BRASOVROMANIA

”Learning about heroes through legends”Comenius Project

LOCAL TRADITIONS

Impuscatul cocosuluiThe shooting of the rooster

• "The shooting of the rooster" is a tradition of the hungarians from Apata, which dates from the 1600s. The legend says that once, during a Hun invasion, the villagers hid behind the walls of a fortress. All that remains nowadays from this fortress is an abandoned tower at the edge of the village. The Huns thought that the tower was abandoned and wanted to move on, but they heard the sound of a rooster who had climbed on the fortress' wall. Thus, the villagers were discovered, and the fortress was sieged. Since then, as a sort of revenge, a rooster is shot in the first day of Easter. Time went by and instead of a live rooster they shoot a wooden board with a rooster painted on it. All the Hungarian children from the village participate in this tradition.

Farsangul • Fărşang / Winter's merry funeral, Rimetea / Torocko, Alba county, Apuseni

Mountains, Transylvania, RomaniaThe word ‘Farsang’ < German ‘Fasching’ (= carnival) < Italian ‘carnevale’, alteration of earlier ‘carnelevare’ (= removal of meat) < ‘carne’ (< Latin ‘carn-, caro’ = flesh) + ‘levare’ (= to remove, to raise). In Romania the word came via the Austro-Hungarian empire.

• The Bavarian-Austrian word ‘Fasching’, similar to the carnival, was connected to Lent in the Middle Ages. It was the name of the ‘Eve of the beginning of the fast’ (Tuesday Eve before Ash Wednesday). This is well shown by the literary form of the ’Fasching’, the word ’Fastnacht’ (’fasting’ ’night’). In the course of time, the meaning of the term altered and refers to the whole period from Epiphany (Jan 6th) to the beginning of Lent. Nowadays, it represents again just the last day before Lent. It is a big village tradition when everyone parties and wears traditional costume/fancy dress/something unusual. In Romania it is celebrated only in Hungarian and Saxon villages.

• A couple of haiduks stride the streets of the village using whips to announce the death of winter and the beginning of Lent. They proceed the merry procession formed by the youngster of the village masked in several cliché couples: the bride and groom, the priest ant the Jew, the gypsy, the demons, the buffoon, the drunkerd. Each of them have a clear duty: the Jews and the gypsies collect money and eggs from the villagers later used to organize a ball at the end of the day, the demons paint in black the faces of all participants for dispel the evil spirits. In the middle of the procession we find an allegorical chariot carried by a donkey, a chariot that transports the coffin of winter. It is followed by 2 grievers which at their turn carry a dead piece of wood (symbol of sterility). Cause, ah, I forgot to say: the origins of Farsang are not only connected to Chritianism but also to a pagan agrarian ritual. After the whole village is crossed, the procession stops in the center of the village and the priest takes control. He criticizes every villager who has sinned in the last year. The grand finale is the braking of the coffin into water, another symbol for the dispel of the evil spirits.

Farsangul

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THE JUNII FEAST

• When the heavy snows of the harsh Brasovian winters are gone and spring sun shines again, it is the time for people from Schei, the old district of Brasov, to start celebrating the renewal. Yearly, they have a festival, called "Junii", (translated it would be 'The Feast of the Youth') which stretches over weeks, having it's climax on the first Sunday after Easter when seven groups of men from the Schei will ride from the mountains and travel around Brasov. They will be carrying with them mace like batons, which are scepters and flags, along with each group having their own special and unique costumes.

• Although the origins have been lost, the inhabitants of Schei still live by the traditional and very well established rules. The first Sunday after Easter it is the time to celebrate the new year of the Dacians, the ancestors of the Romanians. It is also the celebration of spring, the renewing of nature and the beginning of new life. The oldest document recorded in which this procession is mentioned is from 26 March 1728 but it is assumed that the celebration already existed in antiquity.

The men riding the horses are the "Junii" (young men) of Brasov from the Schei neighborhood.

• In all there are seven groups, which is due to the religious belief that God made the world in seven days. Each group comes also from a different quarter in the Schei neighborhood. The costumes of each team differ through color and badges.

Seven groups

1. Tineri (the younger unmarried men) 2. Batrani (the older younger married men) 3. Curcani (the Turkey youths) 4. Dorobanti (soldiers) 5. Brasovecheni (the older Brasovians or the Junii of the old city) 6. Rosiori (the red young men or the horseman Junii) 7. Albiori (the young whites or whitish Junii)

SEVEN GROUPS

TRADITIONAL DECORATION FOR HORSES

• The horses are also highly decorated for this celebration, with the harnesses and saddles being draped in all sorts of traditional decorations.

• Traditional Romanian songs are sung and dances danced. Young men are then placed, one by one, in the middle of the dancers and throw the scepter in the air, while everyone runs for cover.

• This custom is considered a kind of initiation ritual, when the boys are supposed to pass some tests of maturity and bravery. Whoever throws the scepter highest in the air wins the competition.

• After the ritual ends, if the weather is good, the Junii and their families will have a barbecue with traditional music and the Romanian hamburger called "mic".

• The whole procession is opened by a marching orchestra, and heads from the church to the Muresenilor St, then to the Balcescu St and through the Schei gate and onward to the Pietrele lui Solomon, where the parade ends. The day is then full of games and more partying. The evening ends with all going to Casa Sfatului and making a circle around the house, after which everybody just goes home.

• The Junii Brasovului festival is an ancient tradition. In true Romanian spirit, where traditions live on, the festival has multiplied and it is now an occasion to be marked on all Brasovians' calendars.

1 May 2011

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