Comenius 2008-2010

“European Journey Through Legends”

Romanian Folk Life or

Folklore and Environment

Lodz, Poland

May 2009

ROMANIAN FOLK LIFE OR FOLKLORE AND ENVIRONMENT

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Foreward

t was a time when in Romania were many secret places for people trying

to escape from intruders. Those places were located into the mountains –

into the forests or into the secret caves. From those ancient times

Romanians kept in mind an expression saying "forest is Romanian's brother".

Why we, Romanians, have these connections with the nature? The answer of

this question is not so simple, but we’ll try to tell you.

The legend of the mountains and of the forests

fter God created the Sun, the Moon, the Earth and the Stars, He threw

all in the womb in order to get never together. He got off only some

ogres – bad and lazy creatures. The ogres wanted to create something

to exalt them to be superior to God. They’ve started to hoe and truck mould

succeeding to create the mountains. They wanted to create the mountains in order to

take over the sky. God found out and drew them down on the level of the mountains

and laid on the grove under mould clamp, mould they have created the mountain. And

to be sure that they will never get out from there, God got lookers all over the

mountain, and they were turned into forests by a rogue hand.

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The nature’s fairies protectors

od gave Beldam (Muma Pădurii) the designation to stand for the forest and inhabitant away from people unkindness. The Beldam is a spirit of the forest in a very ugly and old woman's body. Sometimes she has the ability to change her shape. She lives in a dark, dreadful, hidden little house.

In time, however, the Beldam started to hate foolish people increasingly because they have destroyed what she was trying to defend. If she primarily scared and ran them out, altogether she got to kill indiscriminatingly those who she has met walking in the forest.

The Beldam had a girl, The Forest Girl (Fata Pădurii). She is a demon who attracts the young people in the forest, where she kills them. She has two appearances: for the first time when she appears to them, she is a young and very beautiful woman. After the victim is charmed by her beauty, the Balder transforms into a hideous and tremendous monster, she kills the young and eats his heart because only like this she can keep her youth appearance. She came out only at night and she never gets out the forest, so she never attacks the people villages but only those who pass through the forest.

Figure 1. The Forest Girl (Fata Pădurii)

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In Romanian folk, the forest girl is often beside the other spirits, named Bedstraws (Iele-Sânziene).

Figure 2.Bedstraws

The Bedstraws live in the sky, in the forests, in caves, on isolated mountain cliffs.

They mostly appear at night, under the moonlight, as dancing Horas, in the tops of the trees, ponds, river sides, crossroads or abandoned fireplaces, dancing naked covered by their long hair and carrying candles. In almost all of these instances, the Bedstraws appear acorporal.

Figure 3. Bedstraws dancing Romanian "Hora"

They are not generally considered evil genies: they resort to revenge only when

they are provoked, offended, seen while they dance… The one, who randomly hears their songs, becomes instantly mute. Sometimes, the Bedstraws hounded their victims into the middle of their dance, until they died in a furor of madness.

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Vâlva(The Stir)

he Vâlve are kind of female spirits. The White Vâlve are considered beneficial, but the Black are considered evil. Some types are believed sometimes to look human-like, especially when they came to protect villages from a storm, or as simple shadows, or as a black cat, etc. They also have the

ability to change their shape. Mine’s Vâlva, defender and protector of mines and tunnels. Some miners say this

vâlvă is a red dog. But in Apuseni Mountains, where are a lot of gold mines, this Vâlvă is a beautiful young women.

Figure 4. Mine's Vâlva (Vâlva Băilor)

She often falls in love with young and handsome miners and she tells them where to

dig and to find gold. She asks them to no tell anyone that they saw her. Often, the boys don’t keep their word and they reveal the secret. The Vâlva angers and kills them. But because she has always regrets, she shows the other miners where the gold is. Therefore it’s told that when a man dies much gold will be find soon.

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The legend of Mount Găina(Apuseni)

nce upon a time there lived a beautiful and rich fairy at the edge. She had a hen which laid miraculous golden eggs every day. The fairy portioned once in a year a golden egg to a poor and honest girl when she married. One day five young boys from Vidra, dressing women attire, edged out to Fairy of

the mountain and stole the hen and a pannier full of golden eggs. They ran and one of them let fall rolling to insurgent waters of Aries. They hid the hen then in Abrud Mountains where is a big fortune. Angrily, the Fairy of golden baths fell away from those emperies.

Figure 5. The hen with the golden eggs

Since then, the young people (girls and boys) knew to climb on the crest of Mount

Găina(1486 m) in the third Sunday of July and they hope they maybe will meet her one day. This their meeting became Mount Gaina Maidens Fair - In Sunset Mountains (Apuseni).

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Romanian Traditions - Mount Găina Maidens Fair

ne of the Romanian traditions that survived to this times, the "Maiden Fair" is an incredibly enjoyable day for the people living in that region to gather on the mountain top of the Mount Găina.

Each year, from times immemorial, people would gather on the mountain top of the Mount Găina for this so-called "Maiden Fair". Despite it is called "maiden fair", nobody sells or buys girls on this event, and perhaps such trade never happened. Nevertheless, it is a big celebration of all the mountain-dwellers, gathering from far distances to one particular spot in the mountains, to meet each other, exchange ideas and traditions, sing, dance, enjoy themselves, celebrate being alive. There were plenty of situations in which young boys would meet young girls from different, far away villages, and end up getting married, but the main purpose of this event seems to be the social interaction of young people all around the Western Mountains.

Figure 6.Mount Găina

The idea of this also called "festival" was given by the fact that the villages there are

scattered at large distances from each other, with some kilometers from house to house, so it was quite hard for people to meet. Life and climate can also be quite harsh, so they really needed a special occasion to be able to reach each other. So the Maiden Fair's purpose was and still is keeping people in touch.

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This festival is probably the largest of its kind in Ardeal. It is held on the mountain of

Găina (“hen” in Romanian). Obviously, the festival has lost this tradition, the name (The girls market from Găina) being the only way to keep it. Nowadays, the Găina festival is about concerts, enjoying the beautiful nature of the region and it’s very friendly people, this celebration is actually a pretext for going out, savoring delicious traditional food, socializing and buying trinkets .

Figure 7. Women playing alpenhorn at Maidens Fare

Women playing the alpenhorn, renown all over Europe, launch the call to open the

festival every year. This festival is an event that gathers craftsmen, traditional costumes, traditional dances and songs.

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Conclusively

wise peasant gave to Queen Elisabeth of Romania (known as a writer with pseudonym Carmen Sylva) a piece of advice which she caught it on, she embosomed it, she followed it and sent it to the next generations.

“These forests, told the old man, conserved our kind, language and throne clear as we entrust to you, we-the old men. You owe to hand down”.

Figure 8. Queen Elisabeth of Romania (Carmen Sylva)

Carmen Sylva acquitted of this mission with elevation.

But what do our nowadays generations?

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Notes

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©.rO-cOmEnIuS.

Material realised by Romanian students coordinated by

prof. Camelia Kallos and prof. Simona Szedlak - Grup Școlar “Gheorghe Lazăr” Pecica, ROMÂNIA-

May 2009 –

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

RoComenius - Six4Europe!