, Constantin Popa, is the potter as he shapes and creates
the dishes, bowls, and vases. Her mother, Georgeta Popa, is the
artist who paints the lovely designs onto the clay. Raluca laughed
as she added that now she herself sells them.
Then Raluca began to describe the detailed process the clay
must undergo to turn out properly. It takes one month and a day to
bring a piece from start to completion. Her family owns nine
hectares near Bran. To reach clay fit for molding into pottery, they
must dig two meters (6.6 feet) into the ground. This clay is unique
to Transylvania because of its blue tint. Once the clay is harvested,
then it is put on a potter’s wheel. Constantin molds the pieces in
various ways for the different products. For a jug with a handle, he
must first create the bottom, then the top, and lastly the handle.
These pieces are assembled in the same order. It takes roughly ten
minutes to shape a bowl, which is then handed off to her mother,
Georgeta Popa, who spends twenty minutes painting it while it is
still wet. Then the pottery must dry for one month. After a month,
when the clay is sure to be dry all the way through, it is baked in a
kiln for eight hours. After this initial baking an optional glaze is
applied that makes the pieces safe for modern appliances such as
dishwashers and microwaves, and also adds a clear shiny glaze
once it is taken out of the oven after a second eight hour long bak-
ing. Her mother alternates every month between blue and green-
based works. Though all the colors used are composed of natural
ingredients and in the traditional way, the green, brown, and white
color scheme is traditionally from the South, while the cobalt blue
is Transylvanian.
The designs painted on the pottery are also traditional. The
three most common are the rooster, the tree of life, and the pea-
cock. The peacock tail is from the South and is called “Horezu.”
The lines and dots that serve as extra decoration are also patterns
that Georgeta Popa knows by heart as being the same used long
ago. The “brushes” used for painting are actually the tips of bull-
horns or sometimes wooden needles.
After the official interview had finished I requested to take a
few photographs of Raluca and her family’s pottery. It is always
interesting to gaze at objects through the lens of a camera after
learning more about them, because suddenly, different things strike
you more than before. As Raluca kindly posed behind her prod-
ucts, I zoomed in closer to the various pieces, remembering the
month they spent out in the Transylvanian sun drying, or the in-
gredients for the mixture of special colors, and found myself gaz-
ing in awe rather than snapping photos. Raluca disappeared for a
moment and I began noticing the other visitors to the area who
were now meandering across the field to see what had originally
drawn me there. The mystery and the colors from the special wares
were housed away from the hubbub of the main square were evi-
dently intriguing to many. I watched people from all over the world
become entranced with the raw beauty of this art and smiled as I
recognized them repeat similar exclamations I myself had made.
Raluca returned to hand me a box—my own lovely piece of pot-
tery. Of course she couldn’t know that to me it will also symbolize
a successful interview with a fascinating family who has a story I
will not forget soon.
As we were saying our goodbyes, I asked Raluca if she planned on
continuing this tradition throughout her own life. She smiled again
and said that for now she just sold the pottery and that she was ac-
tually in university now studying for a degree in Psychology.
Whether or not this is a tradition that will proceed for many more
generations to come we will all have to wait and see, but for now,
it is a beautiful piece of history preserved.
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By Christmas they were gone. Gone, alongside over one hundred
thousand other Transylvanian Saxons, who had left Romania
in just two years at the beginning of the nineties. Eginald
Schlattner stayed, but found himself a shepherd without a herd. From
his time as pastor in Roşia, he recounts how the Easter celebrations had
been business as usual for the small village near Sibiu, but come Christ-
mas, most of his congregation had left, a fate shared by many other
German communities in Transylvania.
Emigration started strongly in the seventies, when Ceauşescu and
German chancellor Schmidt agreed upon allowing Saxons to move to
Germany as part of a family reunification program. After the revolution
and the collapse of the communist regime, most members of the Saxon
community seized the chance to leave Romania, for Germany, for Aus-
tria, and for overseas. According to the “Democratic Forum of Germans
in Romania” (DFDR), the German-speaking minority in Romania had
45.000 members in 2002, thirty percent of which lived in Transylvania.
At the end of the seventies that number was still at over 175.000, dur-
ing the nineteen forties at around 250.000.
For the chairman of the German Forum, Wolfgang Wittstock, the
reasons for this mass exodus are rooted in the repercussions of World War
II, in the loss of trust the Germans placed in Romanian authorities and
most importantly, in poverty. In January 1945, the year after Romania had
surrendered and declared war on its former ally Germany, 75.000 Saxons
were deported to Soviet labor camps, in March the ones who stayed at
home were dispossessed, at a time when 75 percent of them were farmers
living off the land. Under Ceauşescu’s rule the situation for the German
minority improved as they were valuable bargaining chips with the Ger-
man government yet the economic situation remained dire and was un-
likely to get better – a situation where, as Homer put it, “all that avails is
flight.”
The expatriation of the Transylvanian Saxons in the last decades of the
twentieth century may seem like the last act in the history of this peo-
ple, but one shouldn’t underestimate the staying power of a nation that
albeit never having its own state managed to survive and at the same
time retain a certain amount of independence for over 850 years. En-
during as a minority for such a long time is in itself an incredible
achievement and keeping a relatively small – the Saxon population
never consisted of more than 300.000 people – community alive and vi-
brant while being part of six different states, defending it against Mon-
golian riders and the Ottomans, just to name a few, is something that
speaks volumes about the kind of physical and spiritual fortitude not
easily wiped out. And as Frieder Schuller, Transylvanian author, poet
and filmmaker in his own right, puts it, history isn’t a horse-drawn car-
riage one simply hops out of. The Cața native fled to Germany in 1978
with the help of fellow author and eventual Nobel laureate Günter Grass
only to return to his hometown after the revolution, renovate his fa-
ther’s, the village priest’s, house and to now divide his time between
Germany and Romania, many times making the Saxons’ history a sub-
ject of his work. In Cața, there are only three Germans left who live
there full-time, the rest have either vanished entirely or become what is
known as “summer saxons”, emigrants who return to their homes for
the summer but whose lives are based elsewhere. Schuller says the rea-
son they stayed in Germany wasn’t their lack of faith in the Romanian
authorities but the fact that they were comfortable in the new lives they
had made for themselves.
This isn’t to say they have shed their old identity entirely and all
traditions are lost. Saxon organizations, the so-called “Heimatortsge-
meinschaften”, organize meetings and festivities for the expatriates,
gathering Saxons who originate in the same village in Romania, no mat-
ter where they live now. As for those willing to come back, Wolfgang
Wittstock and the Forum are a first point of contact, offering informa-
tion, counsel and even legal advice. The chairman acknowledges that
there isn’t much they can do to bring people to return to Romania, still
it’s the thought that counts and the offer that stands. Besides providing
support and a sense of community, the Forum’s main goals are the
preservation of the Saxon identity and the German language. They offer
language courses and are involved in several cultural activities, most
notably their support for the only German brass-band left in Transyl-
vania. The brass bands, once central institutions in the Saxon villages,
dissolved at the beginning of the nineties, the few musicians left were
pooled into the “Burzenländer Blaskapelle”, which plays traditional
German-Bohemian music, among other things, at weddings and other
festivities, and consists to equal parts of Germans, Romanians and Hun-
garians.
Although most of the Saxons may have disappeared, their legacy
has anything but. From the most obvious remnants, the over one hun-
dred fortified churches scattered throughout Transylvania, to the more
subtle ones, like some German traditions taken on by Romanians, such
as the “Kronenfest”, there’s still a lot to fuel the pride regarding this
heritage of not just the Saxons themselves, but also of the Romanians
and Hungarians in the region.
As for Eginald Schlattner, he found himself a new herd by work-
ing as a prison minister – besides coming upon a large audience as a
writer. And at seventy-six he still travels the land to bring comfort to his
flock. After all, a shepherd’s work is never done.
Cultural Identities:
Reflections on Saxon Identity Reflections on Saxon Identity
in Romania’s Multi-Culturalin Romania’s Multi-Cultural
SocietySociety
by Norbert Schwarzenbrunner
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