TRADITIONS, FOLKLORE, TRADITIONAL OUTFITS IN MARAMURES, OAS AND LAPUS AREAS
The Northern mountainous area in Romania is the host of an ancient culture and civilization that have produced many valuable material and spiritual creations. Maramures area is beautifully located in Northern Romania, yet it does not stand alone there. The traditions and exterior image of the peasant culture might seem the same all the way from Negresti Oas to Sighetu Marmatiei and Salva, however we are talking about three different areas: Oas, Maramures and Lapus, which are usually put together under the name of Maramures in tourist guides. I chose this as a unique item that maybe will make you drop off, leaving behind Dracula and Ceausescu for a peek in what Romania really is about ;)
Local traditions usually involve everybody in a village. Alongside the demands and habits linked to modern life, the people living in Maramures have always known how to protect and preserve their cultural heritage, dislike many other regions in Romania. The celebration days are usually linked to some specific days in the calendar, to agricultural events, cattle raising or major events in the human life. Of these all, the winter holidays have a special place. The New Year, symbol of the life perpetuation, of the Renaissance lying in each of us, of the rich crops, stands for the moment when the villages turn into a live parade of absolute joy. The local gatherings where people meet to sing along traditional songs, to chat, dance or tell long old stories, the Christmas carols or the masks' dances are only a few examples of what the winter holidays mean for the people living in this area.
'Strigarea peste sat' (The shout over the village) is an ancient habit that can be found in all three regions above mentioned. It stands for a person or a group of persons that list all deeds made by the village inhabitants over the year that is to go by. This event usually takes place in the New Year's Eve. This habit has developed a lot more in Oaş area, where many theatrical-like acts take place: Moimele, Focul Viu (The Living Fire), Arderea Mastilor (The masks' burning). Towns and Villages like Negresti – Oas, Bixad, Tarsolt, Turt are particularly famous for these habits and events.
“Vergelul” marks the beginning of the period when the boys start going around to ask girls for marriage. In the villages on Cosau and Mara Valleys there are usually set up gatherings with young people where traditional dances and songs, sung along with “cetera” playing can be found. Cetera is a traditional music instrument (a rudimentary violin).
Mastile (The masks’ dances) stand for ancestral folk art forms that can be still seen and witnessed in the three regions above-mentioned, standing for wonderful occasions of expressing the life happiness. There are three basic types of masks: animal masks (“the goat”, “the bear”), human masks (“the old”), demonic masks (“the devils”).
Sighetu Marmatiei and Negresti-Oas host every year, in the last decade of December, “The customs and winter traditions festival”, one of the best ways of attending such events.
“Tanjaua” (the wooden element that used to make the link between the horses/oxen and the carriage or plough when the land was ploughed by horses or oxen) is a traditional holiday that stands for an artistic symbol for worshiping work and hard working people. It takes place every year in Hoteni, in the first decade of May. The peasant that has previously been chosen by the “old people’s council” as the first to have ploughed its piece land, is celebrated by the whole village. The peasants’ houses and gardens are beautifully decorated with green fir tree branches, birch tree branches and magnificent hand-made carpets with traditional elements. Everybody dresses up in traditional outfits specially preserved for holidays. Young boys join together many “tanjele”, together with green branches, flowers and go straight to the house of the man that has been designated as the hardest working in the village. This man is lifted up and put in a small wooden carriage which is afterwards pulled by young people to the local river. On the way, the man tries to escape, but he is caught and the young people take him eventually to the river, where they wash his face. Every man and woman there wash each other’s face with water from the river. The celebrated man thanks everybody and invites them all to a very big lunch. After eating and drinking lots, people start dancing (“ghioc”). For the coming year the celebrated man has a special treatment from everybody, as he is considered to be the most respected man in the village.
“Sambra oilor” (the splitting of the fertile sheep from the other ones, respectively from the lambs and the first milking of the year) is a yearly, ancient habit that takes place in Huta Certeze in the first decade of May. Most peasants in Oaş area enjoy this event with dancing, partying and traditional singing. The habit usually takes place in front of “Sambra Oilor Inn” on the road between Negresti Oas and Sighetu Marmatiei. Similar events also take place in the Maramures villages on Mara, Cosau and Botiza Valleys.
“Instrutatul boului” (the blessing of the ox) is also linked to the coming spring, being specific for the villages on Ilişua and Zagra Valleys. The young boys, masked and covered in cherry tree rind and leaves, take an ox and decorate him with flowers, then they take him for a walk throughout the village. Everybody stands out of his/her gate and throws water on the ox. This all starts from the wish that the peasants have a rich harvest the year that has begun.
“Faclii si sanziene” (Torches and sânziene). Sanziene stand for some pleasantly smelling flowers (lat. Galium Verum) with yellowish or white flowers; in the traditional belief, the word also stands for “witches”. This habit takes place on June 24th (the summer solstice) in the villages on Botiza, Cosău and Mara Valleys. The girls pick up many such flowers and put bunches of them above the doorways or above the windows. They also make up small crowns of the flowers and wear them on June 24th. In the evening, the whole area resounds from the boys’ singing.
Torches are prepared and young people make up circles, lighting torches are moving them round above their heads. After every torch burns out, it is given to everybody’s mother or grandmother, which sticks the torch in the vegetable garden. The night coming after this particular day is traditionally considered to be haunted by witches and weird things are considered to happen then.
“Targul de Ispas” (Ispas Fair) takes place in Nasaud, and it is an ancient habit of the inhabitants. Many young people from the neighbouring villages on Salauta (Telciu, Cosbuc, Romuli) and Tibles Valleys (Zagra) come here to show their traditional outfits. The term “ispas” stands for the holiday celebrated on Jesus’ raising from the dead.
Oas and Maramures areas gather together many traditional dances and songs that can be particularly interesting for the people travelling here. The songs and dances are different from one village to the next one and are absolutely different from the ones coming from other areas (e.g. Transylvania). The basic instruments used are “cetera” (rudimentary violin), “zongora” (6 strings kind of guitar) and “doba” (a big drums). Lăpuş area is a bit different, as it usually hosts orchestras with string instruments (“cetera”, guitar) and “tambal” (dulcimer).
Local, traditional habits and jobs
The peasants living in Maramures and Oas are best wood workers, they make wood sculptures, wood furniture and wooden houses like no others. The sculpted monumental gates are symbolic for this area, while many other elements from the houses are sculpted and worked in wood: the doorway, the windows frames, the veranda pillars. The most impressive monumental wooden gates can be seen on Mara and Cosău Valleys, in villages like Deseşti, Giuleşti, Sugatag a.o. The most frequent symbols at a wooden gate are the twisted rope, the sun with its rays and the life tree.
A particularly interesting wooden work can be seen in Sapanta Village, in the Merry Cemetery, where a local peasant, namely Ion Stan-Patras, has created an impressive museum, sculpting in wood crosses with expressive poems about the dead ones’ lives.
The ceramics are another thing for which the peasants of the area are best known. Old villages like Vama, Tur, Huta, Sacel, Lăpuş are famous for their ceramics workshops. There are different colours and manufacturing stages that persist in the ceramic objects in different villages: in Sacel, the most spread colour is red, without enamel, while in Lăpuş all colours are used and the ceramic objects can be enamelled or not.
The knitting art is also outstanding, as the women generally use a vivid bunch of colours, as another expression of their life joy. The wool processing is the last, but not least traditional habit that we mention here. The inhabitants of Tarsolt, Sapanta, Botiza, Feresti, Tisa make outstanding woollen carpets or blankets (blanket = “cerga”), using natural paints.
Traditional outfits
Besides the great mountain scenery and the way the houses or gardens look, Maramures, Oas and Lapus are particular, great “moyens d’etre”. Ancients elements and traditions can be found in the outfits that people still wear on Sundays or even on a regular basis.
Oaş
Girls and women usually wear a “basma” (headkerchief) rich in flower elements and painted in vivid colours (most times on a yellow, green or red background), with a knot on the back side. They also wear a short wrinkled skirt with an impeccably white front cover and also an impeccably white shirt with geometric or floral elements. The sleeves end up in a baroque-like curled, rich decoration with fine embroidery. As the person grows up from youth towards old age, the exuberant decorations disappear, giving way to a simpler design. The vest, made up of woollen thick cloth, decorated with different colourful embroideries, accomplishes the female outfit, together with the chest cover (“pieptar”).
Men usually wear a wide sleeves shirt, as well as wide trousers (“gaci”) with tassels at the lower end and a short vest (“laibar”). A traditional short hat made of straws is typical for the area (“clop”). When it gets cold, men wear “cioareci” (woollen tight trousers). In winter, both men and women wear a “guba”, meaning a very fluffy and thick woollen coat. From birth till the very death Oas men wear a kind of richly decorated scarf with many colourful embroideries. In Oas, some villages where the above described outfit can be found are Bixad, Trip, Camarzana, Huta, Boinesti, Moiseni.
Maramures
The vividly coloured “basma” that young girls wear is replaced, as they grow older, with a dark, often black headkerchief. The shirts are not always white: they are white for young girls and they are sometimes yellow when it comes to old women. The shirt gets more noble and serious than in neighbouring Oas. The skirt has the same white front cover and it also has a “zadie” (a rectangular piece of cloth where red and black or yellow and black stripes alternate). As weather can turn out to be very cold in that area, this has been also reflected in the traditional outfits: a sheep fur vest (“cojoc”) with rich and extremely fascinating colourful embroideries is worn in winter time by women. When weather gets even worse, a “suman” or “leic” made of thick wool knit. On special occasions they wear a white “guba” which is extremely beautiful as well. Women also wear a typical chain of “zgadane” (beads) nicely coloured.
Men wear white shirts, made of linen or hemp and strapped tight on the waist with a girdle (“brau”) and a beautifully hand made leather money belt (“chimir”). The shirt usually overflows onto the light and fluffy trousers (“gatii”) worn in summer or it is strapped in the tight thick woollen trousers (“cioareci”) worn in winter. Most men wear a thick woollen or leather chest cover with beautiful floral decorations (“pieptar”) in winter time. They also wear a white “guba” that makes a nice contrast with the black leather tall boots. The hats worn in winter are decorated with “ciucalai” (woollen tassels) when there is some holiday.
Lapus
Coming down to Lăpuş area, we find many similarities with the other two areas, but there are, as well, some differences.
Women always wear the headkerchief, that is rich in floral elements when it comes to young persons, and dark or black when it comes to older women. The white shirt usually has most decorations on the chest and the sleeves (colourful embroideries). Over the skirt women still wear “zadii”, which are, this time, on a black or blue background, decorated with all-colours floral elements. The “pieptar” is made of black leather and bears a bunch of various coloured floral elements, embroided in silk. In winter time the “suman” and “guba” are widely worn, bearing the same features as the ones in the above descriptions.
Men wear simple, wide hemp trousers in summer (“izmene”) or straight tight woollen trousers in winter (“cioareci”). They also wear a simple, decorations free shirt and a lightly decorated chest cover (“pieptar”). The black or grey “suman” are worn in winter. The hats are very richly decorated with many colourful stripes, ribbons and tassels.
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on Aug 26, 2002
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