Journal of Ethnology and Anthropology Volume 1, Number 4, October 2010

Publisher Bucharest University, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures Paideia Publishing House

Address of the Editorial Board Paideia Publishing House Bucharest, 15 Tudor Arghezi Street, sector 2 e-mail: antoaneta_o@yahoo.com, office@paideia.ro http://www.paideia.ro Editors Antoaneta Olteanu, Bucharest University Nicolae Constantinescu, Bucharest University Editorial Board Otilia Hedean, West University, Timisoara, Romania Nicolae Panea, University of Craiova, Romania Narcisa tiuc, Bucharest University, Romania Vilmos Keszeg, Babe-Bolyiai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania Petru Ursache, Al.I. Cuza University in Iassi, Romania International Editorial Council Rajko Muri, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Eva Pocs, University of Pecs, Hungary Czesaw Robotycki, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland S.M. Tolstaia, Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies, Moscow, Russia Milo Tomandl, Charles Universiy, Prague, Czech Republic

ISSN 2067-5666

Revist de etnologie i antropologie Journal of Ethnology and Anthropology Volume 1, Number 4, October 2010

Cuprins/ Contents

Studii/ Articles ......................................................................................................7

Urszula Lehr Verbalised word: a Magical Creator of Reality .................................................7 Petru Ursache Proces i procesare n constituirea imaginarului ..........................................23 Alexandra Ttran Magic and Religious Ritual in Witchcraft Situations .....................................27 Ura Vali Reflections on Romanian National Identity .......................................................37 pela Pahor Nain ivljenja uiteljic v slovenski Istri po 2. sv. vojni skozi njihove ivljenjske zgodbe ............................................................................51 Petra Novak Comparison of Graffiti in Rural and Urban Areas .....................................63 Stanislav Inchovsky-Tarnin Contemporary Re-meaning of Tradition Case study Eniovden/ Midsummer ................................................................73 Gabriela Georgescu Ziua morilor ...............................................................................................91 Andra Sorina Beliu Obiceiuri de nunt la croai ........................................................................95 Oana Tnasie Srbtoarea Patelui n Cehia ........................................................................99 Recenzii/ Reviews ..............................................................................................109

Autori/Authors ...................................................................................................111

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URSZULA LEHR

VERBALISED WORD: A MAGICAL CREATOR OF REALITY

Article presents the role of verbalized word characteristic for la parole i.e. talk in the sense of specific statements in the traditional rural culture. Functioning the magic word is exemplified by a different type of incantations, custom songs connected with the life cycle rituals and ceremonials of the liturgical and agriculture year s calendar. The starting point of my ethnological consideration is introduce to the source of the power word descend from the metaphysical or theological genesis (supernatural or divine origin). These kind of roots determinate mystical perception having influence on a phenomena implied adequate psychological attitudes which are manifesting in the performance of the magical activities. Causative propriety attribute to the word depends on phenomenon appearing through the explication of the proper formulas finds their expression in the creation of reality, which is necessary. In the last part the contemporary relation between magic talk and language being the exemplum of using power word was shown. Independence of the determination framing the talk: transcendental or empirical, word remains imperative, which create and cause specified state of affairs. Keywords: magical talk, language, incantations, ritual songs, rituals, family customs, annual ceremonial, traditional rural culture, Polish Carpathian villages.

The entire world, linguistically understood, is a projection of ones own self on the outside Gerardus Van der Leeuw

A word is not equal to another word, not only in the sense that as lexical signs they denote various phenomena of the world surrounding us, i.e. material items, psychical content, activities, states and features. Distinctness of words is also determined by the reception of reality, the intention of the speaker and the context in which they appear. Words comprising a given language, i.e. a medium of communication characterised by expressiveness on a verbal and non-verbal level, function in a differentiating mental and emotional sphere. Therefore, depending on their deliberate or unconscious intended use, they can be charged positively or negatively, and by the meaning granted to them, they can create the desired reality. An explanation of verbal semantics from the point of linguistics and its social and cultural functions is implemented by language, which is a perfect system of symbols and signs. However, this is the modern language/ thinking, which differs from the language/ acting that was characteristic for magical-type cultures. Therefore, modern definitions do not fully exhaust the complete cultural

meaning assigned to words. They do not indicate the psychological conditions for establishing their power nor the results of their mechanism of operation. As noted by Edward Sapir, language, which is the carrier of specific content, does not as a matter of actual behaviour stand apart from or run parallel to direct experience but completely interpenetrates with it (1978: 39). Paying attention to such competence of words, legible in the talk of primitive peoples, in traditional cultures or in archaic forms of modern language, emphasises its peculiar material-mentalfunctional ties. Primarily, it indicates the feeling of closeness or even identity between a given word and a thing. This means, according to Gerardus van der Leeuw, that a word contained in a language decides the possibilities; it is an act, an attitude; it is the act of appearance when being summoned, it is an implementation of power. Every word has something creative [...]. A word is always a charm: it wakes up dangerous or beneficial power. Whoever speaks exerts influence, but also becomes exposed (1978: 356). In the past, this cognitive aspect of words allowed for their functioning as a tool of magic. In this place, it is interesting to ask about the function of words in traditional cultures and their causative meaning in the language of contemporary culture. For a full understanding of the role of a word, i.e. a referent which is a relic of archaic culture, in particular its decisive aspect, it is important to refer to the original context in which it appears. Source of Word Power The basic, substantive scope of ethnological divagations on the creative aspect of the function of words in traditional rural cultures is limited to various types of incantations and several examples of ritual songs. In fact, these types of verbal formulas were characteristic for la parole, i.e. talk, in the sense of specific statements. By analogy, this individual process of implementing the language also refers to the social, real behaviour of individuals (Barnard 2006: 172). The above term was introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure for the purpose of differentiating it from la langue, i.e. the language, an abstractly and socially created system of signs, and it is more adequate for presentation of oral manifestations of syncretic magical culture (Encyklopedia...1978: 136). This is confirmed by the features of la parole, which locate talking as an original form of oral activities in comparison to the symbolic/ semantic function of modern language. However, this does not entail depreciation of la parole. Words contained in magical speech were only characterised by their different (other than in la langue) comprehension and application, conditioned by mystical thinking. In the magical consciousness, phenomena were not imagined as in the language, but personalised; therefore substantial, alive and emotionally charged (Kowalski 2004: 51). This type of reception, resulting from unreflective thinking, was manifested in the performative act, such as a magical action and the role of a word in magical speech. In the mystical perception of reality, a word connected to a specific item was not its semantics as it is in modern language. It was only the naming performed in the participation process which was characteristic for magical speech that made a given object complete and compliant with its intentional destination (Bystro 1980: 205). Verbalised denotation of an object, which at the same time constituted its nomination, instilled it with causative power due to the fact that the signifiant became the signifi. Therefore, the word materialised itself, which, from a modern point of view, means that talk was at the same time a symbolic activity and deed. Words contained in magical speech communicated a specific state of affairs by demonstration and manifestation; however, they were devoid of signs and symbols (Buchowski, Burszta 1986: 38; Biczyk 2004: 185). A word that was uttered not only made one aware of the existence of a thing or a phenomenon, but also allowed for influencing it and therefore had a power constituting the referent (Buchowski,

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Burszta 1986: 36; Tomiccy 1975: 75). Even though words did not express thoughts and did not copy intellectual processes, they paid an active and pragmatic role within the scope of human behaviour (Malinowski 1987: 35). Such function of words was related to the practical effect, i.e. consequences resulting from the uttering of words and thence their significance in magical formulas. A word could cause an illness, could kill, but it could also protect, heal and multiply goods. Therefore, a conviction was born that a magical era man was not able to think unpunished; the symbolic became real and vice versa (Kobyliska 1991: 29). In the rural outlook represented by traditional culture, talking remained an act with a specific power characterising it and assuming various verbal forms. It could exert impact on the course of nature and behaviour of man; it was an indispensable element of rituals and physical activities. Words were uttered with various intentions and in specific cultural contexts, because only then would they become legible; they were characterised by instrumentalism and indirect pragmatism. The impact of sacral words appearing in magical formulas in the form of sacramental speeches, exorcisms, charms, blessings and prayers was exerted by references to supernatural forces (Malinowski 2004: 119). With the intercession of good or bad forces, the illusory reality was established. The characteristic feature of magical speech, where a word was identical to the object and talk equalled activity, found its reflection in traditional oral rituals, folk customs and colloquial speech. The power of a word resulting from primitive mystical thinking determined by magic is emphasised by cosmogonic myths, as well as by later Judaic and Christian tradition. The magic of a word contained in such theories was reduced to the ancient belief in its creative power, relying on the assumption of the supra-natural and innate power of words. Such reasoning was justified by a conviction contained in the concept of Old Indian Vedas, where gods created the world through words and ruled the world through words (Zwi-Werblowsky 2003: 333). Its divine provenance is also visible in the idea of logos, clearly shown in the Prologue to the Gospel of St. John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Pismo wite...2005: 1415). On the other hand, in Greek philosophy, logos was a ubiquitous principle which was interpreted as cosmic reason (Drzewiecki 2010: 90). In this progressive thinking, the word had a greater cognitive dimension as apart from speech, it also took thinking and reason into account. The theological version deriving from metaphysical assumptions that preceded it was more widespread in Christian cultures, as it was easier to comprehend. The thesis claiming that the word preceded creation and that acting as God, it created the world and contributed to the strengthening of its divine genesis and at the same time its causative function. Therefore, recognition of a word as a personification of God implicated its numerous semantic layers manifested, in particular, in liturgy. The sacral character of a word resulting from its inherent or divine origin instilled it with the power of acting and made it the most important argument marking various incantations, as well as magical and ordinary formulas. Their common feature was making reference to higher authorities (God, Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ and saints), strengthening the power of words that were used. The most glaring examples were excommunication formulas with extended content drawn from Medieval accounts (Guriewicz 1987: 315). More modest, yet still very characteristic with respect to the content, were exorcism formulas that are still used in the Catholic Church in the case of assumed possession of a man by evil spirits. The words of a priest spoken ceremoniously in the form of an order clearly emphasise the dominance of good over evil. The word (good) is an embodiment of God in three divine persons, having the power of annihilating the bad spirit: get out of him, unclean ghost, and make place for the Holy Spirit. I entreat you, in the name of the Father... (Keller 1978: 451).

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Creation of Reality in Magical and Religious Rituals and in Rural Ceremonies The word, determined by its metaphysical or theological genesis (supernatural or divine origin) deriving from the mystical perception of phenomena, implied adequate psychological attitudes manifested in the performance of magical activities. Uttering a word constructed on the basis of transcendental relations with the environment led to the emergence of expected results, changing or correcting of the previous state of affairs. Words used in magical charm formulas were situated in a specific context; they were uttered in a perfective mode, and their presentation had a specific model. They were characterised by particular vocal dynamics (intonation, rhythm, continuity of speech, rapidity). The canon encompassed grammatical structures often composed of palindromes (e.g. abracadabra), replacement words, twisted and nonsensical words or words taken from another language, verbalised in a specific rhythm, often in repeated phrases (redundancy). The presence of cult words, such as amen, hallelujah or kyrie eleison, or specific digits, often multiplied (3, 9), or digits uttered in a diminishing order (from 9 to 1) in incantations and ordinary formulas magnified their causative power. The characteristics referred to above are fully manifested in incantations. The purpose of intentionally used oral magic was magical establishment of a new reality by changing the previous one. Activities of this type were usually called by a general name of casting a spell. This is justified by a dominant type of such rituals, but also suggests uniformity of rituals which were accompanied by such verbalised forms of a word (Mauss 1973: 67-68). It is necessary here to emphasise that a magical word appears in various contexts, regarding different manifestations of human life. Therefore, the term casting a spell should be treated as a conventional term, which, however, most precisely describes the sense of its impact on reality. Faith in the causative power of magical speech is illustrated by the use of replacement words, i.e. neutral words, which, being euphemisms, did not have the power of evoking things. They were used to avoid the proper name of an object which was talked about without the intention of summoning it. Therefore, people did not use the names of such animals as the bear or wolf, because they were dangerous to people and damaged livestock. The bear used to be called by the pronoun he; the wolf was called jakubek, worm or simply animal to let sleeping dogs lie, as the adage says (Bystro 1980: 208-209)1. Uttering the names of certain amphibians in the presence of children was also avoided for fear of the effect of their causative power, which was the tangible result of the relation between the name and the object. For example, the word frog (or even using terms of endearment such as little foggy to a child) could have prevented the childs further growth (Kolberg 1962a: 247). Similarly, verbalisation of terms describing illnesses was avoided, as in the case of epilepsy (St. Valentines disease). When talking about epilepsy, people used to say: an accident caught him/ her, sometimes adding let him/ her sleep like the holy ground, or God take care of her (Kolberg 1962a: 168; 1963: 116). Illnesses should not be cursed, as the name of an illness that was uttered was identical to the evoking of such illness (1964d: 209; Bystro 1980: 210-211). The use of replacement names is exemplified by the tradition of calling the devil by the pronoun he or using euphemisms, such as dev, consisting in an abbreviation of a tabooed
1

In the Polish language, the phrase is nie wywouj wilka z lasu, which literally means do not call out the wolf from the forest. This phrase, which functions in contemporary speech, does not refer to an actual wolf. Its semantics are understood as a metaphor with an extended semantic scope encompassing all types of existential problems about which one wishes to forget.

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word (Dbrowska 1998: 232, 233). Loanwords, such as diachel, diasek, descriptive names (proud angel) and proper names (Rokita, Boruta; Brckner 1985: 45; Bystro 1980: 212213) were also used. On the other hand, a periphrasis often used for the concept of death was the following phrase: when I disappear, when I am no longer here, especially in reference to oneself and persons with whom the speaker was emotionally involved (Bystro 1980: 211). Various euphemisms and periphrases referring primarily to dying and death still function in the Polish language. Their presence testifies to the fear of verbalising the word death and is an expression of the making of a taboo of attitudes. The moment of death is described as a moment of parting, whereas demise is the end of an (earthly) journey, giving up ones ghost, ending of ones days or biting the dust (Dbrowska 1998: 133-135). It was believed that the mispronunciation of words uttered by godparents in a moment significant for a child (such as a childs acceptance to the Christian community) had farreaching consequences. If, during the ceremony of baptism, the godparents answered the priests question: What do you demand from the Holy Church? by mispronouncing the word faith, the child would become a demon. In a similar manner, a woman who said the prayer Hail Mary intoxicated and mispronounced the first words, would transform into a ghost after death (Lehr 2009: 16; Bystro 1980: 207-208). Substantive content of magical formulas created a mosaics of various existential problems, from which it was possible to discover the physical problems bothering people (illnesses) and mental ones (indecision, fears, desires). They were also an indicator of ambivalent relations and human emotions (envy, animosities, kindness). Moreover, they reflected (in particular the ritual formulas), the relation between man and the Cosmos and mythical beliefs about the mechanism of its functioning. Special significance of words is manifested in the rituals of the beginning (annual and agrarian rites) and in the transition periods, initiating the desired re-birth of the world, as well as establishing the status of an individual (rites de passage). Analysis of words contained in incantations, ordinary formulas and ritual songs indicates their various causative functions which were determined contextually. Depending on the intended use, their role was: punitive, endowing, protective, healing, initiating and normative. When used in simple or complex semantic configurations, they could take on the form of a curse, a blessing, a safeguarding phrase, a pleading, a quasi-prayer, a healing incantation, a verbal ritual or a customary formula1. Negative emotive verbalisations, represented by a curse, contained the essence of the evil power of words with the highest degree of harmfulness. A curse, also denoted by the term anathema2, exerted power which did not require any indirect performers (gods, ghosts). By the power of a curse, the cursed person would become a sacrificed victim, subjected to repressions in line with an indication, as in certain Biblical phrases: may the Holy Land not carry you, or in a plea which is to prove the speakers truthfulness: may the earth devour me or may Hell absorb him (Od Adama ...1995: 176). People could be cursed on account of their own sins which led others to misery. This is exemplified by a curse put on an inn keeper (a Jew) by a drunkard who blamed him for his addiction and loss of property: may the deuce take him to Hell, because I sold wheat for vodka, I sold rye for vodka, I have spent my last penny on vodka, and now I am a beggar (Udziela 1924: 133).
The presented content division does not aspire to a classification of folkloristic types. It was adopted for the purpose of grouping the examples of magical formulas referring to various cultural phenomena. 2 This most frequently encountered form of a word in action was presented in detail in the analytical study of Anna Engelking (2000).
1

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Making use of a curse (a verbal, frequently individualised form of cursing) was a conscious act of harming another person. It reflected the impossibility of controlling ones own emotional state and human helplessness with respect to facts which are difficult to accept: disobedience of children towards parents, impossibility of enforcing ones point of view. Curse-words, cast intentionally, were supposed to compensate for injustice and humiliation and to punish their perpetrator by causing illness and sometimes even death. The formulas encountered most frequently contained words denoting an unspecified illness in a general way: may an illness get you (Bystro 1980: 210-211); may the bad wind take you away (Lebeda 2002: 127). Sometimes, the illness was specified by verbalisation of its name, e.g. may cholera choke you (Kolberg 1964d: 31), or the symptoms that characterised it, e.g. fever - may the cold shake you (Kolberg 1962b: 163). Curses also referred to other psychical and mental conditions of people. These could be ailments related to digestion, e.g. may your intestines twist you, impairment of speech organs, e.g. may your tongue dry out, loss of memory, e.g. may you lose your memory, paralysis, e.g. may you be twisted (common), or physical disability, e.g. may all your bones be broken (Kolberg 1964b: 11). Most serious curses had the intention of causing a sudden and unexpected death, e.g. may you meet a sudden death (Kolberg 1962c: 90); damn you! (common), sometimes preceded by a deathly illness, e.g. may you drown in blood (Kolberg 1964b: 11). Primarily, curses referred to a bad death, i.e. death preceded by long suffering, e.g. may you be dying for a long time (Kolberg 1964b: 11). A bad death was also death without holy sacraments, i.e. without receipt of the divine blessing, and, what is also important, without obtaining forgiveness from relatives. Therefore, curses often contain such words as may you die a miserable death (Kolberg 1967: 47). Sometimes, these are blunt phrases emphasising elements of death which is unworthy of humans may you die like a dog (Kolberg 1964b: 11). The word was also a gift: a positive wishful verbalisation with sacral and magical dimension, as opposed to curses with clearly negative connotations. Its fullest expression is a blessing, i.e. saving by word, occurring not only in the form of a canonical formula combined with the priests gesture. Old Germanic tribes understood it as the granting of goods by means of words (Leeuw 2004: 327). This is the meaning with which blessings occurred in traditional folk culture, and it may be exemplified by a blessing given by a father to a newly-born baby. Placing the baby on the ground in the vicinity of a stove, the father would say: so that you always know where your home and patrimony are or remember that your place and your home are here (Simonides 1988: 32). The words emphasised the significance of symbolic, renewed birth humi positio and the idea of substantial identity with the earth, home and family (Eliade 1974: 44) contained in it. The words of a prayer, a blessing, endowed on a child by a beggar (a mediator) in a situation when newly-born babies would die one after another, had a different meaning (Kolber 1963: 215). However, both these examples testify to the intention of a word blessing, even with different symbolic meanings resulting from the context. In the first case, it was a gift of remembering about ones roots, and in the second, a gift of life. The blessing of young people by their parents was an indispensable ritual preceding a wedding. This fact is emphasised by the speech of a wedding-host: dear bride and groom: kneel before your father and mother and ask them for forgiveness, because if they do not bless you, Jesus will bar you the way to heaven (Lehr 2000: 317). The threat of no parental blessing when trying to marry a partner who was not accepted by the parents used to lead to the couple splitting up. The blessing of a family by a dying landlord had a similar meaning (Kowalska-Lewicka 1995: 45). It was believed that opposing the will of parents which resulted in the absence of blessing, as well as a situation when family members were deprived of the gift of words from the head of the family, was equal to the loss of prosperity and happiness in future life.

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Words, as a specific type of gift, which still appear in various sayings, phrases and ritual songs, as well as blessings, were characterised by symbolical valuation of reality. Such words as God speed you were uttered to the bride and groom returning from the church; they were also used to greet people working in the fields. Words with features of gifts contained in holiday wishes (non-canonical carols, predominantly with economic nature) contained a created, expected and well-ordered vision of prosperity. It was realised through verbalisation by carol-singing groups visiting houses in a period between the second day of Christmas and the Epiphany. By oral greeting formulas, they would cast a spell on the coming year and ensure prosperity, good harvest, multiplication of property and health for the owner of a house and his family: God bless this household, first of all, the lady and the landlord, so that they fare well, have a good harvest, and give them all your gifts God (Brelewska-Polowa 1970: 267). Maidens received wishes of marriage in carols sung specially for them: Mary, we have already sung carols for you, we would gladly marry you this year/ we wish you happiness and a good boy and your wedding during carnival (Brelewska-Polowa 1970: 267). Greetings were also uttered by neighbours and friends paying visits during the holiday period: happiness and health for Christmas, so that you fare well, have a child in every corner of your house, have as many sheep as there are firs in the forest, as many cows as there are trees in the forest, so that you love each other and never stop, amen (Lehr 2007: 200). Safeguarding phrases, pleading phrases and quasi-prayers The presented dual dimension of the causative power of words in the form of curses and blessings does not exhaust their role in traditional culture. Words used in a specific context were also a safeguarding predicate, as, for example, in the commonly used phrase without spell or touch wood uttered in place of praises or preceding praising words (Chmieliska 1925: 138). People believed that the accompaniment of spitting three times across the left shoulder would protect them from the effects of the so-called evil eye. The religious greeting may Jesus Christ be praised and farewell may you stay with, God which were popular in rural areas until recently, can also be interpreted in the category of verbal magic. A guest uttering this greeting would endow divine magical protection, creating a reality which was not only devoid of evil personal intentions, but also free from any potentially unfavourable supernatural forces. When bidding farewell, the words of a protective formula would also be uttered; in exchange for them, the departing person would receive the same magical protection: God speed you. Echoes of mystical relations with the Cosmos and the personified world of phenomena, occurring in various types of invocations, indicate the integrative character of words used to ensure balance of natural forces and protection by means of respect shown towards them. In old magical formulas, words addressed to planets or elements took on the form of a greeting: I welcome you moon, blue heir/ for you is the gold crown and good fortune for us in the sky; a pleading: visit us new moon/ so that we have no headaches; fire, Sigismund; I bid farewell to you with the holy cross/ you are a guest and I am a guest/ do not burn, it is enough (Chmieliska 1925: 133; Udziela 1924: 92; Kotula 1969: 97). They were also expressed in quasi-prayers/ requests to the wind uttered during a thunderstorm: my gold Jesus/ stop the wind, stop upsetting buildings and fences (Chmieliska 1925: 131) or in quasi-prayers addressed to water: clean water from Jesus Christ/ you washed birches/ roots/ wash me also, a sinful creature (Kwaniewicz 1998: 71). In canonical and non-canonical prayers, as well as in certain charms protecting from the harmful activities of evil ghosts or misfortunes, people would ask for divine intercession

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or the assistance of saints, which is characteristic for oral rituals functioning as summons, personalisation of spiritual power (Mauss 1973: 71). In an individualised prayer before Christmas Eve, people would ask for a life devoid of problems: Hail Mary/ mother of prince/ you gave birth without pain, protect us from sadness and misery (Lehr 2007: 200). On the other hand, the words of a song were used to ask St. Laurence for assistance in the miraculous extinguishing of fire: you are a special protection from fire/ the world admires you and you are our patron/ extinguish fires/ whoever knows you in good faith, they will call to you (Kolberg 1964c: 103). The words of prayers were also addressed to saints who protected people from various ailments. During a ceremonious mass organised on the day of a holy patron, the faithful assembled in churches prayed to him/ her and asked for his/ her intercession: Almighty God! We humbly ask your majesty, through the merits of St. Blase, to free us from sore throat and from any evil in soul and body, so that we can serve you healthy and happy (Kiere 2007: 161-162). References to supernatural intercession also accompanied certain mundane household activities, such as production of butter. In the so-called litany uttered during this activity, it is possible to perceive clear elements of the magical and religious syncretism of charms and evocation to saints: I sit on a window, towards the moon/ so that the butter is not taken by a witch/ Saint Clement give me some butter right now!/ Saint Dora (Dorothy) give me a lot of butter!/ Saint Thecla make it quick!/ Saint Ursula make the butter large!/ and Heavenly Queen let me eat it later in good health (Kotula 1969: 105). The common presence of quasi-prayers in the life of village inhabitants resulted from their religiousness, sometimes overeager and exaggerated, secured by supernatural sanctions. The words of quasi-prayers, verbalised or sung with a specific intention, were addressed to divine agents and were meant to protect from various misfortunes: whoever says a prayer for me/ I will save him from all sins/ from a mad dog/ from a forest reptile/ from drowning in water/ from death from hunger (Kotula 1976: 144). Folk prayer formulas had clear features of charms with a prophylactic and causative nature. In their context, the so-called quasi-prayers which were said before going to bed or after waking up (i.e. at a time of transition which requires special protection) are very interesting (Brzozowska-Krajka 1995; 1998). Uncertainty of a new day and falling asleep (understood as a euphemism for dying) aroused doubts: do not let me die (Kotula 1976: 455). Such doubts triggered the rules of mystical thinking, activating ritualised verbal reactions in the form of a quasi-prayer: I go to bed/ I have no bed-sheets/ The Gospels will be my bed-sheets/ I will cover myself with the holy cross/ Devil, do not stand above me/ I am not afraid of you/ Because I have a good guardian/ Jesus himself/ He protects me during day and night/ He will always help me (Kotula 1976: 487). The causative nature of words tranquillisers was contained in the supernatural power released by verbalisation (BrzozowskaKrajka 1995: 183). They created an image of a sufficiently real possibility of surviving the night (which was a time of insecurity) to offer a feeling of safety and hope. Healing incantations Magical verbal formulas were also a basis for all irrational activities, revealing a special bond between the individual and the surrounding world, which was understood substantially. By uttering such formulas as die, unclean ghost or fly away, through the holy cross, through the holy power, but not through me combined with making the sign of the cross in the air, people would disperse whirs of air which had demonic provenance (Lebeda 2002: 129). The use of the

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causative power of words in the form of charms, spells, breaking of spells was an indispensable element of healing in relation to the anthropomorphically understood aetiology of illnesses. Such a wide application of the magic of words may be found in formulas of so-called healing magic (Biegeleisen 1929). It was omnipresent, starting from formulas indicating the cause of, e.g., a charm, and ending with the proper performance of healing spells, i.e. model healing incantations. A procedure preceding the breaking of a spell, which consisted in the throwing of burning coals into a vessel and providing them with a temporary gender- status identification (married woman, married man, maiden), is a legible example of a word in action and the magic relation between the sign and the object marked with such sign. The coal which fell to the bottom of the vessel when uttering the following formula (i.e. by the power of a verbalised word) a woman in a bonnet put a spell on you/ or a man in a hat/ or a girl in a wreath, personified the culprit who was guilty of casting the spell (Lehr 1981: 95). The words of breaking a spell were addressed directly to the illness, understood anthropomorphically, in the form of a verbal imperative not only commanding departure, but also indicating a specific destination: stubborn charm/ go to the rock and hit there/ do not hit man/ do not hit animals/ go to the borders (Lehr 1981: 99). Making references to divine mediation or intercession, as in the case of breaking a spell, e.g. one cast a spell on me/ three will heal me/ the Holy Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit or saints, provided certain formulas with a form of a charm a prayer (Lehr 1981: 98). This referred to the majority of healing formulas, which are illustrated by the examples provided below. The first one was used to heal an infected eye, the second in the case of diagnosed pulmonary consumption: 1) I say goodbye to you, pain, with Gods help/ and the support of the Virgin Mary of Czstochowa/ Piotrkw and Piekary/ just like the Gospels spread across the church/ pain will spread across the world (Udziela 1924: 102); 2) the sun is rising from behind a mountain/ go out sickness from the skin/ like God in the sky/ will bring you back to health/ Mary from above/ give some meat to these bones (ibidem). Healing with words, supported by faith in their sacral power and autosuggestion, could, in some cases (especially having a psycho-somatic basis), have a beneficial effect. The inefficiency of healing did not depreciate the power of words that were used. The blame was put on the sick person, whose sinful life made it impossible to obtain a positive result; alternatively, the cause of ineffective healing was a lack of the healers competences and incompetently applied formulas. Verbal Ceremonial and Customary Formulas Activation and intensification of undertaken magical activities led to realisation of a positive reality by means of words, as well as establishment of a mystical restoration of the beginning. The power of verbalised words was therefore revealed in their function of initiating revitalisation of nature according to the cosmic rhythm. In this article, such types of verbal ceremonial forms are grouped under the common name of casting a spell on life. Practised in a form of verbal incantations or singing, they were characterised by clear temporal connotations. They were used at strictly defined transition periods, such as during summer and winter solstice. Therefore, they were used to create the bases of human existence and confirmed the accepted standards of social and cultural co-habitation, conditioned by a time of ritual magic. Oral formulas of initiation increased the efficiency of the uttered content two-fold: by the power of words and by the sanctity of time.

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Magical formulas which were uttered during Christmas Eve by the eldest family member also displayed traces of casting a spell with the aim of ensuring prosperity in the New Year. They contained words/ invitations to the dinner table addressed to animals which could cause harm, as well as to people with a bad reputation: come wolf, bear, thief/ to our house for dinner/ if you do not come today/ do not come for the whole year (Lehr 2007: 199). Inviting animals on this day had a special magical and religious significance. Christmas Eve marked the beginning of the greatest holiday in the calendar of liturgical feasts, i.e. Christmas. It initiated an entry in life renewed annually in line with the cycle of Christs life, which remains a holy history for Christians, understood through a mythical perspective. The birth of Christ marks the time of beginning, and his incarnation establishes, according to Mircea Eliade, a new situation of man in the Cosmos (1974: 120-121). Therefore, all requests and prayers had a double, and at the same time contradictory, causative factor. In the course of a day when the act of manifestation of the sacred takes place, i.e. during the hierophanic day, nothing that is contradictory to it can appear. On the other hand, the absence of evil in any form predicted prosperity in the entire coming year. On Christmas Eve, immediately after dinner, a ritual spell was cast with the purpose of ensuring good crops from fruit trees. It consisted in forcing the trees to confirm their prolificacy under a verbalised threat of cutting them down. A farmer would imitate this intention by putting an axe to the tree trunk and asking the following question: Will you give fruit or not? If not, I will cut you down. During this procedure the other person or the owner of the tree would answer: I will bear fruit. After such a declaration, the owner would tie a rope around it and go on to the next one, repeating the procedure (Udziela 1924: 36). In the days following Christmas, groups of masqueraders would wander about villages with a goat or a Christmas mummer1. Magical oral formulas uttered by them could also be interpreted as a gift of words, yet with a strictly defined intention. They referred to triggering an expected state of affairs in the coming year, i.e. casting a magic spell on a bumper crop. This is confirmed by the following words: wherever the goat puts its hoof, rye will grow/ wherever the goat hits her horn/ rye will grow/ where the goats do not go/ rye does not grow/ where the goats goes, rye grows there/ wherever she goes, stack of rye appears (Tomiccy 1975: 168; Kolberg 1964c: 66). Another form of asking for a bumper crop of, for example flax and hemp, by means of magic spells were the words of a song sung during a dance performed on Ash Wednesday, known as the hempen dance. It is characterised by jumps suggesting the height of plants, combined with a verbalised wish/ order which was supposed to ensure the proper growth of plants: grow, grow upwards/ so that the hemp is there (Tomiccy 1975: 172); for the hemp to grow/ so that I and my children do not go naked! (Mtys 1895: 83). Songs related to vegetative and breeding magic also accompanied other rituals, such as the burning of ritual fires. In the period of the so-called Whit Sunday (the Church holiday of sending the Holy Spirit), falling during the full prime of nature, boys and, in the past, also farmers would run around the fields with burning torches singing: eat rye for the new summer/ the wheat is for horses, and nothing for evil spirits! God, singe this crop (Kwaniewicz 1998: 97). The practice of a shepherds breeding magic in this very period is confirmed by the words of another song explaining the validity of the undertaken magical activities: we burn fir wood/ so that calves breed well all year round/ we burn juniper/ so that cows and sheep give birth (Janicka-Krzywda 1996: 240).
1

One of the carollers was dressed up as a horned animal (originally aurochs), wearing a wooden head in the shape of an ox or a goat with a moving jaw. This character was previously known in Medieval customs related to Christmas.

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Ceremonial initiation practised between March and April was also a ritual demonstration of creating a beginning of a vegetative cycle, referring symbolically to the remnants of beliefs in the primeval cult of the life-giving forces of nature. It should be performed at the proper moment with divine assistance: help me God/ at the right moment/ to summon spring (Tomiccy 1975: 183). This time was the time of Lent in the calendar of Christian liturgical holidays and the period of transition at the point of contact of the changing seasons of the year: winter that is going away and spring that is approaching. The coming of a new season of the year, emphasising renewal of life, was symbolised by a green grove (synonymously called New Summer) brought to villages by young girls after a previous ritual killing of personified winter (Marzanna a straw dummy representing winter). Songs, accompanying this custom, confirmed the departure of winter and evoked the existence of order in nature, compliant with the cosmic rhythm: Marzena leaves the village and the summer comes in (Gloger 1972: 176); we took her away (the winter) from the village, we brought spring to the village (Kwaniewicz 1998: 62). The words that were sung were a clear magical verbal provocation, whose purpose was to stimulate the earth to vegetation. The causative power of words was also used in love magic formulas. Such formulas were used by maidens who wished to secure the love of a man, popularity, or who wanted to find a husband. The best time was the time when crops were maturing, the peak moment of summer, the feast of fertility bonfires traditionally lit by country-folk on Midsummer Day (the eve of St. John). Whilst collecting plants which helped to make the wish come true, they would utter the following magical words: my flower/ I am looking for you in this field, with five fingers and one hand/ make the boys run after me (Nowak 1938: 77). Treating a word in a wider spectrum of its impact on human life, and this is the intended purpose of my presentation regarding the creative role of a word, authorises me to present its functioning in the context of family customs. The cyclical nature of human life, which is related to the rituals ascribed to it, provides verbal formulas and songs with signs of the magical metamorphosis of a mans status. It contains, similarly to annual customs, a creative element. However, it is devoid of a feature initiating cosmogonic recurrence, but establishes the status quo of an individual. On the other hand, the difference between the typical form of a ritual magical statement and verbal formulas used in family customs consisted in announcement and then ascertainment of a performed ritual act. In this case, the role of words contained in formulas had a rank of normative, and at the same time, the magical establishment of social and cultural order and its confirmation. A classical example of operation of causative power of a word as action in baptismal liturgy is a formula uttered by the priest: I baptise you... which creates a new spiritual life, i.e. the child is accepted into the Christian community (Lawrence 2004: 336). Spiritual transformation which takes place in the church is also confirmed by the words uttered by godparents. When giving the child back to the mother, they informed her of the childs new status: we took away a heathen and we bring back a Christian or we took away evil and we bring back good (Skowronek 1970: 235). With respect to wedding customs, the most important moment was oczepiny, i.e. the ceremonial putting on of a cap by the bride1. It was announced by the words of a song explaining the change in the status of the bride: praised be Jesus Christ/ our music/ the bride is giving away her wreath (B.1). The fact of cultural transformation was also confirmed by
1

In traditional culture, this was a socially sanctioned traditional form of change in the marital status of the bride, symbolised by donning a scarf in place of a wreath.

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the groom: now I am married/ I said yes forever/ I drowned the feather1 (Z.2); the weddinghosts wife also reminded the bride about this event: tie your braids up; because you are not a girl anymore (Z.1). Creation of a new hierarchy in the family during funeral rituals was commenced by the speech of a sexton. The content of words signified farewell with the family and asking for forgiveness. The final exclusion of the deceased from the circle of living and the family home were words uttered by people carrying the coffin out: stay with God (Z.3). Oral farewells combined with the lowering of the coffin three times were repeated at every threshold that was passed. Therefore, in this case the oral formula was not only the last gift a blessing from the deceased, but also an important final word, irrevocably ending the deceaseds stay in this world. Failure to utter such formula was related to a conviction that the soul of the deceased would come back because the ritual of exclusion was not complete. Modern Relations Between Magical Speech and Language The thesis about the causative role of words when it comes to the creation of reality, ascertained at the beginning of this article, locates this phenomenon in the speech of primitive and traditional cultures that preceded the symbolic and abstract properties of modern language. Its functioning in the presented form resulted from the fact that speech was, for primitive peoples, the only form of inter-human and transcendental communication with an emotional and unreflective nature. It could be understood solely within the framework of a given context due to its reliance on myth and magic. The unique configuration of rules was contained in memory and passed down from generation to generation. In mystical thinking, words shaped human activity in all manifestations of human existence. It was, according to Bronisaw Malinowski, an act, as full of power as a handshake (2004: 122), and its strategic properties even in most primitive cultures were more efficient than a direct blow (Sapir 1978: 49). Making reference to these accurate remarks of both scientists, it has to be ascertained that the emotive and mental quintessence contained in words may also have an intentional impact today. In rural traditional cultures, functioning in the culture of the written word, i.e. in the sphere of dominance of the literal, the preserved forms of la parole occur independently from modern language, confirming the retained power of its explication. Faith in the causative power of magical incantations has lesser significance than before, and the activities accompanying them sometimes exist solely by the power of inertia. Duration of this mythical reality constitutes, by recurrence of customs and verbal formulas, an indispensable spiritual supplementation of the life of inhabitants of local communities. Changes in outlook and mental approach which took place and which are happening now and development of technology within the scope of communications as a form of transmission did not impact the decision-making functions of words. The word is implemented contemporarily, not via personification (as in magical speech), but via its semantics and symbolic character. Audio-visual media provided a greater possibility of interaction thanks to the agency of modern transmitters creating a virtual reality. The purpose of transmission remained unchanged: action. In this context, it is possible to treat media language as a counterpart to the magic of speech, which, however, operates upon different principles, relying on scientific knowledge and symbolic and abstract properties of modern language. It is also a transmitter distributing magical
1

This item symbolised bachelorhood.

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content, the demand for which has been steadily growing for several years. It is exemplified by guidelines placed on Internet sites telling people how to improve their fate by magic (word and action). They make frequent references to faith in the magical power of trees: eternal on eternal soil/ older than time can determine/ lend me your strength/ so that the magic will come true or the tree of earth, air, fire and water/ give me love which I am yearning for (Magia...2010). Most popular are curses. They are published in quasi-psychological and esoteric magazines. Such magazines also include advertisements depicting people who act as agents in the casting of spells (illustration No. 1). One of the links presents a list of available demons which provide services for a company called EBLIS specialising in this magical enterprise. One of the proposed curse models is the following formula: I, X from Y in Poland, cast on you, Z from in Poland, an eternal curse which will hang upon you and your descendants to the nth generation. May a terrible disease get hold of you after you turn 40 and may you die in pain, you and your descendants to the nth generation (Wieczorek 2007: 1). The need of verbal spiritual support, which may create another reality, testifies to an increased interest in magical aspects of life, paradoxically among city dwellers. This is exemplified by the Fairs of Health, Beauty and Oddities, which has been organised annually in several Polish cities for many years. The fortune-tellers who participate in such fairs, next to parapsychologists, healers and energy healers, offer magical assistance in obtaining knowledge about the future, happiness, love and material benefits. The popularity of psychoanalytical counselling and the growing group of spiritual consolers who accept patients in their offices and the increasing number of esoteric publications indicates the need for words which have power, and therefore words which may be passed on by experts on magic. This is also an expression of the existential anxiety of people overwhelmed by every-day problems. However, this is not the only justification for this popularity of magical words or motivation for various types of neo-pagan movements. Nevertheless, it proves that faith in its causative power continues to exist, and words uttered, not only by modern fortune-tellers, have not lost their power of impact. They have retained their potential of denoting and nominating in the same degree, as well as the resulting stigmatisation. Calling somebody a loser or a man without honour or casting words that discredit somebodys honesty and dignity belittles such a person not only among friends, but also in his/ her own eyes. Therefore, unjust accusations, slander, and in the end gossip, are the sharpest tools of socially harmful criticism or contemporary magical speech. The results of spontaneous or consciously uttered words cause an avalanche of consequences: alienation of the individual, social ostracism, sometimes leading to extreme reactions, e.g. suicide. The assumption of the causative power of words in contemporary times does not correspond to the symbolic and semantic function of the language (created in the course of historical and civilization development) nor rational outlook. Nevertheless, it has many advocates which may be related to, according to Lucien Lvy-Brhl, the mystical mentality, present in every human mind (Bernard 2006: 155). The existence of circumstances which are conducive to frustrations and phobias may cause a verbal and manual reaction whose nature is irrational. The still practised cleansing power of words an exorcism is proof of this1. Irrational attitudes are, according to Aniela Meyer-Ginsberg, a need resulting from being stronger than the surrounding reality, breaking of objective laws, reaching for the impossible; secondly, such thinking satiates mans yearning for something other than the surrounding reality, something further, something transcendental (Szmyd 1979: 278).
1

Poland may take pride in the largest number of priests in Europe (except for Italy) authorised by the Church to fight against possession. In February 2010, a Congregation of Exorcists took place in Niepokalanw, which was attended by almost 90 people (50).

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* In conclusion, it is necessary to state that disregarding the fact whether words function in a specific magical or religious system or in the colloquial language, they have causative power due to the fact that the task of a word is to call a specific status into being. Words uttered in a transcendental reality, as in the case of mystical and religious thinking or in empirical and symbolic conditions, in line with the grammar of modern language, still constitute an imperative creating the reality. On the other hand, words are at the disposal of man, and man decides whether they will create the magical world (virtual) or the real world, friendly or hostile.
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22 UDZIELA, Seweryn: 1924 Krakowiacy, Biblioteczka Geograficzna Orbis seria 3, t.1, (Nakadem Ksigarni Geograficznej Orbis), Krakw-Dbniki WIECZOREK, Marcin: 2007 Wiara w magiczn moc sowa. Kltwy w Internecie (http://www.pinezka.pl/tekstyw-tourne-sc/2452-wiara-w-magiczna-moc-slowa-klatw...) ZWI-WRBLOWSKY, J. Raphael: 2003 Sowo u mistykw ydowskich (w) Grzegorz Godlewski [red.] Antropologia sowa. Zagadnienia i wybr tekstw (Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego), Warszawa, s. 332-334. (Archives Records) B.1. ur. 1949, Region of Podhale (village Brzegi), Archive of Cracows Ethnographical Section. Institute Archeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, catalogue number.: 1761/921 Z.1 ur. 1905, Region of Podhale (village Zb), APE IAE PAN, - nr inw.1796/94 Z.2. ur. 1940, Region of Podhale (village Zb) APE IAE PAN nr inw. 1788/93 Z.3 ur. 1923, Region of Podhale (village Zb) APE IAE PAN nr inw. 1788/93

The shorter form of recording archives materials is used on as follows APE IAE PAN.

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PETRU URSACHE

PROCES I PROCESARE N CONSTITUIREA IMAGINARULUI

The image becomes imaginary through a long complex technical phenomenon of processing, from the simple momentarily impression to the certainty, to the acknowledge of a stable reality, with its own position within the frames of thruth. The image is a sensitive and proteic expression. On the other hand, the imaginary presumes a controlled reception of the object, aiming a rigouros attempt of conceptualisation, in order to elaborate logic asertions during the process of knowledge. Keywords: Image, Imaginary, Poetic thruth, Philosophic truth

Trecerea imaginii n imaginar este un fenomen tehnic de procesare, complex i de lung durat, de la simpla impresie accidental, de moment, la certitudine, la recunoaterea unei realiti devenit stabil, cu statut propriu n marginile adevrului. Imaginea este o expresie sensibil i mutant. Ea se ivete n spaiul fiinei ca pulsiune sentimental i ardent i-i gsete repere ntre posibil i verosimil. Numai eul individual, de excepie, d seama de parcursul formativ i de natura propriei invenii sub semnul imaginii alese. Datele concretului incomodeaz adesea; n schimb, fantezia se simte la ea acas. Alta este situaia imaginarului. Poziia sa n spaiul dobndit al contiinei, al unui eu generalizat, amintete de relaia pe care o fceau cei vechi ntre adevrul poetic, sensibil i cu genez difuz i adevrul filosofic, bazat pe faptul concret i transfigurat n concept, fie plasat n idealitate, n exerciiul judecii de valoare, fie ad rem. Altfel spus, imaginarul, n dimensiunea acceptat astzi, ca termen tehnic, atrn de receptarea controlat a obiectului, n manier fotografic i n perspectiva conceptualizrii riguroase, pentru elaborarea judecilor logice, credibile, de cunoatere. Diferena ar decurge din faptul c cei vechi aveau o gndire oarecum static, ntemeiat pe universalii, pentru jocuri speculative: barbarul era definit odat pentru totdeauna, n manier negaionist; alesul la fel, dar n direcie opus i ireversibil. Urmaii clasicilor, cu precdere modernii, au devenit pragmatici i experimentali. n habitudinea lor, experiena cunoaterii se cere repetat, verificat n diferite chipuri. Se tie: prima ncercare de receptare a obiectului (lucru, fenomen) are caracter provizoriu i numai provizoriu; se revine pentru confirmare, corectare, finalizare. Abia din acest punct se poate vorbi cu ndreptire despre o anume linie de comportament, despre un tip de caracter, o inut moral / imoral. Obinem ceea ce se numete marca identitar, reprezentnd un grup distinct, nu un ins izolat din mulime, cum se procedeaz adesea cnd dicteaz interesele politizante, falsificatoare. Este un fenomen de procesare ce se produce n timp i sub atent observaie. De data aceasta, punctul de sprijin sufer translaia spre adncurile abisale ale eului colectiv, aa c faptul artat la vedere i ivit n gnd ine de un fond temeinic, al permanenei i al credibilitii. Confuzii s-au produs prea adesea, n timpuri mai vechi i, mai cu seam, n modernitate/ postmodernitate. Totdeauna cnd se ntlnesc dou culturi, primul semn de care se nvrednicete

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fiecare n parte este suspiciunea. Motivele variaz: prejudecata, interesul, complexul de inferioritate/ superioritate. Puternicul l biruie pe cel slab prin for, cu alte cuvinte, prin armat plus ideologie; urmeaz munca de cucerire, adic de aculturaie, aceasta nsemnnd de multe ori ntoarcere n primitivitate. Asiaticii au fost maetri n aceast privin iar pe urmele lor au pit cu nverunare boleo- comunitii, fr s le pese de umanitate. Dominaia asupra celuilalt a constituit marc identitar n toate timpurile, iar jocul de- a imaginarul a fost practicat cu eficacitate de o parte i de alta. Asta nseamn construcie fals sau deconstrucie. Intreprinderea devine cu att mai previzibil, cu ct este asumat de persoane autorizate s-i spun prerea, datorit unor poziii privilegiate sau ca martori la faa locului. Dup ce aparatul de propagand i-a ndeplinit rolul potrivit canonului dinainte stabilit, greu de gsit fora necesar, capabil s ntoarc rurile la origini pentru a readuce apa lustral. n timpuri mai ndeprtate, funcia fabricanilor de imagine dat drept imaginar se ncredina cltorilor, diplomailor, negustorilor, misionarilor. Se cunosc prerile negaioniste ale cltorilor strini, n trecere rapid pe la noi, din secolele feudalismului expansionist, cel mai adesea cu sarcini precise de la centru, adic din direciile celor trei mari imperii rapace i n competiie, Austria, Rusia, Turcia, sprijinite de plutocraia intern, alogen i cocoat la conducere. Locul amintiilor fabricani de opinie a fost acaparat, n contemporaneitatea postbelic de reeaua massmedia. Ea are putere s ptrund fr oprelite la toate nivelele i categoriile socio-umane, sub pretextul, fr putin de replic, deocamdat, de a ine omenirea, devenit populaie, la curent cu informaiile, dirijate cu intenie i considerate trebuitoare i vitale. De altfel, caracteristica vieii post-moderne i hipertehnicizate este rzboiul informaional, aici fiind inclus i arta publicitar a imaginii. Ctig cine are aparatura cea mai sofisticat, folosit fr moral i fr prinip. Operaia este simpl i clar ca lumina zilei: se nlocuiete imaginarul (stabilit n timp, verificat, confruntat cu realitatea i cu adevrul), cu imaginea corectat, nregistrat mecanic, spontan i accidental. Simpla ei expunere pe ecran este suficient pentru receptorul naiv, incult, amator de senzaional i tocmai de aceea incapabil s bnuiasc inteniile mascate, politizante. n asemenea situaie, imaginea intr n proces, nu n procesare, cu imaginarul, iar n final, minciuna cu adevrul, pmntul i cerul. De la pupitrul de comand, laptele se poate vedea negru; apocalipsa a cobort n mijlocul nostru. Nimeni nu vrea s mai vad, astfel nu mai suntem vrednici s ne amintim pasajul evanghelic, cu sperane euharistice: Mergei i spunei lui Ioan cele ce auzii i vedei;/ Orbii i capt vederea i chiopii umbl, leproii se curesc i surzii aud, morii nviaz i sracilor le binevestete (Matei, 11.4-5). Riscm s pierdem dreptul la adevr i la fericire. Nimic de zis, cltorii din toate timpurile i locurile au fost de multe ori iniiatori i deschiztori de drumuri, unii dintre ei loiali cu desvrire adevrului i civilizaiei. Erau ateptai cu ncredere, cu pine i cu sare. A ajuns proverbial, pe aceast cale, ospitalitatea romnilor, despre care au vorbit cu entuziasm cltori din diverse momente istorice. De asemenea, se rspndise pe ntinsul zonelor euro-asiatice mitul strinului misterios i totdeauna ateptat, care aducea mesaje divine, de interes vital pentru toat lumea; o variant antropomorfizat a cltoriilor lui Dumnezeu, nsoit de slujbai credincioi, semn c Cerul nc era simit aproape. Dar i peregrinul era un tip de mesager ales i ntmpinat cu bucurie, fie i pentru simple veti din locuri deprtate. El se oprea realmente prin trguri i sate, tiind c mulimile naive i curioase erau amatoare de informaie, s afle ce se ntmpl prin lumea larg. Exist, prin urmare, o ntreag tipologie a cltorului creator de imagologie, reflectnd lumea de sus sau de jos, de regul, n beneficiul tuturor; de la mitologia cea mai nalt, cu personaje prestigioase, la oameni activi i pragmatici, integrai n viaa istoric i de toate zilele.

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n privina noastr, a romnilor, cltorii cu identitate istoric au nceput s ne viziteze nc nainte de ntemeierea Principatelor, o dat cu apariia cavalerilor teutoni, smntori de ceti i de drumuri; dup cum a fost resimit dramatic revrsarea, peste Carpai, a puhoaielor ucigae ale ttarilor, prilejuind imagini apocaliptice n desfurare. nsemnrile dateaz de prin secolul al XV-lea i s- au adunat, cu timpul, ntr-o mare i important cantitate de documente. Ele au constituit preocuparea principal a unui colectiv de specialiti ai Academiei Romne i au fost date tiparului, n mai multe volume masive, cu titlul Cltori strini prin rile romne. Personaliti de seam ale culturii noastre, nainte de toate Nicolae Iorga, s-au rostit cu deplin convingere c multe momente din istorie ar rmne pgubite, chiar de neneles, fr anumite contribuii ale cltorilor strini. Aa c nume prestigioase, asemenea lui Bandine, Botero, Del Chiaro, Kunisch, ne-au devenit familiare i au intrat cu zestrea lor de mrturie istoric n patrimoniul culturii romne. Este drept, unii s- au ntrecut n caracterizri negaioniste, din necunoatere ori din interese proprii. Cea mai convingtoare dovad de apreciere, dar i de corecie a nsemnrilor n discuie, o constituie lucrarea lui Nicolae Iorga, Istoria romnilor prin cltori. Este o replic n chip de adaos informativ i de restaurare de imagine la Cltori strini prin rile romne, pe care numai un istoric total i complet, cu viziune integratoare i de ansamblu, ca Nicolae Iorga putea s-o provoace i s-o duc la bun sfrit. Cci nu este o istorie dup datin i n manier previzibil, adic bazat pe documente de arhiv, ornduite cronologic i ierarhizate dup msura eroilor n aciune. Cltorii nu erau totdeauna atrai de viaa de curte, nici nu veneau cu mesaje privind schimbarea domniilor ori s fixeze granie i sfere de interese. Ei au atras atenia cercettorilor i pentru aspecte de ordin secund, ce in de istoria privat, de la caz la caz i n diversitate: trecerea, rmnerea, implicarea n aciuni productive (negustoreti, culturale, religioase, diplomatice), toate dezvluiau natura i gradele de interes pe care le manifestau strinii din apropiere ori de pe meleaguri mai ndeprtate fa de romni, pentru profituri proprii, imediate ori pentru termen lung. Evident, se constituia o imagine, dar privit din exterior, adesea n grab, pentru aproximarea firii romnilor. Deocamdat, faptul ne interesa i pe noi, ca actori, mai mult sau mai puin contieni de rol, ct i pe strini, ca observatori, mai mult sau mai puin obiectivi i bine intenionai. Un lucru mi se pare sigur: imaginea se nchipuie ca o iniiativ venit doar dintr-o direcie. n cazul operei literare poate fi un ctig; imaginarul pretinde conlucrare, altfel rmne o construcie de lut, riscnd s se prbueasc prea repede n mlatin. Cine parcurge cele ase volume de documente, n chip de istorie, Cltori strini prin rile romne, constat diversitate de preri n legtur cu viaa intern a romnilor; i mai constat c, pe msur ce ne apropiem de timpurile moderne, de cnd romnii ncep s se bucure de libertate, s se manifeste cu de la sine putere ca fiin organic, imaginarul pozitiv capt contur din ce n ce mai rspicat, cltorii ne observ mai cu rspundere, msur i n conformitate cu datele reale, bune/ rele, dar plauzibile, ale carpato-dunrenilor. Cam aa neleg fenomenul de procesare, de transformare a imaginii spontane i accidentale, prin observaie cuprindere esenializare, pn la statutul de document; nct s se poat spune c romnul este prudent n comportri i judeci. El a ptimit i tras nvmite din dreapta i din stnga. Paremiologia lui constituie o dovad de nelepciune dobndit. Acolo principiile moralei pozitive precumpnesc asupra celei negative. Corpusul de proverbe i de zictori se afl n perfect concordan cu cele zece porunci vechitestamentare, cu fericirile evanghelice, cu tratatele reputate de moral de la Aristotel la Cicero i Seneca, de la J.J. Rousseau i Im. Kant la Benedetto Croce. Fenomenele de procesare, nelegndu- se latura liber a cursului imaginii spre imaginar i mental, nsoit de latura conflictual, cunosc aceeai ncordare, att n spaii etnico- demografice ct i culturale, n legtur cu opere, cu autori. Este cazul Mioriei privit n toat istoria ei,

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de la descoperire pn astzi. Junimitii n-au reinut-o cu aceeai emoie i druire, asemenea culegtorului-poet, Vasile Alecsandri; nici Eminescu, apologet al geniului i al organicitii neamului, nici Titu Maiorescu, adept al izbutitului estetic i al capodoperei. Mai aproape de atmosfera acestei poeme pstoreti s-a aflat un istoric strin, Jules Michelet. Evoca textul emoional, fascinat de acel nescio quid, semn al morii eterne i cutremurtoare. i literaii mai noi, de la G. Ibrileanu la G. Clinescu, au rmas doar la tatonri. Pentru ei a contat cu prioritate expresia literar pe care o asemnau cu aceea a creatorului cult, de cea mai aleas inut artistic. De reinut ns c pn aici fiecare a semnalat cte un aspect distinct din ansamblul compoziiei, cu argumentaie succint, dar riguroas i n completare, spre folosul cunoaterii. Este un aspect al constituirii imaginarului n particulariti etnografice i literare; n-au lipsit pe parcurs, cum era de ateptat, nici replici de control i de avertisment. Continuarea nu s-a mai efectuat n aspecte marginale, pentru c s-a simit nevoia parcursului spre adncime, spre ceea ce s-a numit, esena mioritismului ca mod de existen, demers cerut de alegoria imposibil moartea-nunt, ca obsesie general-uman, nu doar pstoreasc i carpatic. Faptul a fost posibil numai n secolul al XX-lea, o dat cu ivirea ontologiei n perimetrul cunoaterii, ca tiin a fiinei. A fost meritul lui Mircea Eliade s opereze asemenea deschidere orizontic. Formaia lui filosofic modern (umanist, mitologic, de istorie a religiei) i-a permis s identifice n complexul de texte mioritice, deasupra crora troneaz varianta Alecsandri, ntrebarea, fr posibil rspuns, care obsedeaz omenirea ntreag, pe parcursul mai multor secole din existena ei; nu uzurpnd observaiile anterioare, stricte i la obiect, ci spre confirmarea lor i, totodat, ca trepte de nlare ale unui adevr grav, de importan unic, vital: moartea ca moarte. Dac n postmodernism valorile tezaurizate i devenite repere n imaginarul umanitii ncep s fie ntmpinate n chip deconstructivist, propunndu-se, n replic, imagini negativiste, cauza nu trebuie pus pe seama pretinsei demodri a capodoperei. Ea rmne etern, ct omenirea, nu cunoate uzura. Vina o poart amatorii de schimbri nesbuite i facile. Cci schimbare, n accepiune postmodern, nseamn cdere, din treapt n treapt: cdere n materie, n minciun i n lumea valorilor de tip cantitativ; ceea ce l transform pe om, ca fiin sensibil i gnditoare, ntr- un biet sclav fericit.

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ALEXANDRA TTRAN

MAGIC AND RELIGIOUS RITUAL IN WITCHCRAFT SITUATIONS

Regarded as an integrated phenomenon in todays Romanian society, the investigated field of magic, witchcraft and sorcery can be at best characterized by vastness and heterogeneity. In any actual situation, it combines ancient rural magic and mentalities, religious practice, modern and urban divination techniques and pseudo-scientific explanations belonging to paranormal or New-Age concepts. Shaping this field is overwhelmingly linked to the impact of mass-media, through the free circulation of the various explanatory systems for the existential dilemmas of the contemporary man. This paper is focused not on the composing elements of this heterogeneous field (a type of analysis, undoubtedly, extremely necessary, but which exceeds the limits of this study), but on the witchcraft situations proper, actorcentrically approached and described through three of its crucial moments: the moment of assuming a crisis situation; enunciating the diagnosis of being bewitched; starting the therapeutical process aiming at restoring the anterior state of wellbeing always considered, by comparison, the prototype for wellness. We can assert the fact that the actors assuming a diagnosis of being bewitched are, mainly, of feminine gender. Instead, we are far from a discourse that exclusively places those actors in the rural area, according to the representation (stigmatizing, as a matter of fact) that the actors assuming this type of diagnosis are but faces of the primitives within the modern, civilized nations. The diagnosis of being bewitched is equally assumed in the cities and the villages, by people less educated, as well as by those with a higher educational level. Another characteristic of the subject is that the fieldwork material regarding witchcraft and sorcery presents itself as a mainly discursive one that is, as discourses about witchcraft, victims, sorcerers and spells. The approached field material consists of: memories, opinions, stories and happenings-telling, suspicions and accuses, gossip and rumours, recommended remedies and steps to be followed. Besides, it is difficult to guess what exactly would represent the empirical directly observable fact of witchcraft situations, as long as this type of subject engages the researcher in a field characterized by the imponderability of magical force, or the causality relation existent between the evil wanted and the evil suffered, interpreted as such from the perspective of the actor assuming the diagnosis of being bewitched. A (partial) conclusion addresses the importance of re-examining the magical-religious relation. As a participant to the contemporary complex society, each and every informant is fully aware of the conceptual dichotomy between the religious pole and the magic pole. Nevertheless, this conceptual polarization doesnt seem to be as operational when examined in practice, in individual action. Additionally, we have to acknowledge the fact that the operated disjunction fully belongs to the dogmatic religious pole, while the magic specialists legitimate themselves precisely by resorting to religious elements. Discussing the witchcraft accusations of todays Romania leads toward reassessing the complex relationship between popular magic and the Orthodox religion which, as part and illustrator of a continuously changing society, still requires a great deal of further fieldwork and theoretical consideration. Keywords: magic; religion; witchcraft situation; ritual; existential crisis; therapy; apotropaic; actor-centric; polarisation.

This paper is a partial attempt to document the presence and forms of a contemporary phenomenon in the Romanian society, namely the experiences of being bewitched. By partial attempt I understand the fact that a significant amount of field material, raising various methodological and theoretical issues, had to be left aside from this current acount; and also the fact that the subject still requires a great deal of further fieldwork and theoretical consideration.

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The particular motivation of choosing the subject lies in its extraordinary reccurence during field investigations, compared to its weak illustration in contemporary specialised studies. More specifically, I came across numerous stories and personal experiences regarding magical aggressions, witchcraft and sorcery1, during field investigations focused on a rather more benign pole, that of apotropaic magic2 embedded in religious holidays and the moments of passage. The subject presents a number of specifics that have to be outlined. First of all, the experiences of being bewitched always illustrate a crisis situation in someones life. This aspect makes them a delicate subject for discussion. Secondly, the witchery situations are mainly characterized by spatial mobility, presenting themselves as vast networks cut crossing the rural and the urban social environments. I would put a special emphasis on the fact that these type of situations and stories are neither exotic, neither rare, and they do not describe exclusively the actors from the rural areas or originating there. Thirdly, the fieldwork material regarding witchcraft and sorcery presents itself as a mainly discoursive one3 that is, as discourses about witchcraft, victims, sorcerers and spells. During my field research, I didnt have the chance of being directly involved in a witchery situation. Due to that fact, the approached field material consists of: memories, opinions, stories and happenings-telling, suspicions and accuses, gossip and rumours, recommended remedies and steps to be followed. The discoursive material is supplemented by visits to professional fortune-tellers mainly as client and attending religious service specifically dedicated to therapeutic and healing interventions. I also have to outline the fact that the field material, and consequently the theoretical approach, is focused on the victims perspective, on those who accuse. I would like to examine some of the constituent elements of a witchery situation, based on a field material undertook in: Rca village (Cluj County, Apuseni Mountains); Reteag, Giugeti and Dumitra villages ( Bistria-Nsud County); Deta (Timi County) and the towns Bistria and Cluj-Napoca. Regardless of the inherent local specific traits, the discourses and steps involved in a witchery situation prove to be unitary, especially if we take them into consideration from the actors point of view. In this regard, the assumed theoretical perspective is an actor-centered one. The magical practices wont be approached as an operational or conceptual reified category (as in contexts marked by the impersonal it is done....), but rather as individual experiences, belonging to particular life contexts. There are few field researchers (ethnologists, anthropologists, sociologists and so on) who didnt have the opportunity to acknowledge, during their fieldwork, the distance that exists
When discussing a witchery situation, there is a classical distinction operated by E.E. Evans-Pritchard (1937: 387) between a witch and a sorcerer, customary taken into consideration as an anthropological conceptual framework for the subject. The distinction states that, while a witch acts without rites and spells and uses hereditary psychopsychical powers to attain his ends, a sorcerer uses the techniques of magic and derives his power from medicines. However, as operational as it might be for the Azande, this distinction doesnt apply as clearly for the Romanian territory. During my field investigations, I came to realize that a magical aggressor can sometimes be described as sorcerer, other times as a witch; and yet, most often he/she is described as something of them both that is, possessing hereditary psycho-psychical powers and using magical techniques and rites. 2 Apotropaic magic is a type of magic concerned with protection, defence and prevention of any form of evil. 3 The fact that the fieldwork material regarding the experiences of being bewitched presents itself mainly as a collection of texts might not only be a matter of personal contingency (for instance, the particular conditions of my field research), as I initially suspected. Jeanne Favret-Saada (1977: 25) noted that: Sur le terrain, je nai pourtant recontr que du langage. Pendant de longs mois, le seul fait empirique que jai pu noter, ctait de la parole. And again (1977: 51), she stated that: Le fait empirique nest alors pas autre chose quun procs de parole et mes notes prennent la forme dun rcit. Perceiving the witchery situations more as words and less as facts do not make them, however, any less real which is precisely one of the underlying perspectives of this article.
1

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between the form of reception of the field material (happenings, discussions, memories) and the final form of (re)presenting this material (the scientific, academical discourse). I consider treating the witchery experiences in their context of emergence that is, the individual lives to be the best solution in the attempt to avoid the transformation of the above-mentioned distance into irreparable gap. Regarded as an integrated phenomenon in todays Romanian society, the investigated field of magic, witchcraft and sorcery can be at best characterized by vastness and heterogeneity. In any actual situation, it combines ancient rural magic and mentalities, religious practice, modern and urban divination techniques and pseudo-scientific explanations belonging to paranormal or new-age concepts1. Therefore, the theoretical and conceptual approach of this article can only be considered as part of a work in progress. Theoretically and ideally, a witchery situation is a relation between two actors: a magical aggressor (the witch or the sorcerer) and its targeted individual (the sufferer or the victim). This type of relation is possible through manipulating the magical force, circulated by the means of proper actions (rituals, spells, charms and so on). The two actors presumably share the same set of beliefs, which sustains the access to the same symbolical code. With this approach, were not too far from Marcel Mauss (1991: 10) who considered that the system of magic consisted of three main terms: the actions (the rites), the agents (the magician) and the representations (the ideas and beliefs corresponding to the magical actions). However, investigating a witchery situation as part of the real life, as belonging to particular life contexts, proves to be something of a different sort than the sketch above. The experience of being bewitched begins and ends with the person who assumes the position involved by the victims pole, that of the sufferer of a magical aggression. This is the nuclear term of any witchcraft and sorcery investigation, its main actor. There are other actors involved, such as: close relatives and friends who normally adjoin the situation; the person who makes the diagnosis of being bewitched; the intermediary (for instance, the professional fortune-teller) and the therapists (mostly priests or monks). The fact that these categories are not fixed ones, and that they suffer multiple intermingles in every days life, has to be clearly outlined. The great absentee of this picture is, precisely, the magical aggressor. Although the preexistence of someone occupying this pole is a prerequisite condition to sustain the coherence of the whole ensemble, the person suspected of beholding that particular position never manifests itself actively in a crisis situation. As Jeanne Favret-Saada (1977: 32) put it, () les sorciers prsums, qui sont obstinment muets, ou bien prtendent ne pas croire aux sorts belong, regardless of their silence, to the mechanism of the situation. The presupposed magical aggressor appears only as a discourse reference. Nevertheless, she/ he does have a name and corresponds to a person. Identifying the aggressor, placing her/ him on a spatial and temporal map, addressing the suspicions to a face and not to an undifferentiated evil, is a key-part in a process which transforms the victim (the passive subject) into a subject who takes action. How does a witchery situation appear in someones life? On what premise does it evolve from a pale suspicion unto an assumed situation, which has to be dealt with?
1

As it has also been remarked by Gabriel Troc (1998), the Romanian market of pseudo and cvasi-religious products flourished after 1989. There is a vast commercial category of religious/magical/mystical/occult concepts vehiculated mainly throughout the media, which can be added to any personal explanatory list in various crisis situations. For instance, the classical evil eye (Rom.: deochi) is often explained in both a traditional manner (a type of magical aggression provoked by the eye-contact with someone unaware of their evil magical powers, much like a witch) and in a modern bioenergetical terminology (as energetical vampires, compensating their personal lack through energetical theft).

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A standard portrait, as the one elaborated by Jeanne Favret-Saada (1977: 22-24), outlines the following three premises of initial development: only the misfortunes that repeat and vary in form can meet a witchcraft-situation diagnosis; there is always a third-party person involved who, based on a personal previous similar experience, places the diagnosis of being bewitched; the magical therapist is the last one resorted to, after resorting to the medical doctor and the priest in the same manner as resorting to witchcraft discourse comes in last, after exhausting the possibilities offered by the positivist discourse and by the religious one. The undeniable relevance of this scheme has to be counterbalanced by the fact that witchcraft and sorcery in Bocage, as well as the witchcraft and sorcery in any Romanian village fifty years ago, can not be the same thing with the intermingled sources and discourses on this subject in a complex, heterogeneous, multi-voiced society as the one of today. Therefore, the best starting point would be the elements we can denominate the signals and signs of an abnormal state of things. Some of the most recurrent forms of signaling a crisis situation are: physical pain, illness and other types of violence, characterized by sudden and brutal break outs. Another form consists in a retrospective extended temporality, which means that, from a milestone-moment onward, the signs embedded in a general unsatisfactory situation appear clearly suspicious: delaying ones marriage, unfulfilment of certain desires, multiple misfortunes and so on. As E.R. Leach observed (1949: 163), the diagnosis of sorcery is normally retrospective a kind of symptom analysis. The two types of assuming a witchery situation the violent outburst of events or the retrospective milestone assessment share something in common. The keymoment of assuming the diagnosis of being bewitched, along with the motivation for following a future set of necessary actions, is also a moment of automatically appealing to all the previous contexts that generated the initial suspicions. The suspicion of being bewitched never rises by itself, out of nothing and unsupplied by previous contexts, additional to the actual crisis. These types of previous contexts consist mainly of bad, problematical or conflicting relationships with relatives, neighbors and acquaintances. There is also the situation of the general suspicion of a community (village) addressed to a particular individual considered a witch or a sorcerer, with whom the bewitched victim remembers having a contact in the recent past. The bottom line is that, simultaneously to the act of assuming the bewitched diagnosis, there is a starting point to a long process of retrospective rearrangement of happenings, discussions, interactions, reinterpreted as parts (signs) of the current situation. As a means of organizing the material, I chose to follow the red thread outlining the parts played by key-actors in a witchcraft-situation crisis. Most of the time, there is indeed (as Jeanne Favret-Saada suggested) a person who plays the part of diagnostician, who triggers the entrance into the witchcraft discourse by naming as such the abnormal situation. I will consider this person an incidental diagnostician, as being the first one giving a name to a suspicious state of things. It is always someone close to the presupposed victim, who had a similar personal experience or witnessed one and, therefore, can read the signs and make all the necessary connections. The role of this person doesnt end with placing the diagnosis. She or he usually remains involved as a further informed advisor due to its previous experience regarding the actions and steps to be followed. But as long as this actor does not have the authority and the competence to irrevocably confirm a witchcraft-situation diagnosis, it has to be dissociated (at least in theory) from the professional diagnostician the fortune-teller and/ or the priest. Another key-actor can be the professional fortune-teller. Visiting a fortune-teller is not a compulsory step involved in any (yet) unexplained crisis situation. Nevertheless, I documented the presence of this actor, who normally occupies the place of an intermediary, in most of the

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investigated situations. Professional fortune-tellers1 are to be found both in urban and rural areas. Still, there is a sensitive differentiation. A fortune teller who is active in a village gains public visibility, sometimes even to a regional level, which, in return, re-focuses the acute local communitys attention upon her/ himself. In other words, a fortune teller activating in a village is rarely perceived as just a fortune teller. Generally, she/ he is considered by the locals as being (also or mainly) a sorcerer or a witch. In exchange, a fortune-teller in a city is considerably less visible and, in most of the cases, perceived by her/ his clients just as such. However, the issue of public visibility does not exhaust the premises of this particular differentiation. The element we can add is a general perception regarding the magical phenomenon which, especially in the rural areas, tends to push anything related to magic (including divination) towards a malign, malefic pole. This attitude is nothing of a novelty; it has its roots in the basic dichotomies operated by the religious discourse. And yet, we can observe a considerable reinforcement of the public impact of all orthodox religious categories in the Romanian society, after 1989. In urban agglomerations, due to anonymity as well as to the general process of specialization and delegation of all services, being a fortune-teller can be considered a profession (almost) like any other. Regardless the area differentiation (urban or rural), the most encountered divination techniques at present are: divination with playing cards, coffee divination and Gipsy Tarot (a deck of 36 cards). Classical Tarot (a deck of 78 cards) and astrology are exclusively urban techniques, in a full process of gaining popularity. We have to mention the fact that traditional rural divination techniques, such as: divination in wax, the complex ritual of divination with a pail (rom.: ciubr)2, divination with corn beans (rom.: datul n bobi) or divination in flour have almost disappeared, their place being taken by the three modern divination techniques mentioned above. The answer presented to the client at the end of the divination sequence is the one establishing the role to be played by the fortune-teller in this process: The fortune-teller can prove to be the diagnostician of a witchery situation. If the client didnt previously meditate upon her/ his unsatisfactory situation in these terms, we can consider the position occupied by the fortune-teller similar to that of the incidental diagnostician, the one who triggers the assumption and presence of a witchery situation by naming it. If the client has already formulated the hypothesis of being bewitched, the fortuneteller intervenes as professional diagnostician, the one person with the necessary competence and means to irrevocably confirm the clients suspicion. The fortune-teller has the place of an intermediary in most of the diagnosed witchery situations. By this, I understand the fact that, once the witchcraft diagnosis is named or confirmed, the professional competence of the fortune-teller comes to an end by recommending the following necessary steps. Without exceptions3, the next steps to be followed belong to the religious ritual, the appeal to the Orthodox Church and its clergy. Usually, the fortune-tellers have precise mental maps based on which they orientate their
By proffesional fortune teller I understand the individuals who gain their daily-living source of income through this activity or, at least, they supplement their incomes. Obviously, the legal authorities consider these activities as illegal ways of gaining profits. 2 Divination with a pail (rom.: datul in ciubr) is a ritual traditional form of rural divination. It consists mainly of: seven or nine (magical numbers) little girls, not older than seven or nine years (the prerequisite condition of sexual purity), who read the answer to a previous question in the water gathered in a pail. Complicated and variable in form, the ritual is still remembered by the locals of Dipa, Piatra-Fntnele, Tiha villages (Bistria-Nsud county) but hast been practiced in over twenty or thirty years. 3 I address only the field material gathered in the regions mentioned at the beginning of this article, p. 1.
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clients in need: certain monasteries for particular type of problems, certain priests or monks for other sets. It can look a bit paradoxically, as long as this type of profession is one of the most rejected and fought by the Orthodox Church and, in the same perspective, frequenting a fortune-teller equates to a serious sin. From this point of view, it is rarely that the clients do not accuse a guilty conscience. On the other hand, the fortune-tellers ability to resort to religious terminology, their competence within the religious field, along with the process of recommending certain prayers, fasts or icon-amulets, are all part of a strategy of gaining credibility and trust from their clients. The rarest cases I documented (rare at least in the investigated areas) are those in which the competence of the diagnostician fortune-teller prolongs itself by taking a new position, that of the therapist of the witchery situations position normally occupied nowadays by an orthodox priest or monk. In this point, some clarifications are in order. The laic therapist in a witchcraft case is called in Romanian dezlegtoare. The verb a dezlega, when employed in magical contexts, denominates the magical action of un-binding (un-doing) the spell or the sorcery ritual causing the magical aggression. Normally, retracing the ritual steps in order to undo the evil aggression is supplemented by an action of redirecting the spell back, precisely towards the initial aggressor. I was able to document the existence of only two active laic therapists (dezlegtoare) in the investigated regions, one of them in Timi County, the other one in Suceava County. But once we appeal to collective memory, people do remember the previous existence of many more such specialists, activating until roughly thirty years ago. A term related to dezlegtoare, conceptually distinct but seldom dissociated in practice, is the one of descnttoare. Descntecul is a form of magical incantation, accompanied by precise ritual gestures, mainly employed in fighting off illnesses. The present absence of these magic specialists is commonly explained by generation shift: Nowadays, theres no one left to use the incantations All the old women who knew them are dead. Now we go to the priest to hallow. (M.P., woman, age 77, Giugeti village). Another theoretical dichotomy, the one operating a conceptual disjunction between good magic and evil magic (and opposing the terms dezlegtoare/ descnttoare to witch or sorceress) is not as clear in every days life. It is presupposed that, if someone knows how to un-bind or to un-do an evil spell, that person logically knows how to... do it as well. The fact that members of the Orthodox clergy occupy nowadays the position of the magic therapist in witchcraft situations is not neccesarly something new. Gheorghe Pavelescu (1998: 48-49) documented a clear superposition of functions between the magic specialists and the local orthodox priests in the region of Apuseni Mountains, between 1939-1940. But what back then seemed to be a certain coexistance, nowadays tends to take the form of univocity. I was outlining above (p. 3) Jeanne Favret-Saadas account (1977: 22-24) of the step-by-step development of a witchery situation in Bocage. Accordingly, the magical therapist is the last one resorted to, after resorting to the medical doctor and the priest. As a temporal frame, resorting to witchcraft discourse comes in last, after exhausting the possibilities offered by the positivist discourse and the religious one. This account does not entirely describe the cases I documented during the field investigations in the specified localities of todays Romania. For instance, the relation between the positivist discourse (as offered by the medical doctor) and the discourse assuming a magical aggression is not necessarily one of temporal posteriority of the latter. In cases of illness, following empirical prescriptions (recommended pharmaceutical drugs, hospitalization) can be simultaneous to following magical-religious actions, if the illness and its causes are not sufficiently elucidated by the empirical explanations. Concerning the relation between the religious discourse and the witchcraft-situation discourse, a posterior resort to the

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latter confirms itself even less. The fact is that the religious orthodox discourse fully participates to a discourse about witchcraft, acknowledging the presence of this particular form of evil in real world. There are specific religious rituals dedicated to dealing with this type of situations, commonly denominated with the same term as the functional-corresponding magical rituals (rom.: dezlegri), while members of the clergy play, in this equation, the part of the therapist. As key-actor in witchery situations, an orthodox priest or monk firstly occupies the position of professional diagnostician. Correspondently to the professional fortune-teller, his first intervention in a crisis situation is to confirm or infirm the presence of such a case. Obviously, not all members of the clergy are particularly opened to the possibility of naming or encouraging such a diagnosis. But we also might not take a surprise in the fact that the most frequented orthodox priests in crisis situations are the ones who do. I have to mention the existence of a divination technique known as The Opening of the Book (Rom.: deschiderea crii). Largely criticized and publicly condemned as a major sin by the orthodox religious dogma and by the official representatives of the Romanian Orthodox Church, this divination technique is still quite popular, particularly employed by some priests who use it when looking to confirm a witchcraft-situation diagnosis. You see, it is a somewhat curious fact. The Church states that it is a sin to open the book; it is a sin for them (for the priests) to tell you about the future. And yet I went to see for my problem three no, four priests who opened the book. I dont know whose sin is this, but you know people in need At any rate, I felt reassured and with a less guilty conscience. After all, they were priests. (T. L., woman, age 55, Bistria). The technique mainly consists in addressing a question on behalf of the solicitor, randomly opening the employed book (not necessarily the Bible but other type of religious book, consecrated by its ancientness) and interpreting the written paragraphs by relating themOnce the diagnosis is established, the role of the priest doesnt come to an end, as opposed to the professional fortune-teller. His most important contribution just begins, as (the only) capable and authorized therapist in a witchery situation. A complex religious ritual meant to solve a magical aggression is a longstanding process. It conjoins the efforts of the priest with those of the actor accusing the magical aggression and, if necessary, with ritual involvement by close family and friends of the victim. I will sketch an example of religious ritual steps recommended in a particular witchery situation1. M. T. (woman, age 56, Bistria) appealed, in the summer of 2007, to a priest from a nearby village, renowned for his success in solving witchcraft situation. The suspicion of being bewitched appeared couple of years before, due to recurrent nervous breakdowns, continuous and unexplained illnesses. The first one naming this general mal de vivre as clear effect of evil magical interventions was a neighbor with previous experience in this type of situations. After confirming the bewitched diagnosis, the consulted priest recommended forty days of keeping a complex ritual, which began with a general ritual purification through confession and communion. The compulsory indicated ritual steps were: reading every morning The Acatist (a special form of prayer) of the Saint Pantelimon; reading every midnight an ensemble of psalms from the Psaltery of David, at the candle light and in front of a religious icon; reading The Acatist in Times of Adversity and Temptation when needed; a severe fast Monday and Friday of every week; attending the Maslu2 religious service at least three times (evenings) in these forty days, and bringing along three liturgical breads (Rom.: prescuri), a bottle of red wine and
1 For other examples of religious ritual therapy recommended in whitchcraft situations, see also Pr. Alexandru Argatu (2006): V sftuiete Arhimandritul Ilarion Argatu. Despre vrji i farmece i lupta mpotriva lor, Bacu. 2 Maslul is an orthodox religious service generally considered particularly helpful in health problems and the forgiveness of sins.

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clothes, in order to be hallowed during the religious service. Additionally, the priest prayed in the name of his solicitor and, after the first half of the ritual period, he came into town and hallowed M.T.s apartment as a religious means to ward off evil spirits and influences. This is but one example of recommended ritual in witchcraft-situation cases. As a matter of fact, the specific forms of the therapeutic religious ritual vary in accordance with the particularities of the situation: it is one thing when dealing with illness-like symptoms, another in cases of delayed marriage or unexplained, constant misfortunes. Another related issue is the differentiation not between the various types of religious therapy, but between the personal capacities of different priests in dealing with witchcraft and sorcery. From the religious dogmas perspective, all invested orthodox priests and monks have the same professional capacity and the same religious means to confront all forms of evil. And yet, the actual situation differs:
Q.: If there is a suspicion of being bewitched, to whom does one appeal? A.: Well, to priests or monksBut not any priest or monk. Generally, it is better to appeal to monks. There are some of those who are able to unbind an evil spell not all of them. In any case, it is better to ask around. People know. (F. P., woman, age 63, Dumitra village). There are indeed some priests more recommended than others in dealing with these issues of sorcery Maybe that is not a normal situation, as long as they had been equally invested by the Church with the same grace, no? Well, maybe this is it: one cannot underestimate the power of the priests prayer in the face of God. But maybe that particular priest has a bigger, a stronger grace, and his prayers are stronger than the others, you know? (S.M., woman, age 34, Bistria).

The religious term of grace (Rom.: har) is of an important dogmatic relevance, denominating a quality equally shared by all orthodox members of the clergy through their professional and religious investment (Rom. hirotonisire). This grace gained only through ordination is nothing of a personal quality; on the contrary, it transcends each and every priest or monk, while binding them together as inclusive, representative parts of the Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, out of the religious dogmatic context, harul is often perceived precisely as an individual quality, rated as a form of personal power. As a matter of fact, the same term of religious provenance is employed when denominating the magical force held by fortune-tellers, clairvoyents and other magic specialists. To be considered as having a special/ supplementary gift or grace in dealing with witchery situations, is what makes a priest or monk more resorted to than others. The differentiation doesnt end here. In some cases, a subsequent informal specialisation comes with the particular field succesfully covered by the recomended priest: illnesses caused by evil magical intervention; possesion requiring exorcism; the impossibility of getting married and so on. When in need, people can acces true regional oral maps, orientating each individual towards the most suited religious therapist for her/ his particular case. From the official religious discourses point of view, the best prevention against falling victim to a witchcraft situation, the only efficient apotropaic mechanism, is to devotely follow every good christians daily religious duty. On a more informal base, priests and laic actors alike assume the fact that there are, indeed, evil spells that cant be deffinitively unbound by the means of religious therapy.
That evil spell once thrown... I do not know, the priest said that it might come back periodically. Once thrown, if it is powerful enough, you have to fight it... maybe continuously. (M.T., woman, age 56, Bistria). That woman from Timioara told me that L. took dirt from my footprint, locked it in a bottle and threw the bottle in a river. She said that, until the bottle broke, the spell wouldnt go away. It lasted for three years of illness and weakness, thats how long it took. (M.H., age 62, Reteag village).

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There are cases in which not even a powerful monk can undo an evil spell. There are some of those made as such, unbreakable. (F.P., woman, age 63, Dumitra village).

Acknowledgements of a certain limit of the religious ritual can be a bit surprising, as long as this is the only legitimate therapy in witchcraft-situation cases. The fact that the religious ritual therapy can sometimes prove not to be unfailing is explainable, but through a ruraltraditional common conception, exterior to religious discourse: an evil spell or charm, once triggered, has to cling to somebody. In extreme cases, the best that the religious therapeutic ritual can accomplish is to offer a sort of continuous protective halo for the targeted individual, while waiting for the evil spell to expire by itself. It is believed that there are evil spells that are considered never to expire by themselves, such as the ones accomplished by using dead people as part of the sorcery ritual. The archaic magical solution to these situations is throwing back the evil spell to the original aggressor. This is a type of returned magical aggression usually employed by the laic therapist (dezlegtoarea) in a witchery situation, who normally supplemented by this act the process of unbinding the evil spell. Or, a deliberate aggression consciously directed towards another human being cant normally play a part in a religious therapeutical approach of any type of situation. I have described so far a vast network of actors (diagnosticians, intermediaries and therapists) who participate in various interactions, occupying specific positions at certain moments or exchanging the roles they play at others. The nuclear term of this dynamic picture is the actor assuming a diagnosis of being bewitched, initially placed at the victim pole. The process of discursive, factual and ritual interactions with all the other key-actors is also the process of transforming this actor from a passive sufferer of magical aggression into an active agent. The finality of all actions undertaken in a witchery situation is regaining a state of normality, as the one previous to the crisis situation. Considering this actor in particular life contexts doesnt equate to an attempt of building a standard sociological portrait of the actors involved in a witchery situation. A common prejudice and clich states that: members of complex societies who appeal to magic and sorcery, who assume this type of discourse, are but faces of the superstitious primitive within. The actors I met during my field research are neither undereducated, nor (semi)illiterate; they proceed from the cities, as well as the villages; they are intellectuals or public officials, peasants or workers and the list can continue. The field reality outlines a complexity of personal motivations and individual portraits that challenges any simplified attempt to formulate standard, categorical portraits. Therefore, the only relevant contexts for analysis remain those describing the abnormal situation. For instance, one of the most recurrent situations is the delay of ones marriage. In nowadays Romanian society, being single/ uncommitted after the age of 25 is still a serious issue, especially for young females. There is an acutely-perceived social pressure in this respect. The actors, assuming an abnormality in their marital status, appeal to fortune-tellers and religious therapists in order to meet a diagnosis. Varying from case to case, the usual met diagnosis is having an evil spell, magically binding their destined chance of getting married. Another very frequent situation is that of prolonged illnesses and general misfortunes, combined with anxiety and depression. Although the medical discourse can explain the mechanisms of a disease, it can not explain the recurrence of getting ill and the variation in form of the affections. In exchange, a sorcery-intervention diagnosis can explain both the recurrences and the formal variations. As for the assumed reasons for someone to commit magical aggressions, explanations range from pure envy, an act of personal revenge to unfair competition on the marital market. In some cases, there is even a fatality to cause evil attributed to magical aggressors: The priest told me:

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there are evil doers in this world. I didnt understand, as long as I never hurt somebody. But he said there are evil doers, God left them like this to hurt other people. They cant do otherwise. (F.A., age 43, Rca village). But as soon as a diagnosis is established and a potential aggressor is identified, the reasons behind the latters actions become irrelevant. The only thing remained at stakes for the involved actor is to assume the long process of religious and/ or magical therapy, promising to restore ones normal existence. A (partial) conclusion addresses the importance of re-examining the magical-religious relation. As a participant to the contemporary complex society, each and every informant is fully aware of the conceptual dichotomy between the religious pole and the magic pole. Nevertheless, this conceptual polarization doesnt seem to be as operational when examined in practice, in individual action. Additionally, we have to acknowledge the fact that the operated disjunction fully belongs to the dogmatic religious pole, while the magic specialists legitimate themselves precisely by resorting to religious elements. Frederico DAgostino (1980: 280) discussed the relation between religion and magic as a continuous movement, stating that though they represent two distinctive attitudes and practices, one may become the other, or be juxtaposed to it or they may be related to each other. More than simply observing various interferences, we have to take into consideration the fact that, from the involved actors point of view, the purpose directing her/his actions is that of solving a crisis, a problem or fulfilling a desire. The means can be magical (resorting to fortune-tellers, witches or any other skillful person) or they can be religious (resorting to priests, prayers and the steps recommended by the religious practice). Frequently, the two types of routes combine in every days life. The thing that matters the most for the involved actor is the efficiency and the efficacy of the chosen means to remedy the situation. Shifting the perspective from analytical disjunctions onto actors actions, a time of distress described as witchcraft-situation crisis seems to transcend most of the previous categories to which the actor was ascribed, due to the crucial importance gained by the final purpose: restoring the state of normality and ones day-to-day existence.
References ARGATU, Alexandru. 2006. V sftuiete Arhimandritul Ilarion Argatu. Despre vrji i farmece i lupta mpotriva lor. Casa scriitorilor: Bacu.
CAMUS, Dominique. 2003. Puteri i practici vrjitoreti. Anchet asupra practicilor actuale de vrjitorie. Polirom: Iai.

CRISTESCU-GOLOPENIA, tefania. 2002. Gospodria i credinele magice ale femeilor din Drgu (Fgra). Paideia: Bucureti. DAGOSTINO, Frederico. 1980. Religion and Magic: Two sides of a Basic Human Experience. Social Compass, 27: 279-283. DE SARDAN, Jean-Pierre Olivier. 1992. The exoticing of magic from Durkheim to postmodern anthropology. Critique of Anthropology, 12: 5-25. FAVRET-SAADA, Jeanne. 1977. Les mots, la mort, les sorts. Gallimard: Paris. LEACH, E. R. 1949. Primitive Magic and Modern Medicine. Health Education Journal, 7: 162-170. LIICEANU, Aurora. 1996. Povestea unei vrjitoare. ALL: Bucureti. MAUSS, Marcel. 1991. Esquisse dune thorie gnrale de la magie. Quadrige/P.U.F.: Paris. MUCHEMBLED, Robert (coordonator). 1997. Magia i vrjitoria n Europa, din Evul Mediu pn astzi. Humanitas: Bucureti. PAVELESCU, Gheorghe. 1998. Magia la romni: studii i cercetri despre magie, descntece i man. Minerva: Bucureti. PRITCHARD, E.E. Evans. 1937. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande. Oxford. TROC, Gabriel. 1998. Exorcism i vindecare n Biserica Ortodox. Caietele Tranziiei, No. 2/3: Cluj.

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URA VALI

REFLECTIONS ON ROMANIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY

In the text the author reflect on the notion of nowadays Romanian national identity with the main stress on identification with Latin legacy. She discuss the relation between ethnic and national identity referring to emic vs. etic views. There are some differences between the terms and concepts related to Romanian national identity, which depends on the ethnic, language, geographic, religious identifications (personal biography) and age of the speaker and at the same time also on the relationship or situation in which the speaker is involved. Thus the author analyses the situations or the context of speaking in which national imaginary or national ideology came into surface. Even we regard national identity as political, elitist or intellectuals project of unification, we should not neglect the active role of people in the formation of national identity. Identity yet saw as a construction and conception of some powerful individuals, whose concepts persisted in time, it is challenged on an everyday level by context and moments of peoples lives and for this is unstable, flexible and changeable. Keywords: national identity, ethnic identity, Romania, personal identification, national imaginary

Nowadays we are full of words when we talk about the nationalities and national identities and quite a lot of times we make prognosis that the ideas of nationalism or ideas of nation would slowly disappear in a globalized world; but the politics, public discourses and even some academic discourses show that we are quite far from that. By this regard I think that dealing with national and identity issues is not something that as anthropologists and ethnologists should remove from our domain as the term culture, also nationalism, ethnicity, nation and national identities are too important and powerful concepts that we should not simpl leave to political and public discourses. The formulation and the use of the concept of nation or, what is described as a nation, is in political and public discourses often freely used as self-evident (as naturalistic, essentialistic, primordialistic) and as such a powerful tool for gaining political prestige. Thomas Hylland Eriksen wrote that concepts as ethnicity, ethnic conflicts, nation and nationalism are common terms in English language, (ab)used in political and public discourses, and that the terms seems frequently ambiguous and vague (2002: 1); I can add, that sometimes these terms are confound and they can overlap. There are also differences between the terms in English and other languages, such as Slovene or Romanian. For example the term ethnicity in United States refers to racial characteristics (Eriksen 2002: 4), while in Slovenian public discourse we mostly use for ethnicity the terms etnija or narod. But at the same time the term narod could be also translated as nation, which in America designates a term for a state. In Romania the terms that are employed and related to nation and ethnicity are neam, popor, naiune. While the term naiune could be an equivalent to nation in English1, the terms of neam or popor are not necessary related to
From Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English the term nation is described as a large community of people, usually sharing a common history, language, etc. and living in a particular territory under one government (1989: 823).

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the boundaries of a state. Popor could be used as an equivalent of the most spread group of people and it is near the Slovenian term ljudstvo1; neam is maybe the most interesting as is could be used as nation and it also designate kinship2. Thomas Hylland Eriksen wrote that the relationship between the terms ethnicity and nationality is complex (as the relationship between ethnicity and race; all terms have a long history and were differentially used). Using Friderik Barths (1969) ascertainment that ethnic groups are made out of categorisations and boundaries, Eriksen wrote: Like ethnic ideologies, nationalism stresses the cultural similarity of its adherents and by implication, it draws boundaries vis--vis others, who thereby become outsiders. The distinguishing mark of nationalism is by definition its relationship to the state. A nationalist holds that political boundaries should be conterminous with cultural boundaries, whereas many ethnic groups do not demand command over a state (2002: 7). Katherine Verdery who was researching the post-socialist Romania, wrote that the term
nation is a name that links a state (actual or potential) with its subject. Historically, nation has meant a relationship of at least two kinds: 1) a citizenship relation, in which the nation is the collective sovereign emanating from common political participation; and 2) a relation known as ethnicity, in which the nation comprises all those of supposedly common language, history or broader cultural identity. The citizenship meaning of nation seems to have originated in the centres of liberal democracy, where it only sometimes coexists (as, for example, in France) with the ethnic meaning of nation. The latter is the meaning most common in the eastern Europe and is the one that is usually associated with nationalism by which I mean the invocation of putative cultural and linguistic sameness toward political ends and the sentiment that responds to such invocation. Because no state is ethnically uniform, the two meanings are potentially at odds; within given state borders, the number of potential citizen participants usually exceeds the membership of any ethnic nation (although this does not mean that all potential citizens are always recognised as such) (1993: 180).

While Rogers Brubacker with cooperators (2006: 14-15) wrote that it is not necessary that the terms nation or nationality overlap with the term of a state. Nation, state, nationality, citizenship are often used interchangeably in the United States and in Western Europe. In Central and Eastern Europe, in contrast, nation is often imagined in ways that cut across the boundaries of state and citizenship (2006: 14). Further, Brubacker distinguish his usage of the term ethnicity as referred to everyday practices and self-understanding and nationhood and nationalism when discussing political claims; even his use do not adhere rigidly to this distinction (2006: 15). It seems that the distinction between designations ethnicity or nationality came from the context in which it were used and could be related to the conditions in which the modern nation-states were created. We should not neglect that in South-Eastern or
By the second half of 20th century the term ljudstvo was related to the most spread social class which were the peasants. 2 Also in Slovenian language, the term narod relate to descent or family: narod as something in what we were born (na-rod, na-roditi se). In public and political discourses blood was and still is an important point of nationality or ethnicity, as it is believed that is transferred from (biological) parents to children and it is something that you obtain by birth or as it said that it is in your blood. Kinship terms were also employed to stress the relationship between the nations (ex. the relations between Romania and Italy were described as the relations of Latin sisters, for the relation of Serbs toward Russians were in use the term mother Russia) or between people in the nation (ex. the relation between co-patriots were describes as brothers, less times was in use sisters; in some cases the nation was called mother-nation). Even that we know from the contemporaneous social/ anthropological researches and theory, that blood has nothing to do with nation, we can not overlook the impact of the family on individuals (through primary socialisation) in the transmission of certain knowledge, values and views about the nation.
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just Eastern Europe the claims for nation or nation-states were created in multi-national empires (Habsburg, Otoman, Russian) with the spread of ideas of French Enlightment and German RomantiBut let me turn back to terms. Confusion with terms and translations sometimes makes confusion in defining what nation or ethnicity is. Most of authors on national issues (Eric Hobsbawm, Anthony Smith, Benedict Anderson, Thomas Hyland Eriksen) agree that ethnicity and nation apply to a group of people that define itself as such. But, as Eriksen wrote, while researching ethnicity and nationalism, our etic view (influenced by our social milieu or regarded as analytical concepts that as anthropologists employ) could not be the same as the emic view or so called native concepts (2002: 16). But also emic views about what is national identity or of what does it consist could differ from one to another. While I was on a study exchange in Romania between March and June (2009), I meet several people who broaden my view of (nowadays) Romanian national identity1. Andrei, student at a faculty of international relationship, who presented to me as I am from Italy, but soon after he explained that he is Romanian living almost 14 years in Italy with his family, asked me: Tell me, how will you define Romanian national identity, if in Romania there are so many ethnicities like Romanians, Hungarians, Ukrainians, Serbs, Roma and so on? This was a very important question to me, as I was thinking that is clear who Romanians are and I mostly relate them with those who speaks Romanian language. During my stay in Romania, I spend one week in Cluj2, where I meet some people that speak also Romanian and are Romanian citizens, but identify themselves as Hungarians. (Of course I know that people have the possibilities to learn languages and also in this case they have to learn Romanian for everyday reasons as they live in the Romanian-speaking milieu.) When I was talking to Boglarka, 23 years old, that I was researching the Romanian national identity, she soon replied that she do not know anything as she is Hungarian she did not relate herself with Romanians and she excluded herself from the knowledge about Romanian national identity as Hungarian. This was quite different from Andreis conception of national identity. In Cluj I met also Arpad, 26 years old, who defined itself as Hungarian and who went trough Hungarian schools from primary school to university. Arpad was blaming his father who posed more importance to the politics of Hungarian state watching Hungarian televisions. Who cares what is happening in Hungary, we live in Romania, for us is more important the politics in Romania. Even being Hungarian, he did not identify himself with the Hungarian state but with Romanian state or better with the political reality that he lived in and act in. Thus he identified with the position in which he found himself. Further in Bucharest I talked with other people at several occasions and noticed that there are several features with which they identify themselves as Romanians. Before I came to Romania I had the opportunity to handle some tourist promotional material3 from this country and beside
I did not conduced real structured interviews as I was mostly interested in analyses of discourses in newspapers. But for this text I took some citation from people I met, which I talk to and which I can define as a friends as we shared the same campus and corridors for almost three months while I was on a CEEPUS exchange. I am very thankful to everyone I met. When I met a person for the first time, she or he was interested why I pick Romania for exchange and I explained that I was interested in Romanian national identity and consciousness in relation to Italy. At first instance some people just gave me their explanations and opinions. But most of citations came from different context of speaking and shows the variety of uses and discourses where national ideology or imaginary came on the surface. 2 Cluj as part of Transylvania is an interesting place to study ethnicity and national identity as there live many ethnicities; especially is interesting from the point of view of ethnic or national struggle between Romanians and Hungarians. 3 I have got three catalogues from Romanian Embassy as a gift that I attended Romanian Lectures at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana: Discover Romania, Muntenia and Oltenia, Moldavia.
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the presentation of Bucharest, medieval cities and fortress, the Danube delta, sea side, mountains and popular traditions, a quite big emphasis was made on monasteries and churches. Especially the catalogue of Moldavia region was half full of monasteries and churches, which look very beautiful with their outdoor frescoes, most of them being included in UNESCOs World Heritage List. Besides their beauty, we should ask what these representations mean or how we can interpret them. Firstly, expressing certain sights in a (sate!) tourist promotional material as heritage, could mean, that they are important, people are proud of it and could be regarded as a distinction from others and an exclusive feature of certain country, something that could be presented as national specific. These representations or images could mean an important part of national imaginary and portrait Romanian national identity as the social (or collective) imaginary is an important part of identification processes. Sorin Mitu in his book National Identity of Romanians in Transylvania (2001) wrote about the importance of the collective/ social imaginary in the construction of selfimages and Romanian consciousness. The national consciousness of Romanians was born as a polemical process of confrontation with the opinions advanced by foreigners who denied the elements of the Romanians as yet amorphous identity (Mitu 2001: 16-17). But identity could be seen as a complex equilibrium between general components (social representations) or individual component (personal constructions; Olteanu 2004: 115). The construction of self and identity always establish within the relation with others on one hand it could be as a matter of equality or principles of similarity, but on the other hand an answer to others (Others), as a mirror to others or as distinction from others (Mitu 2001, Olteanu 2004). Second, in many South-Eastern European countries, namely the Balkan1 area, peoples national identity coincided with religion, as for example Serbs are recognized as Orthodox, Croatian as Christians, Bosnians (Bonjaki) as Muslim, I was thinking that also Romanians related themselves with the Orthodox confession. I was very confused the first time I took a bus in Bucharest, where I saw most of people to make a cross with their fingers on their face and chest while we were passing a church my first thought was they are very religious and maybe this is an important point of their identity. Lately I asked Mihai, a 24 years old postgraduate student, who finished an Orthodox Theology faculty, what he think about religion in his country: Do you think, that Orthodox confession is important for the national identity of Romanians? He answered: Of course. It is a fact, that most of Romanians are Orthodox, statistic data prove that more than 80% of people in Romania are Orthodox. But later when I spoke with Ruben, 21 years old student2, about religion and religious rituals (was the day of the saints Constantin and Elena), he told me that he is protestant. And I said Well, this is not so typical for Romanians, and he replied Yes, it is not, but there are many Romanians who are Protestants. There are also Catholics, Muslims, Greek-Catholics, Uniats. Orthodox confession could be regarded as a part of Romanian national identity but along Protestantism, Catholicism, Uniat and other religions, as not all people who declare themselves Romanian do not confess themselves as Orthodox. Lucian Boia wrote that religions are transnational and they do not follow the political-national divisions and that Romanian national state was build on the basis of national ideology and liberal and democratic political principles, not religious criteria (2001: 10). For this reason, let me turn again to language, as I started to define Romanians through their Romanian language. In a Romanian newspaper for children Dimineaa Copiilor (Chidrens Morning) from 1924, I found an article in which a probably fictitious boy named Radu,
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In this text I regard South-Eastern Europe and Balkan as a geographical term and not as a socio-cultural area. Ruben was a student of geography and provided me with precious information about nowadays Romania, statistic data and recent history.

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described as an grand patriot (c are s fie un mare patriot), is asking where are Romanians and if they live also out of the borders of Romania. Someone, with a fictitious name Knoweverything (tie-tot) is answering to him: Yes Radu, not everyone who speaks Romanian and is of Romanian blood, live in nowadays Romania, which everybody is calling Greater Romania. There are a lot of brothers of nation and of language who live in other countries (Da, Radule, nu toi ci vorbesc, simt romnete i sunt de snge romnesc se gsesc n Romnia de astzi, cu toate c-i zice Romnia Mare. Sunt destul de muli frai de neam i de limb cari triesc i n alte ri). We can interpret this extract as a view from a certain period, a zeitgeist (spirit of time) from the time of Greater Romania, but we find such views from the earlier times of formation of national state of Romania to nowadays interpretations of Romanian national identity. One woman (that I meet only once, while I was waiting for a bus to the airport), Romanian as she said, who was working recently in Neaples in Italy, while I was talking about my difficulties of learning Romanian language, explained me: Of course you will learn soon Romanian as you know Italian. Romanian language is a Roman language as Italian, Spanish and French. We have the same origins. And here comes the point of the relationship between language and national identity it concerns its origins! A twenty years old boy, Ionu, when I explained what was my interest, told me: You know, the Romanian language is a Latin language. We descend from Romans. Lucian Boia in his magnificent work History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness (2001) gave us an interpretation about the legitimization of national idea/identity in the origins or in the myths of origins that he called foundation myths. Romanian founding myths are simply one individual case of quasi-universal mythological category, which regardless of space or time, seeks to justify the present with reference to origins and link the two ends of history by means of intermediary markers (Boia 2001: 84). Myths, as Lucian Boia wrote, are an integrative part of societies, they are an imaginary construction (which, once again, does not mean either real or unreal, but arranged according to the logic of the imaginary), which serves to highlight the essence of cosmic and social phenomena, in close relation to the fundamental values of the community, and with the aim of ensuring that communitys cohesion (2001: 29). Founding myths carry a symbolic meaning, they offer both a system of interpretation and an ethical code or model of behaviour; its truth is not abstract but understood as the guiding principle in the life of the community in question (2001:29). A myth for Boia is defining or illustrating a great belief, but taking advantage of that belief is what Boia call mystification, which is lying, deception, deliberate misinformation, and need a perpetuate demystification (2001: 3). The myth of origins in Romania was the myth of Latin origins of Romanian language and people, which was used (or better abused) in political and public discourses during the 19th and 20th century for the homogenisation and cohesion of people into a Romanian nation (and state). This myth and its use was never the same, through time or certain periods we find certain transformations, but still we can observe a persistence of a lineage that goes from Dacians to Romans and than to Romanians1. This idea started with the Transylvanian and Latin school in 18th and 19th century, when scholars went to Rome to study antique sources, remains of Romans and to discover the Romanians ancestors. For Transylvanian school the focus was mostly on Romans, as Dacians were considered barbarians and were exterminated by Romans.
Vasile Prvan in 1920 wrote that the idea of Romanian culture is the idea of Rome. Vintil Mihilescu explained that Prvans statement it is not simply the discovery of Latinity, the fact that we descent from Rome discoveries that were already realised by the chroniclers of 18th century but is the elaboration of a cultural project in which Rome have the place of origin and foundation (1991: internet source).
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Around 1800 because of the Phanariotic regime and the presence of Greek historians on the territory of Romania, became important the mixture between Dacians and Romans, as Dacians were considered a branch of Geto-Tracian family. But by the middle of 19th century the idea of mixed Daco-Roman-Romanian continuity prevailed, as Dacians become more important in the imagery as the ones with free, rebelious spirit and the spirit of sacrifice, which is present also nowadays. Ionu while we were talking about the nowadays Romanian youth, their way of studying and especially living while fighting with limited financial resources from day to day, told me that the Romanians are like that because of the spirit of Dacians and Romans, fighting and rebellious, as they fought through the history for their existence. The importance of Latin origin increased by the second half of 19th century with the transformation and purification of Romanian language1 and orthography. On my surprise, when I was searching for articles in Romanian daily newspapers in the beginning of 19th century (around 1848), I found most of articles written in a version of Cyrillic characters. What the national or public discourses neglect in creating the national history of Romanians was, that the Romanian language and orthography was created in a Slavic milieu and that there was a strong Slavic influence (not only through Orthodox church, but also later in 18th and 19th century through the political influence of Russian Empire). According to Marinella Lrinczi Angioni (1982) the change from Slavic to Latin orthography in the second half of 19th century had a great impact on the formation of Romanian national consciousness, I can add that happened along with the grammatical and vocabulary changes of language and history (re-)writing. There was a strong connection between language and history, mostly because of etymological researches with which intellectuals (and politicians) wanted to show the persistence of Dacian or Roman influences. I have found a great amount of articles in daily newspapers which were explaining the Romanian history or what was later called the Daco-Roman-Romanian continuity (mostly carried on in interwar period by Nicola Iorga, wellknown Romanian historian). But what were the aims of this articles and researches? Not only that they influenced on the mentality of people (the media era started), but there was also the aim to show that Romanians had long roots on the territory starting with Dacians and going through Romans. In a multinational or multicultural territory as Romania with a great amount of Hungarians who had behind a powerful state and territorial tendencies was important to show who was the first one on that territory and to whom it belongs2. From 19th century the studies of Latin origins were used as a weapon against Hungarian ruling elite in Transylvania (Boia 2001:86). Another point of what I call Latinity discourses, namely forcing the origins (especially Roman ones) in political articulations and practices, was the positioning of Romanians and Romania. Latin origins in 19th and 20th century were a mark of civilisation, what actually fits in western civilisations discourses of that period. Romanian elite (intellectuals, politicians) wanted to show that they not belong to East which was considered as Oriental and barbarian but to West to civilised and modern society. It was necessary to gain the reputation of the western one (instead of eastern one) in an international platform, where France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy, namely western states were raising their powers and had the predominance3. By the end of 19th
Even by creating an artificial language (Boia 2001: 87). The Hungarian historians were denying Romanian historians theory of continuity with their own theory of migrations, which said that Romanians came on the scene after the 11th century from woods and mountains they were described as shepherds, uncivilised and so one. 3 From that period we have a naming of France and Italy the Latin sisters of Romania. At the same time also other countries were seeking for partners on international platform. I found in Italian newspapers from the interwar period the naming for Romania our (younger) Latin sister.
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century the Romanian kingdom was formed and if we look at the articles on national idea in daily newspapers1 from the beginning of 20th century, the Latinity discourses lost their power in the kingdom, but gained it in Transylvania where territorial tendencies between Romanians and Hungarians were quite vivid and the border not yet established. A memorial part of strengthen and consolidation of the idea of Latin origin was the presence of Italians and their gift: the copy of capitoline she-wolf. The first she-wolf statue was brought in Romania to Bucharest in 1906 at the time of kings Carol Is anniversary and the anniversary of two thousand years of Roman presence in Dacia. Some of the she-wolf statues were brought to Romania in the interwar period, when the idea of Rome or Roman civilisation was the core idea of the Italians colonial expansion2. By the second half of 19th century the state of Italy with scarce economic resources and big territorial appetites used the idea of Roman civilization and Latinity discourses to broaden its influences in the South-Eastern Europe (or Balkan). In several Romanian daily newspapers from interwar period was written that during 19th September and 10th October 1921 a group of Italians went on a visit to Romania: they started from Dobrogea (Constana), went to Moldavia (Iai), Transylvania (Braov, Sibiu, Cluj), Banat (Timioara) and Vallachia (Piteti, Bucharest). According to newspapers, a group of 93 -100 (in Galai) people, mostly students, but also university theachers, architects, translators, other intellectuals and businessmen started in Constana their mission around Romania. Everywhere they went they were very well welcomed, applauded and greeted with waving flags (Italian and Romanian), ribbons in the colours of the Romanian and Italian flag, Italian and Romanian anthems, exclamation such as: Triasc Italia, triasc Romnia!, Evviva lItalia, evviva Romania! and so forth. The municipalities (mayor, politicians, intellectuals or the so called elite) prepared for the hosts receptions, banquets and speeches, with the important notion on Romanian-Italian relationship and expressing the Romanian-Italian Latin tights (our Latin sister or brothers Italians). Especially solemn was in Cluj, where on 28th September 1921, the Italians gave to people of Cluj a copy of capitoline she-wolf statue with inscription Alla cit di Cluj Roma madre (To the city of Cluj, mother Rome)3. The statue was put on Unirii/ Union square in front of the statue of Matia Corvin. This was a symbolic act/ action, as Matia Corvin represented the power and the force of past Hungarian state, but the she-wolf statue was a new symbol of the powerful and internationally recognized state of Greater Romania. This did not last for long, as the second World War and the establishment of Communist regime broke with previous referential socio-political and economical centres in the West and shifted to the new referential centre, which became Moscow (or Soviet Union in general). In this regard also the national ideology shifted from Latinised oriented conception of Romanian origins to more Slavic coloured. In the period of severe communism (or Stalinism) the great focus has turned to Romanian-Slavic relations (namely Romanian and Slavic cohabitation), while the previous Italian or French orientations were overshadowed. Also, previous nationalistic ideas
Here I mean newspapers that were published in Romanian kingdom (united Vallachia and Moldavia). Actually only five copies were brought from Italy while I was travelling through Transilvania I saw them many more new in almost every bigger or important town (ex. Dej, Turda, Braov). 3 In Romanian daily newspapers the celebration was accompanied by thousands of Romanian population from Cluj and its surroundings. (We should not take this numbers for granted they can be only a representation of power.) At the celebration/ commemoration were not only speeches but also a youth and military parade (and flying aeroplanes dropped flowers) which enchanted the Italian guests. After the solemn unfold of the statue, the province (prefectura judeului) organised a banquet. The guests were also taken to some industrial plants and at the end to the university, library and other important cultural structures. Unfolding of the statue was after all a political-economical visit, disguised in symbolic-cultural form.
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and ideas of the unity of nation, were transformed into a more international spirit, where the unity was not an act of a nation, but an act of social class (Boia 2001: 71-72). But by the middle of sixties, when Nicolae Ceauescu turned to more national oriented way of communism, again the Daco-Roman origins were rehabilitated, everything in the name of autochthonism, unity and centralisation. The main focus was on the construction of unitary and centralising state of Dacians under Burebista, underlining the continuity and unity of Romania (Boia 2001: 78).1 When I was in Maramure in summer of 2009, in the museum-memorial in Sighetu Marmaiei, in a room which represented the period of kitsch-communism (the period of 70 and 80 of Ceauescus regime), I saw a painting of Ceauescu and in front of him the head of a nice girl dressed in Romanian folk costume (with the Romanian flag and white pigeons in her hand) and in their background (again in the colours of Romanian flag) above some children are portrayed Traian and Decebal (or Burebista). Ceauescu was often portrayed as the successor of great kings and voivods from Romanian history, in such way that traced the millenarian lineage of Romanians. Again the outbreak of the revolution in 1989 broke with this images: soon after his death he was depicted as one of Tartar or Gypsy blood, something alien, definitively something different and other to Romanians (Foszt 2003: 76-81). Even that Ceauescus image change after the revolution, paradoxically was just the period of Ceauescus national communism and its historians that consolidated the millenarian lineage of Daco-Roman-Romanian continuity and the myths of Romanian national history and identity (Boia 2001). Is it true that through periods we observe some kind of changes, but at the same time also persistence of some concepts and ideas. I stress the attention on the persistence of concepts and ideas, denotations, designations, categorisations, self-identifications or self-definitions that move in time and space, and not people of flash and blood2. As I could saw during my stay in Romania, the Latin discourses are still vivid through media (for example, I found a book for children of Neagu Djuvara (2008, Bucharest, Editura Humanitas) How Romanian people was born, Cum s-a nscut poporul romn, where the author is describing the Romanian ethnogenesis passing from Geto-Dacians, Romans, the invasions of other groups of people Huns, Avars, Slavs, Bulgars, Hungarians etc. to Negru-Vod and Drago-Vod), school (some of people that I met, told that they were told in the school about Romanian ethnogenesis and history), museums (for example in the National History Museum in Bucharest almost the whole exhibition was closed during my stay the visit was possible only to the treasury and the copy of Trajans column with detailed explanation of the Trajan conquest of Dacia and their life in Dacia). After all also people that I met constantly reproduced the history and ethnogenesis of Romanians in their explanations of what does it mean to be Romanian, through their articulations and practices3.
As Mihilescu pointed out that in the Ceauescus period the legitimation of the appeal to origins /.../ will change from the idea of Rome to the cult of autochthon ancestors: the Dacians. The image of Traian its going to disappear and that of his adversary, the Dacian king Decebal, will gradually extenuate and leave the place to the pre-roman figure /.../ of Burebista. Conformally with the good tradition of lineage, an hallucinating genealogy will bring Ceauescu to Burebista, passing through Mircea the Old, Stephan the Great and Michael the Brave (1991: internet source). 2 As Malcolm Chapman wrote in his book on Celts (1992). 3 As one of the most meaningful acts or practices are migration toward Italy, France and Spain, which are mostly regarded as economic or existential movements. But there should be something more, yet the symbolic extension of these movements. After all Italy and Spain could not be regarded as stable economic countries and France is full of migratory influx from northern Africa; as the woman which I met on a way to the airport said we are all descending from Romans, we could interpret the migration toward Latin countries on one hand as the countries with similar languages that someone could learn quickly (for the purposes of work) or as a choice influenced by the ideology of Latin discourses.
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On the level of the state or citizenship applying the Latin origins (the Daco-Roman-Romanian continuity) to all Romanians means to exclude groups of Hungarians, Gipsy, Ukrainians, Germans and so on, that live in Romania nowadays that do not identify with this myth of origins. I think that after 1989, the identification with the revolutionary movement had a great impact on the identification of Romanians or with Romanian state. The revolution could be seen as the link toward cohesion and unity in Romania, as this are the core ideas of every nation-state. Katherine Verdery wrote that history of Romanian national ideology, in which defense of the nations interests, and above all of its unity, was the primary idiom of politics an idiom that antedated the formation of an independent Romanian state (1994:8). When Romanian people are united, no one can stop us, the unfated president Mircea Geoana stated before the official results of elections in December 20091. Lucian Boia indicate unity as essential archetype that seeks and build coherence, we try to give unity and meaning to a world which would otherwise disorient us by its heterogeneity and its lack of sure significations, but while the aspiration toward unity is universal, the specific manifestation of the archetype vary according to the historical context (2001: 129). After two decades many people in Romania think that revolution is an important cohesive element of nowadays Romanian society2 thus posing a great meaning on the year 1989. It could be found in many Romanian cities, especially in Bucharest and Timioara, graffities and monuments with the inscription of year 1989. Not only that, many conversations raised the importance of the revolution and year 1989. As Ionu, the boy that I mentioned above, told, he was born in the revolutionary year of 1989 and that his generation is regarded as special a rebellious generation with a will of changes3. Also Ruben, when we were talking about what I should also visit in Bucharest, told me that I should visit the Military museum. There, he explained, you can see also an uniform from the time of revolution, perforated by shots and covered with blood. When I saw it, touched me a lot. I said: Of course it did, it was putted there on a purpose to shock you and touch you, while he responded with yes, I know, I know. And the last day of my stay in Bucharest while I was sitting with other students at the bar, at the television were transmitted some videos and pictures from the revolution of 1989. I set turned with my back toward the television, but soon the others wanted my attention by pointing to the television look it is talking about the revolution. Something said to me, that the revolution of 1989 was an important part of Romanian identity, which at the same time sprung intimate feelings (people often related it with personal views) and shared feelings of unity or better to say the feeling of exclusiveness of Romanians. Even more interesting was, that people with whom I talked, were mostly young or young enough not to be present or not to remember or not to be aware/conscious about the revolution and mainly heard about it through school, media and especially their parents explanations and experiences. Despite they put a meaning to what they have heard or learned, they created an meaningful point of reference, a starting point of their identification with others or with the state of Romania. Something that could be seen as a disposition (something that national political discourse creates) for a definite subjects position that could be occupied by different individuals4, but at the same time, the starting point of numerous individual actions and practices.
Nicholas Kulish: Victory Claimed by Both Candidates in Romania, The New York Times, 6th December 2009, internet source: <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/world/europe/07romania.html>, last check 7th December 2009. 2 Maybe it is just a case for 2009, when I was in Romania, because of the 20th anniversary of the revolution. 3 I could say that the rebellious and revolutionary spirit that Ionu mentioned, was also his pose and attitude toward the world and his way of living. 4 To take it in Michel Foucaults terms.
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We could take the national identity as a construction and conception invented by political elite and intellectuals from 18th century onward, but I rather take it as something that is created, embodied and embedded in what Pierre Bourdieu called habitus a disposition or structured structure, that function as a structure that structures, as principles that originates and organise practices and images (2002: 90). During my study and especially in conceiving the term nation, I found it rather useless as analytical concept, for the same reason as some scholars found when were dealing with the concept of culture. The term and concept of culture was often criticised by anthropologists as something that apply to group of people as an external characteristic (as natural, primordial), something that it is constraining and determined a group of people. Sherry Ortner, based on power shift and historic turn in 60s and 70s, introduced practice theory (and the notion of agency) in the conceptions of culture: on one hand she take culture as the (politically inflected) schemas through which people see and act upon the world and the (politically inflected) subjectivities through which people fell /.../ about themselves and the world, and on the other hand culture as possibility, where social transformation works in part through the constant production, contestation, and transformation of public culture, of media and other representations of all kinds, embodying and seeking to shape old and new thoughts, feelings and ideologies (2006: 18). Similar as Sherry Ortner, also Olga Cara, who was doing fieldwork among Russian women in Latvia, framed her concept of ethnicity. Based on Rogers Brubakers and Fredrick Barths ascertainments, she took the concept of fluid and flexible ethnic borders as they are not things in the world but perspectives on it, created through dynamic interaction processes (Brubaker and Cara 2010: 138). Cara with her study illustrates a broader framework for the construction of ethnicities and its dual nature: a combination of agency and structure, of internal and external forces. This is a dialectic process that is played by individuals as members of ethnic groups and broader society as they construct and reshape their self-identities. External political, historical and social processes create and re-create ethnic categories and definitions (2010: 138). She proposed that people are not just passive players, but active agents in the creation of meaningful, symbolic ethnic boundaries (2010: 138). Identity yet saw as a construction and conception made by some powerful individuals, whose concepts persisted in time, it is challenged on an everyday level by context and moments of peoples lives. At this point it is better to talk about identification as something unstable, flexible and changeable, something that people adapt in every context of everyday life relations. Last but not least, I would like to make a methodological reflexion. As researchers we interfere in peoples everyday life experience, our presence could interfere with peoples conceptions and practices (in such way that they speaks and acts as it is expected from them, rather than just the opposite). That is nothing new, as already Bronislaw Malinowski wrote that as anthropologists we should not just listen to people, but also observe what they do or how they behave. I rather think about how my results will look like if I was someone else? (Just in joke, Romanian for example.) Actually when I was not with my Romanian friends, they rather talked about their daily problems (love, school, parents, dreams and so one) and just when I was around or when we were together, we talked about Romania and Romanians and compare it to Slovenia and Slovenians. This context raised the statements such as We in Romania... or We Romanians explicit statements of belonging to specific group and identification with broaden, even imagined community and in comparison to other identification of other, foreign community. Identifications are rather traces than real scars they raised up only in particular, context-specific and relational situations (upon Van Loon conception of social spatialization and everyday life 2002: 92).This encounters thus sometimes bring and create something new (such as new knowledge) or sometimes just vanish as fog when we left.

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References: Barth, Fredrick. 1969. Introduction. In: Fredrik Barth, ed. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organisation of Culture Difference. Bergen Oslo: Universitets Forlaget, London: George Allen & Unwin. P. 9-38. Boia, Lucian. 2001. History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness. Budapest: Central European University Press. Bourdieu, Pierre. 2002 [1980]. Praktini ut I. Ljubljana: Studia humanitatis. Brubaker, Rogers, Margit Feischmidt, Jon Fox and Liana Grancea. 2006. National Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. Cara, Olga. 2010. Lives on the border: language and culture in the lives of ethnic Russian women in Baltinava, Latvia. Nationalities Papers, vol. 38, no.1: 123-142. Chapman, Malcolm. 1992. The Celts: The Construction of Myth. London: The MacMillian Press Ltd. Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 2002. What is Ethnicity?. In: Ethnicity and Nationalism. London, Sterling: Pluto Press. P.: 1-18. Foszt, Lszl. 2003. The Tyrant, The Terrorists and Disruptive elements: Aliens in The Romanian Revolution of December 1989. In: Breaking the Wall: Representing Anthropology and Anthropological Representations in Post-Communist Eastern Europe. Viorel Anstsoaie, Csilla Knczei, Enik Magyari-Vincze, Ovidiu Pecican, ed. Cluj-Napoca: EFES. P.: 71-84. Foucault, Michel. 2001 [1969]. Arheologija vednosti. Ljubljana: Studia humanitatis. Lrinczi Angioni, Marinella. 1982. Conscienza nazionale romanza e ortografia: il romeno tra alfabeto cirilico e alfabeto latino. La Ricerca Folklorica, no.5, La scrittura: funzioni e ideologie: 75-85. Mihilescu, Vintil. 1991. Nationalit et nationalisme en Roumanie. Terrain, no. 17, En Europe, les nations: 7990. Internet source: <http://terrain.revues.org/document3015.html>, 22nd July 2009. Mitu, Sorin. 2001. National Identity of Romanians in Transylvania. Budapest: Central European University Press. Mitu, Sorin, ed.2008. Re-searching the nation: The Romanian File: Studies and Selected Bibliography on Romanian Nationalism. Cluj: International Book Access. Olteanu, Antoaneta. 2004. Homo Balcanicus: Trsturi ale mentaliti balcanice. Bucharest: Paideia. Ortner, Sherry B. 2006. Anthropology and Social Theory. Durham and London: Duke University Press. Van Loon, Joost. 2002. Social Spatialization and Everyday Life. Space and Culture, vol. 5, no.2: 88-95. Verdery, Katherine.1993. Nationalism and National Sentiment in Post-socialist Romania. Slavic review, vol.52, no. 2: 179-203. Verdery, Katherine.1994. Beyond the Nation in Eastern Europe. Social Text, no. 38: 1-19.

1. Cluj-Napoca, Piaa Unirii with Lupoaica (Shewolf, 1936). From the collection of Octavian Goga Library

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2. Cluj-Napoca, Lupoaica

3. Timioara, Lupoaica

4. Dej, Lupoaica

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5. Turda, Lupoaica

6. Braov, Lupoaica

50 7. Nicolae Ceauescu. A painting from the Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance

8. A cannon, monument, with Respect 89, Timioara

9. Respect 89 on the walls of the dorm Grozveti, Bucharest

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PELA PAHOR

NAIN IVLJENJA UITELJIC V SLOVENSKI ISTRI PO 2. SV. VOJNI SKOZI NJIHOVE IVLJENJSKE ZGODBE

After World War II, countless changes took place in the towns of the Slovenian part of Istria. In the fifties, we happened to be witnesses to the exodus of the Italian residents. The towns were nearly emptied, and only a small bunch of autochton Italian inhabitants remained. Other inhabitants from nearby and remote villages and in the hinterland, from the towns, the villages of various Slovenian regions and from the south of former Yugoslavia began to immigrate. All the coastal towns have also been urbanized and have expanded considerably. The local variant of the Venetian dialect has been replaced by colloquial Slovenian, and also Croatian and other languages can be heard. Where once there had been only Italian schools and kindergartens, Slovenian schools and kindergartens were founded. In this contribution, I am introducing the life stories of some female teachers who had taught in elementary or secondary schools of the coastal towns in Slovenian Istria. I have questioned the informers in the interview about their lives: their parents, childhood and youth, their education, job decisions, the course of their jobs, about when they immigrated to Slovenian Istria and about the state of elementary education at the time of their teaching. My opinion is that, through the individual female teachers life stories collected and treated in this contribution, one can understand the characteristic way of life or work for this job group, interweaved with several sacrifices that have been made, since they have been dedicating to the school children much of their spare time, their love, kindness, effort, even the harmony of their family lives; even if they believe their work is not fully appreciated or less valued with time, they are performing it with dedication and joy, a readiness to invest in further education and personal improvement. Thus, they give evidence of some values that are still present in our society, in spite of its new capitalist tendencies: diligence, hard work, sincerity, authenticity and love, trust, faith, zeal, love for children, the pleasure of working, creativity, honesty, courage and humour. We can learn from their stories not just about their way of life, habits and customs, but also about the values that inspired them, so that they were able to live their lives fully. Key words: ethnology, Slovenian Istria, education, female teachers, life stories e boste ljudi kdaj vpraali, kaj vse je vplivalo nanje v ivljenju, bo veina odgovorila: No, imeli smo nekega uitelja. Vsi ti uitelji imajo navadno enake lastnosti. Bili so strogi imeli so visoka merila in niso terjali veliko samo od svojih uencev, temve tudi od sebe. Uence so spotovali in zahtevali od njih spotovanje. Bili so dobri uitelji, ker so ljubili svoj poklic. Uili so s pouevanjem v razredu in z zgledom zunaj razreda. Veliki uitelji so podobni velikim trenerjem napnejo vse sile, da bi tudi igralci dali vse od sebe na tekmi, in se zavedajo, da izguba in neuspeh nista sramota, temve sta pogosto bolj pouna kot zmaga. Robert Fulghum: Od rojstva do smrti obredi v naem ivljenju. Ljubljana 1997, str. 179.

52 Rad bi verjel, da je najveji uiteljev uspeh, ko se dotakne otrokovega srca. To doivetje je vsakokrat enkratno. Frosty Troy

I. del: nain ivljenja uiteljic v slovenski Istri po 2. sv. vojni Uvod V prispevku predstavljam ivljenjske zgodbe dveh starejih ter estih mlajih in skoraj vseh e aktivnih uiteljic, ki so kraji ali dalji as pouevale v osnovnih ali srednjih olah v slovenski Istri, predvsem v obalnih mestih. Prispevek temelji na zapisanih ali na posnetih in transkribiranih ivljenjskih zgodbah nekaterih osnovnoolskih in srednjeolskih uiteljic v Piranu, Luciji, Seovljah in Izoli, ki so delovale v asu po 2. sv. vojni ali pa so e aktivne: L.R. je stara Pirananka, ki se je kot uiteljica zaposlila takoj po konani gimnaziji ter ob delu tudirala za razredno uiteljico na Pedagoki akademiji v Ljubljani. Pouevala je v raznih krajih v piranski obini, nato pa dolga leta v italijanski osnovni oli v Piranu. Z otroki je priredila neteto nastopov. A.R., uiteljica telesne vzgoje, ki je v Piran prila po 2. sv. vojni kot dvanajstletna deklica in se takoj vkljuila v portne dejavnosti, ki so se takrat odvijale v mestu. D.K. je uiteljica slovenine na osnovni oli v Luciji. J.B. je profesorica angleine in francoine na osnovni oli v Luciji. B.B. je profesorica angleine in francoine na osnovni oli Livade v Izoli. T.G. ima pestro ivljenjsko pot. Je svee upokojena (2009), bila pa je profesorica italijanine in portugaline v razlinih osnovnih in srednjih olah, pa tudi na fakulteti. G.F. je razredna uiteljica na osnovni oli v Seovljah. L.B. je profesorica umetnostne zgodovine in sociologije na piranski gimnaziji. Splono o zgodovini olstva olstvo je sistem organiziranih oblik vzgajanja in izobraevanja, ki omogoajo pridobitev doloene stopnje ali vrste izobrazbe. Sega vse od predolske vzgoje do visokega olstva, obsega pa tudi izobraevanje odraslih in druge posebne oblike olstva, tudi glasbeno olstvo. Zajema dravne, zasebne ole in alternativne oblike olstva. V zgodovinskih civilizacijah se je zaelo razvijati z nastankom pisave. V Evropi se je posebno razmahnilo v antini Griji. Moderno evropsko olstvo se je zaelo razvijati v srednjem veku. Prve stolne ole je pri nas v 12. stoletju organizirala Cerkev. Na prehodu v 13. stoletje so e nastale prve posvetne mestne ole. Razvoj olstva je spodbudil protestantizem (po Enciklopedija Slovenije). Na zametke javnega izobraevanja naletimo e v 18. stoletju, ele konec 19. stoletja pa postane olanje osrednji mehanizem drubene organizacije, ki je pomenil spremenjena razmerja med izobrazbo, drubo in dravo. Namesto olanja, za katero so doslej skrbeli upniki, meani, sami delavci ali kmetje, so bili uvedeni strukturirani, hierarhino urejeni obvezni in brezplani olski sistemi (Milhari Hladnik 1995: 72). Z razvojem narodov in moderne nacionalne drave zane ola

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sluiti nacionalnim interesom (Milhari Hladnik 1995: 84), kar vpliva tudi na vpraanje izbire nacionalnega ali dravnega jezika (Milhari Hladnik 1995: 102). Danes mora po mnenju Milhari Hladnikove (1995: 122) razprava o drubeni funkciji ole izhajati iz temeljnega premisleka o splono loveki pravici do izobrazbe... Univerzalnost dometa lovekovih pravic vsebuje naelo, ki je povezano z nastankom demokracije in demokratinega razpravljanja. Slovenska Istra po 2. svetovni vojni Po 2. sv. vojni so mesta v slovenski Istri doivela neteto sprememb. V petdesetih letih smo pria eksodusu italijanskih prebivalcev. (V Italijo in drugam so se selili tudi Istrani s podeelja, saj jih na novo naseljeni Slovenci zaradi nareja, ki vsebuje mnogo italijanskih besed, niso imeli za prave Slovence.) Mesto Piran je bilo na primer skoraj popolnoma izpraznjeno, ostala je le peica avtohtonih italijanskih prebivalcev. Sem so se zaeli priseljevati prebivalci iz blinjih in oddaljenejih vasi v zaledju ter iz mest in vasi razlinih slovenskih pokrajin ter z juga nekdanje Jugoslavije. Mesto Piran, katerega ekonomija je dotlej temeljila predvsem na solinarstvu, ribitvu, pomorstvu in kmetijstvu, se je usmerilo v turizem. Ostalo je le nekaj italijanskih ribiev, ki so se jim pridruili ribii iz Dalmacije. Soline so postale dravna last. Podobno se je zgodilo tudi v Izoli in v Kopru. V Izoli se je bolj ohranilo ribitvo, ribja predelovalna industrija in ladjedelnitvo, Koper pa je postal glavna slovenska luka ter industrijsko podroje obale. Mesto Piran se ni imelo kam iriti, saj je stisnjeno na ozkem polotoku in rtu Madonna. Zato pa se je razvilo blinje naselje Lucija, ki ima danes e ve kot 7000 prebivalcev. Veliko mladih druin se je preselilo v Lucijo. Mesti Koper in Izola sta se zelo razirili (nova naselja Semedela, alara, Markovec pri Kopru, v Izoli pa Livade in Jagodje.) Ulice in trgi, kjer se je prej slial le italijanski jezik oziroma domaa razliica benekega dialekta, so odmevale od razlinih slovenskih in hrvakih nareij (danes tudi albanskih, ruskih). Tekom let se je v mestih na obali oblikoval pogovorni slovenski jezik. Kjer je bila prej le italijanska ola in vrtec, so se zdaj ustanavljale slovenske ole: osnovna ola, gimnazija, medicinska in pomorska ola v Piranu (v Kopru in Izoli e ekonomska, vzgojiteljska, kovinarska in druge.) Nekaj let je v Piranu delovala tudi ribika ola. Italijani so postali manjina in so dobili svojo italijansko osemletno osnovno olo, kasneje pa e italijansko gimnazijo. Slovenski otroci so se v oli od prvega razreda dalje uili tudi jezika okolja italijanine. Prav tako so se tudi italijanski otroci v oli e od zaetka uili njim novega jezika slovenine. V italijansko osnovno olo so se vpisovali tudi nekateri slovenski otroci, pa tudi otroci priseljencev iz junih republik. Italijanska osnovna ola je bila cenjena, ker je bilo tam v razredih manj uencev in so se jim uitelji lahko bolj posvetili. Tudi olske knjige so otroci v italijanski oli dobili zastonj. Otroci v slovenski oli takoj po vojni niso smeli govoriti v svojem nareju, morali so se uiti knjine slovenine. Uitelji so imeli posebno na piki istrske dialekte. Kaj lahko iz ivljenjskih zgodb uiteljic izvemo o njihovem nainu ivljenja ter o njihovem delu in odloitvi za poklic? Uiteljice, ki sem jih zajela v tem prispevku, so rojene med leti 1900 in 1969. Najstareja, L.K., je umrla leta 1983. O njej sem izvedela le to, kar je o njenem ivljenju in delu napisala njena

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uenka in kasneja kolegica M.A. Ostale, ki e ivijo, so se rodile: leta 1944 (dve), 1949, 1955, 1957, 1960 (dve), 1969. Najve sem izvedela o ivljenju L.R. in A.R., saj sem njuni zgodbi uspela posneti in transkribirati. Obe sta rojeni leta 1944. Vsem ostalim uiteljicam sem vpraalnice poslala in so mi nanje odgovarjale pisno. Ne glede na as rojstva so vse povedale, da je bilo njihovo otrotvo lepo, eprav skromno in drugano od otrotva, ki ga imajo otroci danes. Tako je povedala celo najmlaja med njimi, ki je rojena leta 1969. Niso ga vse preivele v Piranu oziroma v slovenski Istri: med njimi se je ena rodila v kofji loki in je v Piran prila z dvanajstimi leti, druga pa je rojena na Koevskem in se je pred petimi leti priselila v Izolo, prej pa je ivela v Kopru. Mlaja generacija uiteljic je veinoma rojena v Kopru in so otrotvo preivele ob morju. Ena od starejih uiteljic, L.R., izhaja iz stare piranske druine. Njena druina se je v asu eksodusa ali izseljevanja Italijanov v petdesetih letih 20.stoletja odloila, da ostane v novi dravi Jugoslaviji oz. v republiki Sloveniji. Ostali so zvesti rojstnemu kraju svojih prednikov. Njihovi stari so imeli razline poklice: v veini primerov so bile mame gospodinje (L.B., B.B., J.B., L.R., A.R., T.G.), sicer pa je bila ena trgovka in kasneje poslovodkinja, ena pa delavka v hotelu Riviera v Portorou. Oetje so opravljali tudi ve razlinih poklicev zaporedoma (hidravliar, matiar, ustanovitelj gozdnega gospodarstva, zgodovinar, vodja servisne slube v Agrarii, zidar, ribi, uvaj garae). Vsi pa so svoje otroke spodbujali pri olskem delu in pri obolskih dejavnostih in v nekaterih druinah, e ni bilo ravno hude revine (A.R.), so veliko dali na knjige in knjige tudi kupovali, eprav so bile drage (L.B.). Ena od informatork se spominja, kako so pozimi po veerji vsi v druini brali, vsak v svojem kotu. Bilo je est druinskih lanov. Vse pa e danes rade berejo in je knjiga njihova vsakodnevna spremljevalka. Zanimivo je, da so otroke igre mlajih uiteljic ne glede na kraj bivanja kar podobne. V otrotvu so se nekatere veliko igrale na prostem (ena je to razloila s tem, da so bili stari kmekega porekla), ali pa deklike igre (krojenje in ivanje oblek za punke, oblaenje punk), sicer pa gumitvist, igre z ogo (med dvema ognjema), kavbojce in Indijance, zemljo krast, trgovino, vonjo s kolesi, igre s kartami (v Piranu so to ramino, brikola in skopa), tatove in policijo, cavallino (Koper), cavallin cavallin (Piran), skrivalnice, Ljubljana-Zagreb-Beograd, tanc, Ali je kaj trden most, lovljenje, Mati prosim koliko je ura, ristanc, lutke. Otroci v Piranu so raziskovali tudi skale ob morju in se igrali nogomet na obali, v alari pri Kopru so se igrali snemanje filmov, na primer Tarzana, na alarskih topolih L.R. mi je pripovedovala, kako se je s prijateljicami igrala, da so gospe. Oblekle so se v mamine obleke in evlje, se pogovarjale o moeh in sosedah, zanimivost te igre pa je bila, da so namesto da bi govorile, pele. Vse so v otrotvu tudi pomagale starem pri delu doma ali na vrtu. Ena je dodala misel, da je verjetno zaradi te gospodinjske pomoi, ki jo je nudila mami doma, hitro postala samostojna. L.R. je oetu pomagala celo pri ribolovu in to e potem, ko je bila e zaposlena vstala je ob tirih zjutraj, la z oetom na morje vre mree, nakar je la v olo uit, ob delu je e tudirala in imela obolske dejavnosti z otroki, doma je opravljala gospodinjska dela, spat pa je hodila ob polnoi. Skoraj vse uiteljice so poznale tudi svoje blinje sorodnike, tete, strice, nekatere tudi stare stare. Imajo jih v lepem spominu, posebno tiste, ki so jim bili bolj blizu, na primer tako, da so jih uvali kot otroke. e sorodnikov niso poznali, ker so le ti prej umrli, pa vedo veliko o njih iz druinskih zgodb. Ena od informatork je povedala: V spominu jih imam kot tople osebe in mislim, da so mi dali veliko lepega, predvsem v duhovnem smislu: radosti, radovednosti, ljubezni. Glede na kraj bivanja v otrotvu oziroma glede na nacionalno pripadnost so hodile v osnovno olo s slovenskim ali z italijanskim unim jezikom. e zgodaj so poznali tudi obolske

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dejavnosti: tako je bila A. R.vkljuena v telovadno drutvo, saj je bila e njena mama stara sokolovka, L.R. je pela in dve leti hodila v glasbeno olo igrala je klavir, druge, mlaje, pa so obiskovale razline kroke: pevski zbor, uenje tujih jezikov (francoina, ruina), literarni kroek in izdajanje olskega glasila, orodna telovadba, balet, karate, streljanje z zrano puko, glasbena ola (harmonika, klavir, violina), telegrafski teaj. Po konani osnovni oli so se vse vpisale v gimnazijo s slovenskim ali italijanskim unim jezikom, le A.R. se je vpisala v Srednjo olo za telesno vzgojo v Maribor in jo v tirih letih tudi uspeno konala. Njihovi spomini na mladost so veinoma lepi: zaradi druenja s prijatelji, skupnega uenja, izletov. G.F. pripoveduje, da je imela v adolescenci probleme sama s seboj. A.R. je povedala, da je v obdobju, ko je hodila v srednjo olo, ivotarila. Vendar menim, da je izbrala napaen izraz njeno srednjeolsko obdobje je bilo predvsem obdobje trdega dela v oli in treningov po oli. ivela je pri teti v Mariboru, kjer sicer ni bila lana, vendar je bila revna, saj si ni mogla privoiti toplih oblail in obutve za zimo ali pogostih obiskov druine v Piranu, ki ga je zelo pogreala. Domov je la dvakrat na leto, saj ni imela denarja za avtobus. Dve od uiteljic, zajetih v tem prispevku, sta li takoj po konani srednji oli delat takoj sta dobili delo v osnovni oli in zaeli s pouevanjem (razredni pouk, telesna vzgoja). Predvsem za njiju dve je znailno, da sta si e v otrotvu izbrali poklic uiteljice. A.R. si je kratek as v otrotvu elela postati e frizerka ali pa kapetan dolge plovbe. L.R. pa je povedala, da bi bila igralka, e ne bi postala uiteljica. Obe sta tudij dokonali kasneje ob delu. L.R. je kljub italijanski narodnosti in slabemu poznavanju slovenskega jezika tudirala v Ljubljani, skupaj e z dvema kolegicama, tudi Italijankama. Ostale so se takoj po konani gimnaziji vpisale na fakultete v razlinih krajih (Ljubljana, Pula, Koper). tudirale so razline predmete, saj si niso vse e v otrotvu oziroma v mladosti predstavljale, da bodo kasneje postale uiteljice: italijanino, angleino, francoino, slovenino, umetnostno zgodovino, sociologijo in razredni pouk. Nekatere so doloeno obdobje svojega tudija preivele in tudirale v tujini (J.B., B.B., T.G.), nasploh pa so veliko potovale. Sicer pa so bile njihove elje v otrotvu in mladosti razline.
T.G. je povedala: e bi imela dovolj talenta, bi bila glasbenica, tudi grafina oblikovalka, pa tudi medicinska sestra. V otrotvu sem imela tudi to eljo, da bi postala uiteljica. tudij jezikov sem izbrala, ker me je to zanimalo. G.F. je v otrotvu elela postati pisateljica, pa tudi uiteljica. L.B. je povedala: e ne bi bila uiteljica, bi izbrala katerikoli poklic, povezan z mojim tudijem in interesi, e bi tudi ostali pogoji bili zame sprejemljivi. K.D. meni: Zdi se mi, da me je neslo na uiteljsko pot, ker je prav ta tista, ki je zame najbolja. e ne bi bila uiteljica, bi bila morda psihologinja. Zdaj ugotavljam, da bi bila dobra zdravnica. J.B. pravi: e ne bi bila uiteljica, bi bila pevka, radiotelegrafistka ali zgodovinarka. To so bile moje nekdanje elje. e pa bi se zdaj odloala za poklic, bi bila raunalniki mojster, ustvarjalec interaktivnega materiala za izobraevanje in teacher trainer.1

B.B. bi bila sadjarka. Razen za T.G. in G.F., ki sta se tudi takoj zaposlili kot uiteljici, je za ostale uiteljice znailno, da so, preden so se zaposlile na oli, e prej opravljale ve razlinih slub oz. poklicev: Zavod za varstvo naravne in kulturne dediine v Piranu, umetnostna galerija Insula v Izoli, Turistini biro v Beneki hii v Piranu, trgovine, recepcija hotela Emona na Bernardinu, akvarij in muzej v Piranu, turistina agencija v Portorou Vse so e med asom tudija opravljale razlina
1

Izobraevalec uiteljev, multiplikator; tisti, ki bodoe uitelje pripravlja na pouevanje

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honorarna in tudentska dela. Tudi niso vedno ostale na isti oli, ampak so se selile iz ole na olo, dokler se niso nekje ustalile ali dobile stalne slube za nedoloen as. Vse uiteljice so se v asu svojega slubovanja veliko dodatno izobraevale na raznih seminarjih, delavnicah in tudijskih dnevih. Vse so se veliko ukvarjale tudi z raznimi obolskimi dejavnostmi, vodile razne kroke, pripravljale proslave skupaj z otroci, gledalike nastope, recitacije, telovadne akademije, portna tekmovanja, ritmine in plesne nastope. Najve sem o tem podroju njihovega ivljenja in dela izvedela iz ivljenjskih zgodb L.R. in A.R.. Ostale, ki so na vpraanja odgovorile pisno, so najvekrat napisale: Tega je bilo veliko. G.F. je doslej vodila literarni, umetniki in etnografski kroek, zdaj pa vodi keramini in slikarski kroek. T.G. je vodila kroek Urejanje olskega glasila in Bralno znako. L.B. je povedala, da je z dijaki pripravljala razline likovne dogodke, kroka pa ni imela, ker je bilo preve dela z maturo. J.B. je vodila angleki kroek in razne projekte. L.R. je takole pripovedovala:
Naredila sem ve gledalikih predstav skupaj z otroki. To je bila nova oblika dela z otroki. Recitacije. Samo tako sem lahko odprla otroke. e so oni interpretirali, so morali interpretirati dele te osebnosti, potem dele druge osebnosti, na primer punke, potarja, mame, bolniarke Ko so interpretirali te osebnosti, so se jim odpirali svetovi. Tako sem jim odpirala svet. Vsaka stvar slui svojemu namenu. Moj namen je bil odpreti otroke. Otroke z deele, ki niso znali niti povedati svojega imena in priimka, sem pripravila do tega, da so recitirali. Ko je bilo veliko sreanje folklornih skupin in se je predstavila ola iz Seovelj, sem na lastna uesa sliala, kako so nekateri rekli: Ma kaj tudi iz Seovelj so tu? Uboci! Takrat smo uprizorili igrico Fumarello e Rosa spina. Rosa spina je bila baletka, Fumarello pa je bil dimnikar. Ponoi sta plesala skupaj. Tako dobro so nastopali, da smo skoraj dobili prvo nagrado. Bili smo tretji, mi, uboci iz Seovelj. Takrat se je vse v meni uprlo: A tako, ker smo iz podeelske ole! Vam bom jaz e pokazala, kdo so podeelski otroci! In tako sem ostala tam osem let in osem let smo sodelovali pri sreanjih olskih gledalikih skupin. Vedno smo bili dobri. In potem sem s tem nadaljevala tudi v Piranu.

Pri ustvarjalnem delu z otroki je L.R., pa verjetno tudi druge uiteljice, naletela na veliko nerazumevanja s strani kolegov sodelavcev, kar je bilo verjetno posledica ljubosumja in nevoljivosti. Toda njeno notranje zadovoljstvo ob doseenih uspehih je vse to preseglo. Takole je pripovedovala:
Recitirali smo, imeli smo vaje, bili smo e pripravljeni za nastop v gledaliu, ko je nekdo priel povedat, da je neki profesor iz nae italijanske ole, imena ne bom povedala, ker je e iv in vegetira, ki je rekel: A tako, a recitirajo? In kdo jih vodi? L.R.. Prav, prav, bomo prili vigat v gledalie. Pogovarjali smo se, kaj se bo zgodilo, e ta manega de matti, ta ciurma, ki je jezna na nas, zato ker nekaj delamo, pride v gledalie. Recitacije so bile v italijanini, slovenini, hrvaini in angleini, v tirih jezikih. Hoteli smo pokazati, da se vsi na svetu lahko razumemo. To so bile recitacije prav iz srca. Sodelovali so otroci iz nae italijanske gimnazije, iz slovenske gimnazije, iz srednje medicinske ole, srednje pomorske ole. Najbolje in najveje ole iz naega Pirana. Dali smo si v glavo, da bomo povabili k sodelovanju otroke iz teh institucij. Recitirali so udovito. Potem je priel trenutek, ko so recitirali pesmi slavnega pesnika Jacquesa Prverta. Takrat smo se zdruili in recitirali njegove pesmi. Na tej predstavi so bili prisotni razlini ljudje: predsednik italijanske skupnosti, direktorji ol, predsednik socialistine zveze, krajevne skupnosti in ne vem e, kdo vse. Na predsednik, G., je rekel: Ste videli, ste videli, kako se dela, kako se recitira? Mi smo delali zastonj, brez plaila, v nae epe ni prilo ni, v naa srca, v na ep srca pa je prilo veliko, veliko. Toliko, da smo lahko iveli naprej. Saj niso bili vedno lahki trenutki. Ampak v oli se vse presee z lahkoto, e ima veliko srce. Samo se je treba potopiti v duo ljudi in pustiti svoje srce odprto, da vstopi kdo, ki si te eli spoznati. Naj le vstopi. e je ta odprtost, je v redu. e pa je zaprtost, hudobija, to vse unii.

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A.R. pa se spominja:
Se spomni, da smo imeli telovadne akademije? Ko ste telovadili, pa kola plesali. To sem vse sama pripravila. Veliko na urah. A se spomni, ko ste tudi plesale, smo imeli veliko na glasbo, ritmiko. Na vseh proslavah sem imela toke. Ali eno, ali dve, ali posamezno. In tudi v Izoli se je potem to nadaljevalo. In potem, ko sem la nazaj v Piran, ko je bil ta Flip tako razvpit, takrat sem zaela spet trenirat klasino gimnastiko, bradljo, gredo, preskok. Ni niso delali v Piranu ta as, tirinajst let, ko me ni bilo portno drutvo je delovalo e potem, ko sem prila nazaj v Piran. Samo je bilo bolj bogo, sem ga spet na noge postavila. Z nao osvoboditvijo se je zaelo vse skupaj spreminjat. Delovalo je e, ampak ni bilo ve Mi smo imeli prej odbor, pa predsednika, pa tajnika, pa blagajnika, pa smo se sestajali, pa smo imeli vodjo tega kroka, pa onega kroka Vsaka dejavnost je imela svojega predstavnika, da smo potem imeli tudi tekmovanja. V Piranu mi je to uspevalo e dve leti, potem pa jaz tudi nisem zmogla ve vsega sama. Od ostalih nisem imela pomoi, pa tudi otroci so se strano spremenili. Recimo, mi smo imeli v Izoli vsa ta tekmovanja ob sobotah. Ker dokler sem bila jaz v Piranu, je bil e pouk ob sobotah. Potem pa ko ni bilo ve pouka, smo pa zaeli uitelji portne vzgoje imeti vsa tekmovanja ob sobotah. Tako da drugi uitelji so bili lepo frej, mi smo imeli pa takrat vsa tekmovanja. Medrazredna, olska, taka in drugana. Vse za dekleta sem vodila sama. In smo imeli vsa tekmovanja, v gimnastiki, v rokometu, v koarki, v odbojki, v atletiki, v vsem smo tekmovali v sklopu razredov, potem pa e razredne reprezentance, to pa je bilo ob sobotah ali pa na portnih dnevih. In potem so zaeli ti otroci protestirat: Ne, ob sobotah pa mi ne bomo. Bomo, e bomo imeli med poukom. Med poukom pa tekmovanja ne bomo imeli. Med poukom bomo li, e bodo tekmovanja razpisana, pa e se bomo kvalificirali naprej. Ker to so bili sistemi tekmovanja, od olskega, do obinskega. e si bil na obinskem prvi, si el na podrono e si bil tam prvi ali drugi, si el e naprej in potem je bilo republiko. To je bilo nadgrajevanje. Imela sem dosti tudi tega.

Uiteljice sem spraevala tudi, kaken je bil njihov moto pri pouevanju.
T.G. pravi: Moj moto pri pouevanju je bil predvsem vzbuditi veselje do uenja in znanja in to povezati z ivljenjem. G.F. pravi: Pri pouevanju sem si vedno prizadevala, da bi dala od sebe najbolje. Vedno si tudi prizadevam pomagati uencem, ki so v stiski, tako da tudi oni dobijo prilonost uspeti. Ustrezno starosti razlagati in uiti, je moto uiteljice B.B. Moto uiteljice L.B. je prilagajati se novim ugotovitvam in spremembam, D.K. pa: Misli s svojo glavo! J.B. je elela svojim uencem: Dati in zahtevati im ve! L.R. meni: Treba je zaeti pri lahkih stvareh in se priblievati tejim. To je najpomembneje pravilo za uitelje.

A.R. si je prizadevala za osebni napredek vsakega uenca na podroju portne vzgoje, z uenci pa je vzpostavila tudi pristen stik in pridobila njihovo zaupanje, tako da so se v stiski prej obraali nanjo, kakor na svoje stare. Tudi L.R. so uenci zelo zaupali. e najve mi je o svojem nainu pouevanja povedala prav ona, ki je vedno pouevala prvi razred osnovne ole in uvajala otroke v svet pisane besede s tem, ko jih je uila brati in pisati. Takole pravi:
Z osemnajstimi leti sem postala uiteljica, sprva brez naziva. Bila sem na smrt prestraena, e bolj zaskrbljena. Spraevala sem se, ali me bodo otroci razumeli, ali jih bom kaj nauila, me bodo kritiziraliTakoj sem zaela z recitacijami, gledaliem. elela sem, da se otroci predstavijo v ivo, da recitirajo, govorijo, se izraajo. Moji uenci so bili pripravljeni recitirati, petiOpogumljala me je tudi uiteljica slovenine, M.A., ki je imela podoben znaaj kot jaz. Bila je odprta, rojena za dajanje, ljubiteljica umetnosti izraanja. V tem je tisti zakaj naega bivanja. e ne zna povedati, kaj misli, te ne bodo razumeli. e te ne razumejo, te ne poznajo. e te ne poznajo, nima prijateljev.

58 In zato je potrebno znati se izraati, govoriti. Toda kaj govoriti? e se izraa skozi poezijo, je to en nain. e govori o umetnosti, je to drug nain. e govori o znanosti, je to spet drugaen nain. Jaz sem otroke uila vsega tega, e od zaetka, od prvega razreda osnovne ole. To morajo razumeti: emu slui jezik, govorjeni jezik; emu slui pisani jezik in zakaj je potrebno znati brati. e pozna te tri kljue, je to melos ivljenja, je vse. V tem je vse.

Otroke je spodbujala tudi k uenju tujih jezikov; e ni lo drugae, jih je nagovarjala s smenimi primerami, s humorjem:
e bolje je zate, e zna ve jezikov in e se zna izraati in razumeti druge ljudi, druga ljudstva. Lahko se pohvalim, da so bili moji uenci odprti za vse jezike. Radi so se uili slovenine, radi so se uili angleine. Ne razumen, zakaj se danes nekateri uenci nenadoma zanejo pritoevati, da jim jeziki niso ve. Ma zakaj govori tako. Zakaj? Daj, daj Razume, da je tako, mora se potruditi, saj je svet v tvojih rokah, e zna jezike, e jih najprej razume in potem govori! Lahko vzpostavlja prijateljstva. In kaj e se zaljubi v Anglea, kako mu bo povedala, da ga ima rada, e ne zna jezika? Tiso stvari jim lahko pripoveduje in jih nasmeje, da le premagajo to veliko oviro, ki jim jo predstavlja tuj jezik, ki jih ga je tako strah.

L.R. je bila vekrat tudi mentorica mlajim kolegicam te so se bale stopiti v prvi razred, ker se jim je zdelo nepojmljivo, kako majhne otroke nauiti brati in pisati. L.R. jih je takole spodbujala:
Uila sem prve razrede. V prvem razredu sem se poutila dobro. Tudi zato, ker so moje kolegice pravile: Ne, ne, ne, v prvi razred noem iti. Ma zakaj? Kako naj nauim otroke pisati in brati? Na najenostavneji nain, sem jim odgovarjala. Tu ni pravil, to je umetnost. e me boste posluale, vam bo lahko. Pogosto sem bila mentor mlajim uiteljicam prvih razredov. Moja kolegica ni uiteljica prvih razredov, bila je slavistka, uila je slovenski jezik. Uila je svoj materin jezik s tem, da ga je ljubila, vzbujala spotovanje do njega, in ga pribliala otrokom. Ko jo je uenec poslual, je util, da je to, kar pripoveduje, predvsem res in obuteno. To je potrebno pri pouevanju. Tako kot v druini: z oeta na sina gre ljubezen do zemlje, do loveka, ljubiti se med seboj, spotovati se. In vse te loveke vrednote je posredovala otrokom na ta ali na oni nain. Zato mi je bila tako blizu. Bili sva prijateljici. Uili sva na isti oli. Tega prijateljstva nisva iveli sebino in samo zase, ampak sva ga podarjali uencem. Tako sva jim dajali utiti, da ola ni samo tovarna znanja, ampak tudi na drugi dom. In to ni samo brezvezna fraza, ampak je res. e ola ivi na ta nain, potem funkcionira, drugae pa ne.

Eno od vpraanj, ki sem ga zastavila uiteljicam, je bilo tudi, ali so bolj poudarjale vzgojo ali izobraevanje. Skoraj vse so odgovorile, da se jim zdi, da je oboje zelo pomembno. Nekatere so dale veji poudarek na izobraevanje, ker so menile, da je vzgoja naloga starev. A.R. je mnenja, da dananje olstvo ni naklonjeno vzgoji, ker uiteljem preve asa vzame izpolnjevanje dokumentacije temu sama pravi papirologija. L.R. pa je mnenja, da je vzgoja zelo pomembna: Na prvem mestu je vzgoja, vse ostalo pride potem. Nekdo se lahko ui poasi vse ivljenje, toda biti dober, odloen, prijazen, spotljiv, ljubezniv, vzgojen, loveki, pripravljen pomagati, tega se naui, ko si majhen. Moji uenci so se e danes, ko so postali odrasli ljudje, pokazali drugane v svojem ivljenju. Na vpraanji: Koliko pa je bil v asu, ko ste vi pouevali, cenjen uiteljski poklic? in Kaj bi radi sporoili dananjim uiteljem?, so bili odgovori razlini. L.B. ne ve, kako je v dananjem asu cenjen uiteljski poklic. Meni, da ga lahko ceni predvsem sam. Dananjim uiteljem pa bi sporoila, naj vztrajajo, e je to res njihov poklic, sicer naj ga prepustijo drugim. D.K. misli, da je bil uiteljski poklic vedno zelo cenjen in pomemben in da ga vsak lovek ne more opravljati. Dananjim uiteljem pa bi rada sporoila, da opravlja lep, plemenit poklic. T.G. je mnenja, da

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je bil uiteljski poklic neko bolj cenjen. Dananjim uiteljem pa bi rada sporoila, da je to lahko zelo svoboden poklic, predvsem pa to, da naj ohranijo ali si izborijo pravice, ki jim pripadajo. G.F. pouuje e 20 let in ima obutek, da je v tem asu uiteljski poklic malo cenjen. Dananjim uiteljem bi rada sporoila, naj imajo veliko potrpljenja. J.B. pouuje e 30 let in se ji zdi, da je uiteljski poklic vedno manj cenjen. Misli, da je za to ve razlogov. Dananjim uiteljem bi rada sporoila, naj bodo pri svojem delu in odnosu do otrok dosledni, naj dajo otrokom snov za razmiljanje in naj jim ne ponujajo vsega na pladnju. Za L.R. je uiteljski poklic najlepi na svetu, vendar na zaetku ni znala dobro braniti svojega dela: e me je kdo grdo pogledal, sem dobila cmok v grlu. Nisem hotela, da me vidijo jokati, nisem hotela, da vidijo, da sem prizadeta, naredila sem se, kot da ni ni in la naprej, e so mi kaj rekli, sem se naredila, da nisem slialaNisem znala dati vrednosti svojemu delu. Sicer pa to niti ni bila moja naloga. To je bila naloga moje direktorice ali koga drugega, ne mene. Ne more se vaiti s svojim delom. Nekdo drug mora povedati nekaj o tvojem delu. Svojim mladim kolegicam bi rada predala veselje do dela, obutek za otroka in misel, da mora biti uitelj zgled otrokom:
Lahko ti povem, da ob nekaterih mladih kolegih danes, ki se pritoujejo nad svojim poklicem, ki ne najdejo naina, da bi jih uenci razumeli, ostanem zmedena in ranjena ter si reem: Kako to, da ne razumejo, da je to najlepi poklic na svetu?! In je res. Ker kaj dela uitelj? Vstopi v duo tistega, ki te poslua, otroka, ki te poslua. Vem, da so me moji uenci jedli z omi. e danes mi nekateri kolegi reejo: Nisi bila na izletu z nami, ampak bilo je, kot bi bila, saj tvoji uenci govorijo kot ti! In to je res. Otroci kradejo z omi, z mogani, z vsem svojim bitjem vse, kar jim predstavlja uitelj. Zato pravim, da mora biti uitelj zgled svojim uencem. Zato mora biti obleen, kot se spodobi, biti dobro vzgojen, se lepo obnaati... Zakaj? Zato, ker je otroke treba vzgajati.

A.R. pa je poudarjala predvsem vzgojo, zaupanje in spodbujanje uencev. Uiteljice sem spraevala tudi, koliko uencev je bilo v razredu v asu, ko so one pouevale. tevilo je bilo razlino, takoj po 2.sv. vojni je bilo tevilo uencev v razredu veje kakor danes. Normativi so se z leti spreminjali. Najve uencev je imela Ana Rodin v primeru, da sta bila pri telovadbi zdruena dva razreda. Najmanj uencev pa je na italijanski osnovni oli. Tudi v vzgojnem zavodu, kjer je nekaj asa pouevala T.G., je bilo v razredu manj uencev, to pa zaradi vedenjskih problemov. Uiteljice sem spraevala tudi po njihovem osebnem ivljenju, druini, otrocih. Tiste, ki so odgovarjale pisno, so bile v odgovorih zelo skope. T.G. je moa spoznala med poletnimi poitnicami. troke je vzgajala tako, da jim je govorila o ivljenjskih izkunjah in tako, da so se poutili svobodni pri svojih odloitvah. G.F. je svojega moa spoznala na sprehodu. Poroila se je z dvajsetimi leti in ima dve herki, ki ju e vedno vzgaja. Predvsem bi jima rada poloila na srce, naj ljubita znanje in kulturo.
L.B. pripoveduje: Svojega moa sem spoznala nakljuno, poroila pa se nisva, ivela sva svobodno. Svojega otroka sem vzgajala po svojih najboljih moeh, e vedno pa je moja hi na najpomembnejem mestu. Svojemu otroku bi rada zapustila tole misel: Vse, za kar se odloi, opravljaj predano, tudi brez posebnega vzroka. D.K. pravi: Svojega moa sem spoznala, ko sva bili s prijateljico na sprehodu. Sreali sva dva prijatelja in eden je kmalu postal moj mo. Rodila se nama je prekrasna hi T., ki danes tudira v Ljubljani. Podpirava jo pri njenih odloitvah in ji zaupava. Letos bo stara 21 let. Moj mo je bil vsa leta na ladji, s herjo sva bili tudi po osem mesecev sami. Danes ivimo v Kortah v lastni hii. Pred tremi leti so se v spodnje stanovanje preselili tudi moji stari, saj pri teh letih potrebujeta pomo. Tako je laje.

60 J.B. je povedala: Svojega moa sem spoznala na plesu. Leta 1972 sva se poroila in kmalu dobila prvega otroka. Svoje otroke sem vzgajala liberalno, po svoji najbolji vesti. B.B. se spominja: Svojega moa sem spoznala e v osnovni oli, saj sva oba ivela v Izoli. Rodila sta se nama dvojka, dva fanta. Ker sta e mlada, ju e vedno vzgajam. Veliko asa smo preiveli skupaj v razlinih situacijah. Doloene bolezni so zahtevale veliko pozornosti. S sinovoma vedno iem pot komunikacije. Kar je bilo v moji moi, sem ju uila, veliko sem vlagala v dobre odnose in postavljala meje.

Najve mi je o svojem osebnem ivljenju, druini in otrocih zaupala A.R.. Vekrat je povedala, da je bilo njeno ivljenje pestro in da je imela hude1... Svojega moa je spoznala na delovnem mestu in kmalu sta zaela iveti skupaj. Imela sta dva otroka. Mo je bil bolnik in tudi pil je. Ko je bil v osmem razredu, se je njen sin smrtno ponesreil. Takrat je druinsko ivljenje razpadlo, iveli so vsak v svoji sobi. A.R. je opravljala vse delo doma in v oli, drugae pa je bila z mislimi drugod, odsotna. Zanemarila je vzgojo svoje herke. Do svojih otrok je bila prej zelo stroga, zdaj pa je heri vse dovolila. Kmalu ji je umrl e mo Takrat se je odloila, da mora nekaj spremeniti. la je iz Izole uit nazaj v Piran. S herko je imela veliko teav, vendar so se kasneje odnosi uredili. Zdaj je e ve let upokojena in babica. Svoj prosti as preivlja aktivno, z branjem, vodenjem telovadbe za stareje, pred raunalnikom. Obiskuje tudi kulturne prireditve in uva vnuke. L.R. mi je povedala veliko o svojem odnosu do dela, o nainu ivljenja v Piranu pred 2. svetovno vojno, o svojih starih, za katere je skrbela na stara leta. O mou mi ni povedala ni, nekaj malega pa o svojem sinu, ki zdaj ivi z njo in skrbi zanjo. Nisem hotela siliti vanjo z vpraanji o njenem druinskem ivljenju, o katerem vem le, da se je konalo z loitvijo. Informatorke so mi pripovedovale tudi o svojem prostem asu. O A.R. sem e govorila. Za L.R., ki je priklenjena na voziek, vem, da rada bere, ima rada obiske in gleda televizijo. G.F. skoraj nima prostega asa, kadar more, bere in hodi. Sreujem jo tudi na facebooku. L.B. prosti as preivlja v naravi, dela na vrtu, v vinogradu in v oljniku, hodi pe po opravkih, rada se drui in hodi na latinskoamerike plese. D.K. se rada sprehaja, vkljuena je v pevski zbor, telovadi in bere. J.B. pouuje tudi v prostem asu, sicer pa se veliko ukvarja s portom in ustvarja na raunalniku. Za B.B. pa vem, da rada bere, se sprehaja, poje, ima vrt s sadovnjakom in obiskuje mamo. T.G. obasno v prostem asu e pouuje, intruira, prevaja; rada se sprehaja v naravi, obiskuje knjinico in razne prireditve, bere, hodi v kino. Stari so nekatere od teh informatork vzgajali v verskem duhu (na primer D.K.), drugih pa ne. Mama od J.B. je bila pravoslavne vere, mama od L.B. ateistka in oe komunist, T.G. je povedala, da kot veina otrok tudi mi takrat nismo bili vzgojeni v verskem duhu. Vse pa imajo danes bolj ali manj izdelan odnos do duhovnosti oziroma do v okolju prevladujoe kranske vere.
G.F. pravi: Osebno mi je vera v ivljenju zelo pomagala. Sem zelo verna, toda ne hodim v cerkev, molim v sebi. T.G. misli, da neka vera, na primer ta v dobro v loveku, lahko veliko prispeva k temu, da nam je laje preiveti mnoge ivljenjske preizkunje. L.B. pravi: Vera v dobro v loveku vedno pomaga. Verjamem pa tudi, da pomaga boj proti slabemu ali pa vsaj mora pustiti, da vse slabo preprosto gre v ni. D.K. pravi: Verjamem, da me ima ivljenje rado, da vedno dobro poskrbi zame, zato mu zaupam in se poutim varno. J.B. ni verna. Zapisala je: V ivljenju so mi pomagali samozaupanje, trdna volja in optimizem.

Imela je hude teave.

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Z L.R. se o njeni osebni veri nisva pogovarjali. Povedala pa mi je veliko o verskem ivljenju in obiajih v Piranu pred 2. svetovno vojno, ko je bilo mesto e italijansko. O njeni veri lahko sama povem le tole: to je gospa, ki e dolga leta boleha za multiplo sklerozo, tako da njeno telo poasi hromi. Zdaj je e nekaj let na voziku in lahko premika samo eno roko. Kljub temu vzklika: La vita bella! ivljenje je lepo! Tudi z A.R. se o veri nisva pogovarjali, tako da ne vem, ali so jo versko vzgajali ali ne. Ko pa sem jo vpraala, kaj jo je v vseh teh letih, v katerih je toliko pretrpela, dralo pokonci, je rekla, da je bil to njen znaaj, njena odprtost in ljubezen do njenih otrok. Eno od vpraanj je bilo tudi, kakno misel ali popotnico bi rade zapustile svojim otrokom. Tudi odgovori na to vpraanje so zanimivi, niso pa vse uiteljice odgovorile nanj. Naredite si ivljenje lepo, ne glede na okoliine, jih spodbuja T.G. Naj ljubijo kulturo in znanje, si eli G.F. J.B. svojim otrokom polaga na srce, naj vedno naredijo vse, da uresniijo svoje cilje in naj imajo vedno isto in mirno vest. II. del: kaj se iz ivljenjskih zgodb uiteljic lahko nauimo Menim, da skozi ivljenjske zgodbe posameznih uiteljic, ki so zbrane in obdelane v tem prispevku, lahko sledimo tipinemu nainu ivljenja oziroma dela te poklicne skupine, ki je prepleteno z mnogimi rtvami, saj za olske otroke darujejo veliko veino svojega prostega asa, svojo ljubezen, naklonjenost, trud, celo harmonijo v druini; kljub temu, da sem jim zdi, da njihovo delo ni dovolj cenjeno ali je cenjeno vedno manj, ga opravljajo s predanostjo in veseljem, s pripravljenostjo vlagati v nadaljnje izobraevanje in osebno izpopolnjevanje. S tem pa priujejo o nekaterih vrednotah, ki so v nai drubi kljub novim tendencam kapitalistine drube e vedno prisotne: delavnost, trud, iskrenost, nenarejenost, ljubezen, zaupanje, prizadevnost, ljubezen do otrok, veselje do dela, ustvarjalnost, kreativnost, potenje, pogum, humor. Zato se lahko iz njihovih zgodb marsikaj nauimo ne le o nainu ivljenja, navadah in obiajih, ampak tudi vrednotah, ki so jih navdihovale, da so ivele polno ivljenje.
Pregledana literatura: CVETEK Slavko, Pouevanje kot profesija, uitelj kot profesionalec. 2005, Radovljica. Didakta. ENCIKLOPEDIJA Slovenije. 1979-, Ljubljana. Mladinska knjiga. MARUI Milan, Korenine slovenske ole v Istri. 1995 Koper. Samozaloba. MILHARI Hladnik Mirjam, olstvo in uiteljice na Slovenskem. 1995, Ljubljana. Znanstveno in publicistino sredie. SLOVENSKO olstvo veraj, danes, jutri. 2007, Ljubljana. Ministrstvo za olstvo in port.

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PETRA NOVAK

COMPARISON OF GRAFFITI IN RURAL AND URBAN AREAS

Graffiti appeared in the Stone Age and are present to this day. Attitudes towards them are different. In addition, frequency of graffiti in rural environment and in the city differs. Through analysis of the survey this article shows the attitude of rural residents towards graffiti, the locations they think are most appropriate for writing them. Through literature I tried to answer the main questions of communication or media, where graffiti are also included - who is creating, what is being created, when, why, how and where. There are some photos attached, which appear to show the real and general situation of graffiti in Slovenia. Keywords: graffiti, communication, urban environment, rural environment, subculture

1. AIM OF THE RESEARCH The aim of this study was to determine if there are any differences at all between the number and appearance of graffiti in a small rural town (iri) and the big city (Ljubljana), which has a wider range of public facilities (stations, subways, ...). I assumed that most people feel that the writings on school or church benches are not graffiti. I wanted to see what the attitude towards the graffiti is like and what people who should sanction graffiti writers think of graffiti. Do they see them as an offence and do they think graffiti writers should be sanctioned? I also wanted to know whether graffiti writing is considered an offence in Slovenian legislation. 2. GRAFFITI The word graffiti has its roots in a Greek word grafo or graphein to write, to delineate, to draw (Verbinc, 1987), and in an Italian word sgraffiare (Lali, 1991) to scratch out. Derived from this verb word graffito means a sign or a drawing that is carved in stone (Verbinc, 1987). Despite the clear origin of the word, definitions differ. The way people look at graffiti and their attitude towards them differ, too. Contemporary meaning of graffiti is (ornamental) inscription, slogan, drawing / ... /, scratched, scribbled or painted, usually a raw picture drawn in a hurry to a wall or other public area (Nagli, 1997). Stanonik (2004) adds that those public areas are not meant for either writing or drawing. Lalis definition (1991) of graffiti also supports my research; location of graffiti has an impact on wider communication and graffiti is designed in an informal and institutionalized manner. Graffiti is one of those terms that are defined in many different ways and therefore we do not have a single, common definition. I am taking advantage of this as well. My way of interpreting graffiti includes the inscription, slogan or drawing, written or scratched on any public area (up to here I agree

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with the basic definition, the archaeological importance of graffiti), but in illegal way1. This concept is also the basis for all the work I have done (from the questionnaires to the fieldwork and analysis of the photos). 3. GRAFFITI AS COMMUNICATION Humans are communicators by nature. Sometimes an idea suddenly arises or we have an experience and we want to express it. If we do not express it to another person, then we put it on a piece of paper, or to something else that is currently available; a wall, a stone, a tree or a door (Horvat, 1998). Graffiti are becoming widely spread general public medium. And what is the most important piece of public art, and includes graffiti, too? To stop the passers-by for a moment and to draw their attention to something that is more important than everyday rush. Graffiti as an alternative (parallel) form of communication began to emerge in the early 20th century in England with the messages of romantic understanding of chivalry and crusades. Today some graffiti writers write graffiti, mostly illegally, because they want to tell something to passers-by very directly. Even graffiti on benches, tables (eg. in school, in church) can definitely be considered as a medium. Each message that appears in the media should answer a few questions: who is the messenger, what, when, where, why / what for is he communicating. Assuming that the graffiti is a medium, anyone who encounters an inscription or a picture should be able to answer some of these questions. With the help of literature, surveys and photographs of graffiti, I answered those questions myself. 3.1. Who Who writes graffiti? Even before I tried to answer this question, I assumed that graffiti are written especially by young people, who want to draw attention of other people, and want to report their problems trough graffiti. Graffiti writers do what most of us do not dare to they leave traces and signs, they decorate the city, they draw attention to themselves and to the paths they walk on, they show respect to better colleagues, and despise themselves and encourage the talented. For graffitists the duality is typical in terms of their real-life and life through a fictional character (Zrinski, 2004). On the website of the slohiphopforum I noticed that individuals do not give their real names, but their art names, called tags. This is in close connection to earlier mentioned duality of their life and the fear of the law. 3.2. What What do graffiti say? Graffiti with the substantive issues tell a message and try to highlight problems of the society, an individual or graffiti writer himself. There are many types of graffiti, which vary in subject of the graffiti and the inclusion of individuals in it. Types of content of graffiti (Lali, 1991): graffiti associated with a view of life; music graffiti; graffiti associated with school; related to alcohol, intoxicating agents; connected to the company and friendship; bound to love and sexuality; associated with violence; humorous; associated to automobiles, motorbikes; national; ethnic; politically-ideological; religious; sports; fan; territorial.
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Illegal because in modern democratic society there are other media that satisfy legal communication.

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3.3. When When are graffiti made? Graffiti, mostly illegally made on the streets, usually occur during the night. The reason is simple: at that time there is considerably less traffic on the streets and less passers-by, so the graffitists have more time to better devote themselves to graffiti as such. It is understandable, however, that within the buildings graffiti are made when they are open. This means that, for example, in schools during school time, in churches during masses, in pubs and clubs during the opening hours. Lifetime of the graffiti is due to social control mostly short or jeopardized. 3.4. Why Why do they write graffiti? There are probably as many reasons for writing graffiti as there are people who write them. Graffiti were first seen in cities where the population is too large for social affiliation of the individual, so people, especially young, because of the anonymity that belongs to us in a big community, with time acquired a tendency to express their internal feelings. Thus, the reasons vary. Some writers indicate their activity as a ritual offence against oppressive political and economic order (http://www.graffiti.org/faq/stowers.html) A way of defining the identity of young people today is an informal way of communication of individuals and groups in the wider social environment. The purpose of graffiti is therefore to stand out. The desire to embellish the surroundings is the main reason for some graffiti writers, whose graffiti also have an artistic value and give a positive note to the expression of the graffiti. In my opinion, mainly people who write in the cities have that kind of desire, because they want to spice up the grey streets. Rural area due to the natural diversity does not need that. I assume that this is the reason that there are less graffiti on the streets there. 3.5. Where 3.5.1. The location Graffiti are primarily found on public places, only sometimes in or on private premises. In the second part of the Law on Public Order and Peace a public place is any place that is unconditionally or under certain conditions available to anyone (Law on Public Order and Peace, 2006). This is referred to if one is sanctioned. Graffiti are therefore found under bridges, on the walls, traffic signs, in deserted houses, tunnels, pillars, on means of public transport, toilets, in primary schools and on billboards. In all major cities there are arranged even special rooms or places designed exclusively to writing or drawing of graffiti. They are not widely excepted by graffiti writers and are used mostly on meetings, which are often organized by student clubs. Here we can ask ourselves whether this is really graffiti in its essence as such according to our definition it is not. Graffitists are drawn to other public areas, to well known buildings, where graffiti are seen by many tourists and other people. For modest graffiti scene in rural environment one of the main reasons can certainly be the town architecture. In contrast to the capital city, rural environment does not have railway stations or built bus stops. These parts of cities are very important for developing of graffiti scene. Because in a small town everybody knows everything about everyone, there is a greater chance that graffiti writer would get caught. School and church (to which probably go more children and adolescents, by the percentage, than in the capital city), shops and pubs are the public places where one can write as much as in the capital.

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3.5.2. The building There are many public places and facilities where graffiti writers go when they want to draw graffiti or where young people express themselves: objects, buildings in public spaces, toilets, school tables, chairs, church benches ... 3.6. How 3.6.1. How they are formed Graffiti in their present form and meaning of the word are known from the 60th of the 20th century, but their origin dates far back into the past. In the Stone Age people began to draw graffiti by threading them in stone, from there, as already mentioned, the name graffiti originally come from. Today such form of graffiti art is no longer popular, it can be seen on tables, benches, doors ... probably on the trees, too. A can of paint and a paintbrush is no longer practical, dry dyes are unsuitable for large areas. Graffiti writers mostly use sprays and lacquers; especially popular is black colour. Sprays are packed in a practical packaging, portable and easy to use. A great feature of can-sprays is that they can be used practically on any surface. Less represented is chalk, charcoal, markers and pens, which are perfectly suited for writing on small areas (for example on benches, school chairs in ...). For scratching out a certain inscription, all you need is a sharp object, which can be an everyday object such as a key, a tip of compasses, scissors, sharp stone ... 3.6.2. Classification by the form Text: Graffiti in text form are often written in a hurry, expressed as a protest, in a public location seen to everyone. Most of them are often scribbled. Symbolic: Symbolic form of graffiti is universal. This means that this type of graffiti contain commonly known symbols (for example marijuana, peace sign, plus, heart, cross, swastika, hammer and sickle; often used symbol is letter A in a circle, which means anarchism, a political ideology with which punks have identified with in the seventies). Picture: Graffiti as a picture are unique. This type of graffiti is more difficult to make and therefore requires a greater engagement of artists. The picture graffiti differ from textual and symbolic graffiti primarily because of the visual image. Often they are very aesthetic. Today, the creators draw usually cartoon characters and characters from comic books, advertisements, television and other media. This form of graffiti it is typical combined with text. 4. ART OR VANDALISM? 4.1. Graffiti art or vandalism People daily encounter graffiti, but they often do not think about them, as long as they do not touch them in a positive or negative way or until they feel that graffiti is art or vandalism. Connection of graffiti, law braking and vandalising of private or public property has led to the connection of graffiti to crime and vandalism in general. If the graffiti brighten grey streets and do not talk against anyone in offensive way, they may be considered as art. This is certainly proved by the fact that the graffiti are seen in galleries and museums.

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4.2. Graffiti before the law Despite the fact that writing of graffiti is still pure adrenaline, modern societies are more tolerant to graffiti (Stanonik 2004). The Slovene government initially looked at graffiti as a phenomenon that transcends all boundaries of tolerance. Political and confrontational graffiti were disappearing overnight. The writers often face penalties, but eventually, these mitigated. Today, the police officer that catches the writer only gives him a warning and rarely fines him. The state however is expected to see this act as a misdemeanour and not as an aesthetic practice, because it is not the graffiti aesthetic practice that is criminalised, but the damage done to the property. (Stanonik, 2004). Even in the house order of number of schools it is stated that graffiti writing is considered as pupils crime, the same as using the pyrotechnics. Student could receive from one up to ten penalty points for drawing, writing, scratching out on the school premises and its property (The internal regulation of rights and obligations of pupils, 2005). 4.3. Connection of graffiti and the Public Order and Peace The Law on Public Order and Peace in the 13th part says that anyone who writes or draws on walls, fences or other publicly accessible places, except in places where it is allowed to, shall be punished by a fine of approximately 200. In the 16th part there vandal offence and punishment for it are more specified: whoever intentionally damages, overturns, removes or otherwise interferes with memorials and public infrastructure facilities, such as street lights, road signs, recreational facilities, childrens playground areas and similar public facilities, shall be punished with a fine of 200-400. The law also states a penalty for excitation of intolerance (religious, ethnic, sexual, political), which may reflect in graffiti. Supervision of the implementation of this law is done by the police. According to the 16th part of the law it is also done by Public Constables (The Law on Public Order and Peace, 2006). 5. RESULTS OF THE SURVEY The survey was conducted in a rural area and it was completed by 100 respondents (50 male and 50 female), mostly adolescents. They were asked mainly for their attitude towards graffiti, knowledge they have about them, the state of graffiti in our society and in their opinion the most appropriate location for writing graffiti. The type of questions was mostly closed type, with few exceptions, because I assumed that they probably do not have an opinion on graffiti. Majority of questioned people like graffiti. They prefer ones with people-friendly content and which are colourful an image. 29% do not like graffiti, some because graffiti disturb them, others do not like them in general. Only 9% of respondents have no particular opinion. According to both genders, the prevailing opinion is that most graffiti are acts of violence. These are small, written in a hurry, scribbled and thus have more opportunities to be made, because they require less time and effort. One of the reasons could be that graffiti as an act of violence can occur practically anywhere, is done by any means and at any time. Graffiti as art needs appropriate (levelled and relatively large) place, the right tools and more time (with no passers-by and no fear that one would get caught). Majority of them think that graffiti as acts of violence are made because of social intolerance. This could be true, because all the graffiti with rebellious content could be put under this category.

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Most of questioned people would not punish graffiti writers. That reinforces the fact that they like graffiti. Those who would punished them, would give them a fine (in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Slovenia a fine of 200 or more, depending on the type of offence is envisaged). Some even demand a few days of imprisonment (although it is easier for a student to go to prison than to pay a fine). I also wonder how we can salve a problem of underage graffiti writers by imprisonment. Respondents believe that there are less graffiti in the countryside than in larger cities. Certainly there are more reasons, the main reason would probably be smaller population and the previously mentioned (un) suitable surfaces, the lack of them and even closer connection with the town. On the streets of a small town, I did not see any art (picture) graffiti. Only those on school walls, which were made during the art class and I do not consider them as real graffiti. General opinion is that graffiti on school and church benches are made because people of the same age were communicating. This is true, because many of these graffiti show that two (or more) people were doing exactly that. Many think that graffiti are made because of confirming oneself. That kind of graffiti clearly include a number of signatures on the benches / tables, at school or in church and in various cafes. According to this study, the church benches are significantly less suitable for writing, scratching and scribbling as a school desk or a tavern / bar table or chair. Reasons for this may be found in occupancy (in school you have more privacy at your own desk) and in respect of the church as a building connected to religion. Interestingly, however, that the church benches in Ljubljana look less damaged than the benches in iri. I did not get the information about cleaning or restoration, but from talking to people I have come to the conclusion that benches in iri have been like that for a long time. Answers to the last question confirm that the graffiti are not so controversial and do not disturb us. It is probably like that because none of us has ever been affected by graffiti (one can not write on our property and not against us; we usually stick together against someone or for someone). 6. A MESSAGE OF MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS, POLICE ADMINISTRATION In last year around 10 people were fined (fixed penalty approx. 200) in the area of Ljubljana police department and about 30 in the country. However, it was noted that the law began to distinguish between acts of vandalism a special type of it - graffiti, in the year 2006. Sometimes a house search is made to arrest a graffiti writer, but mostly they are caught during random preventive inspections. Graffiti writers usually write graffiti at night, mainly on various walls, bridges, subways, railway stations, less often on monuments, houses and other buildings. Mostly they act against all forms of graffiti that mean a misdemeanour or crime. The writers are usually students who are not members of groups. Occasionally police participate in investigations related to writing within the school, church or restaurant/ pub. 7. REALLITY Based on analysis of photographs it is sure that the rural populations mentality and the mentality of people in the capital of Slovenia do not go their separate ways. It may seem graffiti in Ljubljana are more detailed and polished, but within the facilities of a small town there is a similarity in graffitis contents. Rural streets did not offer much graffiti, so I focused more to the interior of the buildings. As repeatedly mentioned, such situation on the streets is probably

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due to towns architecture, more connected population (people of iri) and the fact that young people, who are proven to be the most common graffiti artists, study in other cities and not in home town. The situation in schools in Ljubljana is, as principals responded, the same. Obviously, school policies do not prevent these acts. The similarities in content as proved by photos:

Photo 1. Text-symbolic and textual graffiti on ethnicity, Nazism.

The central graffiti in the first photo is a sign of Serbia and is a simple version of the Serbian national emblem. In the past this emblem was used in areas with ethnic conflicts. These graffiti mostly have negative ethnic attitude. Because they do not appear much in the public, only few people know what they mean. I have only been able to explain it with a help of the book that explains symbols. If someone drew a swastika, then, because of its incidence and public propaganda, everyone knew what it stands for. I saw this in the rural elementary school classroom with the added name of Hitler (photo 2).

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Photo 3 it may be a provocation of nationalist interest, or a praise, compliment, but because of publicly very large events around Roma, the first is probably more true. The graffiti is written on a much seen public location and represents writers opinion of Roma. People similar to this writer have, in my opinion, negative attitude towards people that are different (for example homosexuals, disabled people, other nations).

Photo 3

Even in the rural elementary school I found the inscription (photo 4), which can be interpreted as an expression of intolerance. The term capac cannot be found in the dictionary, but I know from experience that it indicates a person south of us, Southerners, someone from the former republics of Yugoslavia.

Photo 4

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Photo 5

This love graffiti (photo 5) was written in Slovene language, which is not very common. The word NO was probably added later, according to the different font and size. The message of the original writer is clear. With these words he anonymously wants confess his love trough school bench. Similarly love graffiti appears on the rural church bench (photo 6).

Photo 6

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Photo 7

As a typical love graffiti is the one on the photo 7. This graffiti was more a personal message1 to Urska, who should remain in his heart. With the date he ensured that the love stays written in the history forever or at least until the wall has been cleaned. 8. CONCLUSION It is true that I wanted to make an interview and even see how graffiti is made, but because of the anonymity of graffiti writers and the protection of personal data on the police, I could only read the online forum. I was also convinced that graffiti writing as vandalism occurs more frequently than other forms of vandalism, for example overturned trash, broken windows... Local police officer and police chief at Ljubljana police department claimed the opposite it occurs less frequently. Probably such a hypothesis came to my mind because one sees more graffiti than overturned bins. On the second thought, removal of graffiti demands more time and resources. Probably, if the graffiti were seriously controversial, they would be removed. I conclude with the graffiti found on one of Slovene rural schools: Why should the walls be empty?
References Dictionary of Slovene literary language. 2001. Ljubljana, Scientific Research Centre FORTY, S. 2006. Symbols. Ljubljana, Mladinska knjiga, p. 256 Graffiti writers, 2004. Ljubljana, International Centre of Graphic Arts. p. 130 HORVAT, M. 1998. Typography in graffiti. Diploma. Ljubljana, p. 65 HURRY, M. 1997. If the wall is paper, the results are graffiti. Gorenjski glas, 50 (66), p.15 Internal regulations on the rights and obligations of pupils. 2005. iri, Elementary School iri Klisura Vukasin, a police officer at iri Police Station, oral interview LALI, D. 1991. Graffiti and subculture. Zagreb, Alinea, p. 228 STANONIK, M. 2004. Graffiti. Magazine of History and Ethnology, 40 (2/3), p. 683-714 VERBINC, F. 1989. Dictionary of Foreign Words. 9. edition, Ljubljana, Cankarjeva zaloba, p. 770 ibret Daniel, Senior Police Advisor, letter. http://www.graffiti.org/faq/stowers.html http://www.monkibo.com/forum/activate.asp?ID=YasenA34F442E76
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Urka stay in my 21.1.2007.

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STANISLAV INCHOVSKY-TARNIN

CONTEMPORARY RE-MEANING OF TRADITION CASE STUDY ENIOVDEN/ MIDSUMMER

Eniovden, st. Joans Day, Midsummer is an ancient, pre-Christian holiday that has been celebrated almost all over the world. The local folk tradition synthesized paganistic and Christian rituals. Field observations of the author surprisingly show that even in modern times this day enjoys extremely wide popularity as a holiday. Festive rituals is segmented and re-assambling from various traditional Bulgarian customs. In explanation of the practices and beliefs given by the participants we can observed a curious fusion of yoga, druid`s, mystical, modern, folk and religious beliefs. This article seeks explanations for this massive socioethnological phenomenon by combining psychological, sociological, linguistic, cultural and ethnic paradigms. Keywords: Midsummer, the sun, herbs, holiday, magic, religion, archetype, post-socialism.

During field studies of mountain tourism, as one of the groups who practice, is those of gatchers of wild fruits, herbs, mushrooms and more. Among the interesting stories that are told among them, there are many stories of traditional and contemporary folklore, and special attention to a summer holiday Midsummer. In further studies, it appeared that the interest in this holiday is bigger than initially I expected. In a comparison based on the Internet sample with other traditional and new holiday stands surprising presence, one of the Midsummer holidays, to which there has been of greatest interest. The paper deals with today interest to this traditional agricultural festival and tries to find and separate the main causes. Have been used several regional variants of the celebration to seek generalizations and distinctions.

Stonehenge one on the world famous solar calendar

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The complexity of post-industrial de-massovisation society of the Third Wave (Toffler: 1991) requires an integrated explanation approach combining different concepts from different disciplines, so called complexity cultural turn (Urry: 2003). As interpretative approaches are used, the concepts of mythological thinking (Eliade: 1997, 2001, 2003), bicolage conception (Levi-Stross: 2002), binary oppositions, in magic beliefs of basic elements, paganistic beliefs enshrined in its celebration (Benovska- Sabkova: 1991, 1992, 2002; Pavlova: 2002; Yaneva: 1989, 2005) and others. There are taken into account postsocialic social conditions (Baychinska: 1997; Rakadjiiska: 1998), new religious movements (Wild: 1994; Ponisch: 2006) and archetypes (Jung: 1995, 1999, 2002). Combine to explanations of psychologists, ethnologists, sociologists, linguists and others. Theoretical studies are combined with field methods (observation, including observation, talk, semistructured interview).
Enyovden. Yanovden, Ivan Bilyober, Ivanden, Midsummer, Dragayka in folklore on this day the sun begins to die slowly and the year tend to winter: Enyo threw his jacket to go for snow. It is believed that whoever sees bathed in living water playing and vibrant sun will be healthy throughout the year. Everybody observed his shadow. If it emerges without a head, or half, this bodes disease. On the night of the dying and the birth sun, different grasses and herbs become the greatest healing power, which disappears with the sunrise. For those reason of midsummer, early morning, girls and women, fortune-tellers, witches and wizards gathered herbs used for healing and magic throughout the year. That night magic power gain and water. Believed that water in rivers and wells on that day is healing, because the sun has bathed in it. In Western Bulgaria even believe in the healing power of enyovsdays dew. Its magic power is used by magicians brodnitsi/zhitomamnitsi (wheat-tempted). In the night of Midsummer Eve, naked and mounted on beam, they roam in foreign lands and ruling spells rob an apron dew to make it drain in their fields. Before the holiday every farmer reaps in several classes of its levels to find her zhitomamnitsata already picked. To a fertility festival of young women go to levels harvested a wisp, knitted braid of corn and put a cross shallow and wisp. On Midsummer Day, like New Year and St. Georges , is make devination, show how health, marriage and fertility. Enyovdey`s predictions are made in the ritual singing of the ring (or wrist), which resembles Laduvane, in Southeast Bulgaria and in parts of northeastern Bulgaria predictions deploy the custom Midsummer bride . As a Christian holiday Midsummer is associated with the birth of St. John the Baptist.

The quote was taken from the site of BAS (Bulgarian Academy of Science) http://cl.bas/ kalendar/24-vi-enovden information is a summary of the ethnographic collections of material to 50s of last century from different ethnographic field. When searching the name of the holiday in Google1 go over 3 million results in the first 300 of which retells the information partially or completely the adapted Quote2. Big digit results in Google induce comparison with other traditional holidays. Heres what the study showed3:

The data are taken from GOOGLE, suggesting consumers using the Internet. If, at the 2002 15% of Bulgarias population uses the Internet, 12% of them are in cities, then to 2009. This percentage is 46% and 15% higher than the previous year. 2 The number of results is not an indication of the number of users or visitors to the sites, but the very existence of so many sites devoted to the crown is a marker of activity induced by the topic. 3 Quoted data are seen to 02.08.2009. It is possible for any date they are different. A comparison was made of the second reference 15.08.09. And a third of 02.09.09, but differences in results are not relevant holiday created the need to change a group in the table.
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Classification table is made according to the number of results. From the adjusted data shows a clear differentiation in five groups with similar results, which are indicative of the importance and popularity of the holiday. The table I am included only traditional holidays in order to compare the location of Midsummer among them1. As an illustration adduct data new adopted holidays from Western tradition2 and
The festival is mentioned in mass-media, but newspaper For Home publishes a special issue Midsummer, not just dedicated to the celebration but as a single theme. 2 Details on Valentines Day: Stanka Yaneva, Valentines Day, celebration for lovers, in Living culture of Bulgarians and Serbs in post-socialist period, Sofia 2005.
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also holidays with personal meaning. It is noteworthy that except for the first group almost all the other holidays are celebrated four groups mainly as a name-day1. Exceptions make St. Nicholas, from the holidays with a culinary canon eat fish, and Ignazhden, in which there is almost no Name. An exception makes St. Georges day (one of the biggest holidays in the traditional agricultural calendar), which traditionally the people have to eat lamb, but because of the high price to be paid for adherence to this cattle tradition it was rarely observed. On the other hand the day is an official holiday and a rest day the day of the Bulgarian army, i.e. to its traditional meanings add new ones. The results of the quoted rating can be seen as the spread of a name respectively number of results is indicative of the number of nameday. Name is among the first and the fourth group, but the largest concentration is focused second and third group. Celebrations of the first group are the largest not because of the number of nameday covering, and for reasons of another nature. This can be seen as re-meaning of traditional festive rituals at a time when agro-cattle livelihood is not directly related to peoples lives and social relations. As it is noteworthy that hierarchy festive significance has undergone major developments in the past 80 years compared with etnographic material for the traditional holiday rituals. The largest spring festivals St. George and St. Lazars Day has given place name day. Then the question arises, since Midsummer is removed from its functional importance agriculture once the celebration is not bound by the number of nameday in what consists its meaning and why the group of holidays with the highest interest? Hardly anyone believes that water from the tap it healing on this day, almost no one posses cornfields to be protected or grabens, and a very small part of the city known herbs in their natural state. To believe that the graduates or young women aged 18 to 30 years will powwow in boiler water which will be the spouse is fun but irrelevant to reality. How to explain the great interest in the feast? To answer this question, consider how it is celebrated in different parts of Bulgaria. Bring a few examples: 1. In Open air ethnographic museum ETAR is traditionally orgnized a contest of wreaths and also a competition for traditional dishes with herbs, restaurations of songs and dances made by folk groups at community centers in surrounding villages, it is organized a bazaar for honey and herbal products. Visitors this year (2009) were over 4000 people (see http://oikumen. info/?show). 2. Regional and Historical Museum in Burgas organized celebrations in the ethnographic complex, with reconstruction of the ritual Midsummer Bride, performances of ensemble Goce Delchev, childrens drawings and a crown (see http://news.travel.bg/). 3 In Gotse Delchev is held a festival featuring folk singers with a national reputation, Valya Balkanska, Nikolina Chakardakova. At the same time it is hold a workshop for traditional, street and contemporary art, as well as rituals and spells devoted to sun and herbs (see www. kn.mikc.bg/node/99 ). 4. In nature park Shumen Plateau is organized a celebration under the patronage of Mrs. President Zorka Parvanova. The program includes meeting the sunrise, enyovski forum, folk concert and fire dancing (www.visitbulgaria.net/bg/, www.visitbulgaria.net/bg/). 5. On the official website of Municipality of Asenovgrad says that traditionally is done in Asenovgrad Kalenitsi a custom in which young girls dressed in wedding dresses make a
1

The first 10 of the top 50 of the most popular traditional names, as Petya Bankova, in Media-factor for the formation of public opinion, in quoted volume: John, George, Peter, Dimitar, Tom, Nicola, Vasil, Elijah, Jordan, Stoyan, as male names, and female Maria, Ivanka, Jordan(k)a, Stoyan(k)a, Penn(k)a, Rad(k)a, Ellen(k)a, Tzvetan(k)a, Raina, Veli(ch)ka female names listed in succession from 1 to 10 shows a clear correlation with the listed name day.

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procession through the city health and luck and also has pictures of girls 4-7-8 years dressed in bridesmaid dresses. There is no information why do not submit other information about Midsummer, obviously this is regional tradition (www.segabg.com/online/). 6. In Dobrich festival is organized by the ladies, local pharmacy Old Dobrich and the regional historical museum. In celebration included folk ensemble and choir, are handed out herbal tea, the people has to pass under herbal wreaths. There are girls dressed in formal or bridesmaid dresses, but there is no mention about it (www.visitbulgaria.net/bg/). 7. A traditional celebration is organized by the municipality of Stara Zagora, this year held in Ayazmoto, in the hall of laughter. Cast 5 pcs of childrens choirs, but they do not specify whether is only folklore, is organized a contest for bunchof flowers (http://tour.starazagora.net) 8. Delchevo village festival with a fee entrance of 12 lv. (6 euro) for 3 days during which one can see the art bazar Mysteries, fire performances, fire dancing and more (www.novinar.net/?act). 9. On this day make their annual meeting with members of the Club Bagatur from Varna, inspired by the legendary past. They are making a sort of reconstruction of archaic customs and practice martial arts exercise ETO fighting, ride horses, shoot with bow and so on, there are offered diplomas and honorary titles to deserving members (mainly young people of school age (http://balhara.selpip.org). 10. http://yogakursove.info after general information about Midsummer emphasizes that it is time for reflection and stocktaking. 11. Political Movement of all Bulgarians Midsummer (http://eniovden-bg.blogspot.com). 12. In capital town Sofia already for four years has been organized the celebration of Midsummer by NGDEK Peter Dimkov a movement organized to promote life and work of famous Healers Peter Dimkov who healed notably through herbs. As a celebration of herbs, they celebrate it by organizing a march to the Sofia district of Knyazhevo area Maiden rock of Vitosha Mountain, where they read the words dealing with Midsummer and Peter Dimkov and then old herbalist talk about herbs. In celebration are included performances of the folk school and community center ensembles, there is an exhibition of drawings made by culture clubs. In the end all the participants pass under an arch wrapped in herbs. They go barefoot, immediately after which the organizers sprayed the people with a bunch of herbs with silent water and give them a coin, wrapped in geranium and red thread and a piece of bread (http://oikumen. info/?show=article&arc_id=845). These cases can be divided into two groups: Traditional. A large group including 1 to 8 and 12, representing two thirds of the cases are similar to each other. They used as a prototype set of traditions by initial quote. In one degree or another degree, in one or another feature. They are not particularly different from other traditional festivals, such as Palm or reproductions Midwives Day, and this does not explain the great interest. Others. 9 Sport and ethnic ideology, 10 Eastern mystic ideology and 11 national political ideology. At first glance have little in common, but the summary of the differences can give key for interpretation. For these reasons it is necessary to look for other signs of grouping. There is some common momment for all of the holidays: folk music, in 8 cases; child participation is clear-marked in 7 cases; institutional support clearly vissible in 8 cases (Mrs. President, municipality, national park, regional museum, etc.); restorations of folk customs 9 of described cases; wedding rituals in 3 places; medical motifs in 9, in 11 talk about political and spiritual health, 10 on psychophysical health, 9 for physical health, skill, dexterity, excellence; magical practices or topics 10; Ethnic identity 11 of all 12, except only Yoga, 10; tourist-oriented in 6 clearly deskribed as the main idea.

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At first glance, it is noteworthy that this festival allows for expressions of national identity passing through childhood and general folk performances on one hand (this explains the institutional support) and regional identity on the other hand, due to differences in the way of organizing and conducting that are not consistent with dropped from above normative rituals1. But there are also cases referring to much older traditions, Proto-Bulgarian; Yoga in 12 can be read as a reference to the Celtic tradition. It provides direction, the reasons for interest in the holiday to look at reasons with ancient origins, i.e. excessed regional-national traditions and concepts relating to universal. On the other hand implied for the holiday magic theme allows for religious action, inconsistent and unrestricted by a particular religion without requirement for religious or antireligious identity, based on a traditional fluid continuity. According A. LeRoi-Gourhan 30.000 years ago, most of the artifacts found were fragments of bone and stone, marked with evenly spaced marks the first-evidence perception of rhythms and regular intervals2. According to the author, The rhythms of the stars give the concept of time priority over the concept of space (LeRoi-Gourhan: 1955:155). Midsummer, marking the summer solstice, is the summer equivalent of a New year, a marker of the passing of time and in example 10 coincidence emphasis names revisiting the past and forthcoming. One of the differences between the celebration of New Year and Midsummer is that while the New Year celebrations milestone counting takes specific ending year and forthcoming as consecutive numbers, then in summer solstice such digital recording completely absent. The emphasis is on cyclical rather than change, giving the impression of timelessness. This is reminiscent of the concept of M. Eliade the difference between the historical and non-historical societies and civilizations, recognition of the importance of flow time of the first and the belief in the periodic renewal of the world by breaking the existing, to remove anomalies and its construction again like the ideal pattern set by the mythology. Exactly cycles, repetition of events gives them a reality. The author examines the mythology as a way to rescue from history3 (Eliade, The Myth of Eternal Return, History of religious beliefs and ideas, t. etc.). Collective memory is anti-historic and recognizes only the categories and archetypes, not historical events and individuals, because as individuals are connected the authenticity and the irreversibility of the event. Tragedy is related to the linear view of the passing of time and irreversibility of choice (including Christ), unlike the eternal resurrection Osiris, (N. Frye, Anatomy of criticism, 1957, M. Eliade A Treatise on the History of Religions, 2001, J. Frazer, Golden Bough, 1984). In the center of the celebration is the birth of the sun. This inexplicit out-of-time holiday makes it a main opposition to the New year, which always emphasizes exactly what a new year comes i.e. emphasizing the idea of linear time, while in midsummer it is stresses to be cyclic. From the examples above it could be seen a strong interest in magic and mysterious, sometimes particular emphasized, in addition to the healer and mantic practices expressed in nestitars dances (over fire). Thus, apart from the binary opposition between the two solar feast4: New Year (linear time) Midsummer (cycle time) stands another pair of opposition: everyday life
Detail for local identity in G. Valchinova, Znepolski praised local religion and identity in western Bulgaria, Sofia, 1999. 2 These are the first artifacts from the Paleolithic. For the same evolution and religious ideas to which they relate, see M. Eliade, History of religious beliefs and ideas-from Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries, t. , p. 53-64. 3 Mircea Eliade, The Myth of Eternal Return , History of religious beliefs and ideas, t. etc. 4 In connection with summer and winter solstice holiday, both of St. John see the explanation for the connection with Janus-doble-faces, preserving the souls in the netherworld of Neda Pavlova, Midsummer experience to interpret the ritual semantics and name, p. 25-32 in the volume In Search of the Mythical, Sofia, 2002.
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(profane world) Midsummer (holiday magical, sacred time), Christmas (Christian feast1) Midsummer (more esoteric pagan festival2). Magic mood that creates the summer solstice is associated with mythical thinking (see below), which explains the world as an interaction between the basic elements: fire, water, air, land, etc., and their combination with the divine Force/ orenda/ mana3, etc. Lets talk about these main elements of Midsummer holyday. 1. Time its linear and cyclic, and weve already discussed above about it. 2. Fire Fire was used as a symbol, not as a form of energy except heating, cooking, keeping wild animals, then in pottery and metallurgy, but not the equivalent of muscle strength with the exception of drilling one-stump-boat. Industrial its USE begins only after the discovery of the steam engine (White: 1949). Fire and Sun in mythological thinking have a common genesis4. Midsummer is the longest day and marks the mid-year. This is the day of the summer solstice. Due to the importance of pre-industrial societies in the sun there is a wide variety of ritual practices, whether livelihood is primarily agricultural or flockers. Many of them are described by J. Fraser in his clasic work The Golden Bough. Most of offered examples are selected thematically so that the emphasis of fire practices in order to prove the thesis of the author of imitative magic, and so that similar actions over similar. Which places emphasis on Fraser described it-imitative magic rituals is on fire as the support of solar power. In our ethnography describes several types of custom, but the lighting of bonfires and their over-fire- jumping characteristic only for some5. Although fire practices are not traditional for this day, some of the above cases is seen fire dancing and Fire sacraments as part of the holiday program. They are linked in a semantic chain with sun activity and magical mysteries, which are associated with the holiday today. 3. Water as is apparent from the initial quote is considered that the sun is bathed in the water and it becomes a Living Water. Also acquires magical properties of morning dew, which interacts with all known and unknown herbs using the magic contact transfer. It should also be soaked with magic properties, so it is considered almost as a panacea, people strip naked and roll in the dew so that magic and healing power of plants is transferred to them and heal them from illness, disabilities, blindness, infertility and what not. Divine rites peculiar to this festival are also associated with water: the girls about silent water through rings, bunch and called make predictions and predict whose authenticity is guaranteed by sakrality of enyovdays water and time. There is a synthesis of binary couple opposition fire (sun) and water are combined in order of their mystical alchemical Union (hieros gamos) to produce a healing effect6. 4. Power most of the practices of midsummer in Bulgaria are related not so much a matter of the fiery sun, as with the peculiarities of changes in his condition (including the practices described in the fire, aiming at its restoration), its strength decreases, ie Midsummer eve power of the sun is greatest, so plant-living creatures that are powered by light it is believed to have accumulated the most energy. Therefore, herbs picked that day have the greatest power, which then decreases only like solar power. In the traditional celebration of midsummer rites are aimed not so much directly to Sun Life-giving as a source of heat as related to its business
Based on the triumph or the rebirth of the sun god. Based on an ancient holiday marking the birth of the sun god. 3 Top of Form.See Marcel Mauss, Gift, Sofia, 2001 4 See M. Benovska-Sabkova, Dragon in Bulgarian Folklore, Sofia, 1992, p. 12.116-122. 5 Explanations in line with Frazers perceptions of the help of solar power are described by Anna Luleva, World of experts in traditional Bulgarian home, Sofia, 2002, p. 51-56 practices to obtain a new fire of Midsummer. 6 Basic postulate of alchemy. Details in C.G. Jung, op.cit.
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processes: high times in magic act (power) of herbs and the dew that bathed them on this day; high point in the growth of crops and crops suitable for symbolic plunder Productivity/ power of a level and transferred to oher one. The Power on the turning point (border crossing) provides reliability marriage forecast. 5. Vegetation1 plants are fed with water and sunligh. They are the offspring of mentioned above mystical union. Because of increasing gradation in the intensity of sunlight is thought to be most energetic in the day of the summer solstice, when the day is longest. Besides contact with dew in the morning naked healing rolling contact with be charged with power herbs. The howling of a crown of 77 herbs in which to put in peoples health is domesticated procedure equivalent to rolling in the dew, but with less action and more socially accepted form people are dressed. Going through a circle symbolizes a new birth, pre-birth, then one must be in its original and natural i.e. healthy (Eliade). Apparently it was thought that the proximity of so many herbs and their magical arrangement apothropic shape-round, disease can not but be expelled. Naturally exists the belief that herbs are 77 and diseases are 77-and- half to explain the incomplete efficiency the ritual. Interestingly, this belief continues to be repeated and quoted to this day. It is magical repeat the magic number 7 with half the difference and appeal to people today. What is not quoted is the observation of ethnographers describing these practices, instead of to heal some people forgiven or are infected with skin diseases such as rolled naked in the meadows along with other patients. This is a clear indication of an apparent preference for mythical-magical thinking than scientific and analytical. 6. Sun solar energy has boosted all known history of cultural systems to the present day and will continue to do this, and once depleted stocks and terrestrial nuclear fuel (White: 1949). Sun worship is a spontaneous process in the ancient man led to many religions, as well as myths about the disappearance of the sun or the yield of monster that usually Protagonist wins. Fear for the reduction of solar power and magic to assist him are addressed by Fraser, which I mention above. Midsummer is a triumph of solar power. In our traditional rural society lack direct submissions to sun worship, but available data show very respectful attitude towards the sun2. In the evolution of religious ideas sun remains in the pantheon, but gave the rule and in the beliefs of the ancient civilizations of Egypt, India, Sumer, Greece and others. Bulgarian people have traditionally respectful attitude towards the sun, according to Dimitar Marinov. If sunrise found the people out to do something they stopped their work, putting caps in some cases he worshiped. This witnesses respect and reverence but not adoration. If we compare the cosmogonic concepts described by the author and confirmed in the Ethnography of Bulgaria t. it appears that villagers imagined the sun as a man who once did his job to travel
Midsummer Day as the day on vegetation and goddess Artemis-Diana-Bendis and gender-cult to them, Summer Girl at Christmas, see Neda Pavlova, op.cit. 2 If somebody is out when the sun rises he off cap and crossed himself, the dirt from home and dirty water is disposed of to the east, so as not to offend the sun, do not urinate in the east for the same reson etc.
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the sky disappears into the sea underground dinner as his mother is cooked and sleeps to rest. In folk songs people ask to the sun turn to matters because it goes around the world and knows everything and has stories on how people leave ends of the earth to seek his advice or help. Sun has a family, family relations (his brother is the Moon, his sister is rocket or Lucifer (Zornitsa star), smaller siblings are other stars. Except that he lives with the creatures which is kinship, the sun and often interact with world of people, gives advice to poor people, competes with heroes (and loses), liked human girls, sometimes even stealing them special that swing down from the beams (Marinov, Ethnography of Bulgaria, t., p.36-37). This bit mundane idea is far from worship, but ignorant of the Bulgarian people from 19th century when collected folklore materials has not differed with abstract thinking and penchant for building elaborate pantheon. This fully meets the definition of Goloslovaker (Ya. Goloslovaker, The logic of myth, 1987): In traditional societies, myth is the dominant way to totally concept. Practical needs and objectives dominate speculative, but common sense is limited to the empirical level. On the other hand projections of solar symbolism, bread plate1 and are invariably present in all the festive rituals of the Bulgarian people not only with their apothropic function. The attitude of Bulgarians towards the sun from pre-industrial time has little influence on contemporary concepts and did not helps to understand the great interest in solar celebration. To explain more precisely the interest in solar processes is necessary to consider a more recent cultural phenomenon, New Age wave that emerged at the beginning of last century with the most prominent representatives Helena Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner, Roerich, Krishnamurti, and in Bulgaria Petar Deunov proclaimed by himself and by his followers for the new World Teacher Beinsa Duno2. The attitude, which preaches Deunov the sun causes some of his enemies to accuse him of sunworship and some of the most emblematic symbols of his movement are solar Paneurhythmy rounds (including a special figure Sun with 12 rays see the picture), which is implemented by his followers. It remains to this day runs weekly in the central part of the city and annually in Rila mountain. Without dwelling in detail the doctrine I would only said that it is an eclectic blend of traditional Christianity, evangelism, Eastern beliefs and practices, local folk beliefs and Apocrypha, etc.3 The impact of Deunov over modern folklore should not be underestimated for several reasons: Paneuritmia physical spiritual exsercize of Dunov followers on the 7 Rilas lakes (Rila mountain) and in Kings Boris Garden in Sofia put it in the ranking of Great Bulgarians in a second position (www.velikite.bg/index. php?p=4&id=45 ).
Details in Stanka Yaneva, Bulgarian ritual bread, Sofia, 1989. Details for Danovizm in unpublished dissertation of Svetoslava Toncheva, New Religious Movements in Bulgaria, 2008., SU, and in that of Helen C. Christova, Ritual practices in white brotherhood, 2009, NBU. 3 You can make parallels with the teachings of Vasirion and other neopaganisti in Russia today. Details in Irina Sedakova, Research on Public religiosity in Russia, p. 206-230, in European 3 Academica Balkanica Return of religion , Sofia. 2007.
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Listed until that point conditions explain mystical attitudes that awakens this holiday. He actually celebrates and Stonehenge from various alternative movements from New Wave. To find out if my guesses are correct, I contacted with one of the organizers of enyovdensko celebration. Those of 12 National Civic Executive Committee (NGIK) Peter Dimkov (http://peterdimkov.hit. bg/contact.htm). On their website except information for Healer and a national program to celebrate 120 years since his birth is claimed desire to promote the life and work of famous herbal healer and the three main areas: Patriotism, Health, spiritual and physical, Spiritual. As it is noteworthy that the stated three areas in two is talks about spirituality. It is understandable that they organize the celebration of Midsummer Day, which is the celebration of herbs, and the most famous Bulgarian herbalist is precisely their patron. About him in Wikipedia http:// bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/% D0% 9F% D0% B5% D1% 82% D1% 8A% D1% 80_% D0% 94% D0% B8% D0% BC% D0 % BA% D0% BE% D0% B2 wrote: A supporter of the ideas on Dunov. Dimkov believes should be treated not only the body but the soul of man and that no incurable diseases. One of the books that issue is Hygiene and healing the soul. In his official site http://petardimkov.com/ as his motto is quoted thought Great thing is herb-capacitor energy that make miracles. This is an illustration as to examine the longer willing to absorb the power of herbs and the belief in miracles. Dimkov promotes a whole complex of practices that come closer to the idea of magic rather than modern medicine. As an example, I will bring a council from Healer of the Medical Center Gift (www.dar-center. com/article/?article=841): Prayer against disease and evil eye, which resembles both the expulsion of spirits and in evangelical

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Pentecostal churches and reading the sickness, which is practiced in Orthodox churches. Prayer does not exhaust the entire treatment. If no help is made with warm water, and if it does not help make a warm bath with pine needles and drink a decoction of two herbs. Without continued with such detailed examples I can be concluded that various treatments have five mandatory elements: Faith, water, heat, herbs and diet. Meeting with representatives of NGIK showed more adherence to the faith than to diet and herbs. In this faith is understood not in the particular religious manifestation, in the broadest sense an acceptance of multiple interpretations of the mystical1 world reality, typical of New Age movements2. Their attitude towards the celebration despite professed esoteric bias is also subject to the secularized approach. Runs not the exact date and in the nearest Sunday to be comfortable rhythm of urban life. To this can be added deification on personality and work of Peter Dimkov. Apart from demonstrating in a conversation with them regarding to their cartridge could be adapted as a curious illustration Institutionalization of the attitude towards his work-favorite trail on Dimkov in Vitosha after approval of the management of the national park is marked by signs with Great thoughts of the teacher3. This progressive Sacralisation of profane than the needs a strong leader, or Not-overcome complex to the figure of the father (Freud) might better be understood with the help of explanatory complexes mythological thinking. They are particularly useful when trying to understand the phenomenon of new religious movements which is a manifestation of interest in midsummer. The combination of elements from different religious traditions identify new religious movements as a phenomenon of religious compositions (Religionskompositionen, Patchwork religious or bricolage; Ponisch 2006: 114) a set of more or less elements in a system in which key concepts are love, own experience, luck, meaning and mystery. This corresponds to a certain attitude of mind like a mythical thinking. According to Ernest Ksasier-mythical consciousness reminds code you need Decoding and where being and nothingness are part of a homogeneous whole. Mythology transmitted known through the unknowable, through incomprehensible understandable, systematization targeted for general harmonization, so that no fragments remain chaotic and untidiness. Its main goal is the transformation of chaos into cosmos, harmonious and subject to the ethical ideal, so that personal and social behavior of man is subject to these standards and to maintain the order passed by a crop (Nikita Tolstoy, , in , 15, Moscow, 1988). Balance between the mythological perception of the world and supports the standards of conduct metaphysical social and natural harmony, mental and social equilibrium. In postindustrial information society flows from variety of information, which is not synchronized in a meaningful whole, leads to existential confusion4. It interferes with post-socialist socio-cultural transformation. For
The term mysticism is inextricably linked to the concept of spirituality. According to the definition of mystical means direct contact with the basic principle (ultimate reality). As a secondary meaning indicating obscure or incomprehensible. 2 The new religion is described as cultural technique in the search for yourself or as a tool for achieving happiness of postmodern man. New religious cultural forms (Wild 1994, op. Ponisch of 2006: 109), characterized by a search of purpose, meaning and formation of personality in terms of modernity. 3 Meeting with a representative of the State Park Vitosha showed a positive attitude towards the initiative, combined with leniency because signs do not help with spatial orientation as road markings. 4 Scientists say that for 30 years the volume information poglashtana of people has tripled. According to research by University of California at San Diego to process 100 thousand words a day, not counting the verbal exchange, your chats. They are equivalent to 34 gigabytes of information reaching the brain through the eyes and ears, and he must take them, but this leads to confusion and impaired concentration, see details of http://www.vesti. bg/?tid=40&oid = 2872751
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some people the decision is in the traditional religions, but for others they are inadequate and symbolic exhausted because they are looking for general answers in new religious movements that offer flexible and adapted to the modern person approach1. In terms of symbolic and religious oversupply (concept of religious supermarket) personality seeks to internalize their understanding of appropriate guidance strategies. According to K.G. Jung the process of individuation is the process of synchronization of conscious and unconscious mental functions, which can be observed in art, mandalas are graphic representation of this process, which is the archetype of consciousness. Myth-making is constantly creating process of having meaning symbols, which is rational pattern, and on imagination, which is irrational. Unconscoousness is composed of two layers-superficial, which is an individual stock of psychopathological complexes and deep, universal, from which the symbols derive meaning. Jungs notion of archetype partly overlaps with the concept introduced by the French sociological school of Dyukrem-Moss and collective ideas. Interest in midsummer is an indication that as a set of characters this holiday correlated with basic, archetypal ideas. N. Fray, in Anatomy of Critic, in 1957 reduced to four stages in the life of nature correlated with myths and archetypes, literary genres and themes. Semantic grouping summary and abbreviated form is: 1. Sunrise, spring, birth, resurrection, death of darkness, additional characters father and mother, genre romance, rhapsody and distrambichna poetry; 2. Zenith, summer, marriage, triumph-apotheosis, sacred wedding, a visit to paradise, satellite and bride, comedy, pastoral, idyllic, the novel; 3. Sunrise, autum, death, follen down, dying god, violent death, sacrifice, isolation of the hero, a traitor and nymph; tragedy and elegy; 4. Winter darkness, deadlock triumph of the dark forces of the flood myth, the return of chaos, demise of heroes and gods and giant, witch, comedy.

Apotropey Martenitsa

Eniovche the herb, named on Midsummer

It is noteworthy that the traditional celebration of midsummer clearly identify the second phase, including wedding rituals.
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See quoted. Return of religion.

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Mythological thinking and related out quad division is not only a bricolage way of perceiving and explaining the world (Levi-Strauss, The Savage Mind) and some natural ways of mental processes. On the other hand mythological thinking as a life choice can be seen as a deliberate escape from the analytical and dissecting approach, characteristic of European civilization and secularization, which is connected to this approach. The Myth of each step violates the laws of formal logic the law of exclude third-single logical principle of division (Goloslovaker, The logic of the myth): The logic of myth using false basis where entry referred necessary to derive Opinion advance is taken as a tacit admission. In myth all conditional is unconditional, hypothetical is strongest-sure and absolutenessconditional. As a result of the ruling in the myth of creative freedom and aesthetic desires of the game appear miracle with its inherent qualities and properties, creatures and objects, their absolute coverting apparently everything secret secretness of everything clearly. In myth contradiction is not permitted and the dilemma is overcome by synthesis. It is also associated with greater fluidity of values and explanatory models, which is legitimized by the respondents level of dedication. Deliberate escape from the laws of formal logic allows any phenomenon can be interpreted as an argument, counter-example exception and metaphor. Arbitrary attityde help to build an unshakable confidence in their own positions, because in the internal system chosen explanatory facts are constructed conceptual integrity1. For another aspect in understanding the interest in midsummer can be used sociological perspective. The explanation is related to the devaluation of the socialist values of a process which gradually develops during the socialist system, but progressed after the changes in the 89th year. All Communist celebration is rejected, a ritual that creates a vacuum. Orthodox Church failed to fully fill it, both because of atheism, and because of internal dissent, violating the trust in its institutions. Starts a procces back to the roots. On book market start reprints of books issued before 9.X.1945-home recipes, labels for behavior, memories of bankers and others Stirs up interest in what did our grandparents on this day and repeat some practices. This revitalization of forgotten rituals are picked up by mass media-television, radio and newspapers, which further inform the public interest by strengthening the snowball method. The main thing that stood the test of time are the names-days a tradition that communism failed to eradicate and gradually adopt an informal, Easter and New Year. The lack of visible effect in the rituals leading up to her dying and leaving only the celebration on table, but due to a series of economic crises and it is reduced with time. Everyone celebrates what he/ she likes, such as traditional festivals begin to compete with import losing relevance in and advertising on the one hand and on the other and with the rites of transition birth, marriage and death (Van Gennep). This again can not explain the high interest in midsummer. In light of ethical and political super-variability the necessity of consensus on some issues such that will united Nations and seemingly differences to disappear. From this point of view is understandable return to tradition ago 100 years, when the Bulgarian people seems to have been one without major financial or cultural displacement. Exist an impression of an idyllic past when food was real and human relations were right an idealistic, nostalgic view, which is formed in Bulgarian literature clasicist at school and it remains to sleep until the concurrence of any circumstances it out from memory, but loaded with feeling. folk festivals meet such an idea. I guess people are looking for returns in a fictional
1

Should not be missed and the division of the phenomena of apparent facts and spiritual facts, which invalidated any rational criticism.

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past, when life was simple, easy and clear, everything was known in advance and was supported by the authority of a millennial tradition. With its cyclical antihistorical celebration of summer solstice brings security to something stable and unchanging. On the other hand, through the revitalization of the old holiday break seems to disappear 45 years communist ideology and celebration. Exaggerated continuity helps to push uncomfortable memories. Dynamic social and political change set many people in uncertainty and difficulty. Cognitive and existential difficulties that participants experience these changes give rise to psychological discomfort and disorientation, which is becoming a prerequisite for enhancing trust in superstitions, magical practices, mythical thinking, psychics, fortune-tellers whatsoever. occult literature and periodicals experience the real boom, and interest in them remains constant even today though not in such a high level compared to the period 1989 to 1996. Midsummer is a traditional magical day which allows new beliefs and eastern mysticism to be legitimated by local tradition. This is given as a justification for the importance of celebration in the 12 examples listed above. The holiday is an intersection between two currents. On the other hand found to industrial and post-industrial secularization is not related to materialistic atheism. Statistics weigh in the direction of non-identifiable animism. Survey made by Gallup International from February, 2004 shows that 50% of those surveyed 1000 people are superstitious, 60% believe in bed-eye and black magic, 20% claim to know specific case made of white or black magic, 32% Rename serious light superstitions horoscopes, broken mirrors, black cats, etc. Mirela Abrasheva (CEO of Gallup) a widespread belief in superstition and magic among the young, to 30-35 years but not among older or less educated (http://www. vesti.bg/index.phtml?tid=40&oid=478857). According to Houmans to industrial society is linked the decline of customs and while rural communities are represented guardians of tradition, the same in urban environments are transformed into celebration. Principle of tradition is connected with the idea of persistence of society, but it is not static and therefore the natural internal dynamics, tradition also slowly changes to be consistent and understanding the needs of society. The author coined the term Invention tradition to define adaptation of the old to the new conditions (Houmans, The Invention of Tradition). In the present celebration, however, the concept of Houmans is unenforceable, because not only is a traditional holiday, but the way we celebrate is also directly dependent on the tradition, such variations are small. Regional variations in how to celebrate when there was more ethnographic materials collected 100 years ago. The emphasis that I want to set is not on the change in ritual gestures and rituals, as on re-meaning on the same. Traditional formal celebration is repeated with its typical features, but the execution of the rituals the minds of the organizers, who spoke with moisture and a new conceptual symbolic load, such as to satisfy the specific level of erudition and is in line with current beliefs. As an example I can give Silent Water, which sprinkle the participants in the celebration. On my question Why silent water? I received reply, whose argument was based on the concept of Memory of Water by Masuro Emoto1. When I asked why the sun is important, the answer argument was based on statements of recently visited Bulgaria at Sunny Yoga2 to question why
Spool Emoto, The Memory of Water, www.mystics.eu/mistika-taini/77-vodata-ima-pamet-masaru-emotoposlania-na-vodata.htn explains how water read messages, pictures, sounds and words shows respect to them. Emoto has issued several books can be seen, and movies. For details see www.masaru-emoto.net. 2 Daily Telegraph 16.06.2009., p.3: Indian, who does not eat, Hira Ratan Mane: / 90 days in the sun and youre perfectly healthy / Thanks to the light ages more slowly, author Elena Krumova, also in Generic mansion, no.31 (196), 27.07.2009, p.1, 22.23, The message of the man-sun, author Catherine Peycheva.
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people are sprinkled with a bunch, arguments of answer quoted concepts herbalist P. Dimkov etc. As accompanying explanations citing speaking of some conference in extra-senses in National Palace of Culture in Sofia that says the Bible had just seven levels of interpretation which are revealed to those who are enlightened in one way or another. This indicates awareness of the relevance of uncertainty in explaining the one hand (he was only declared partial dedication) of the other spirits of the depth of understanding of the processes in comparison with the amateur for as I tried to pass1, third ignorance of basic concepts underlying the Torah and Kabbalah. This desire for a self-proclaimed hierarchy is confirmed by the very fact of organizing the celebration of the holiday, which is seen by organizers as the occult (On this day, space is opened and poured great energy, field diary interview with B.B, 58). Act, hidden under the prosaic occasion (celebration of the newly incorporated anniversary) to charity (multiplicity of goodness, BB). Indeed, the organizers do not just observe a minister about holy anniversary. Deliberately ignore the possible psychological interpretations of such behavior. For an explanation their work helped me concept of Tolstoy. Any ordinance can be presented as a text, i.e. as a sequence of characters, expressed through ritual syntax.. Ritual symbol can be seen in three main image: real (material) gesture (actions), verbal (speech: Tolstoy, 1998: 465). The ritual sacred moment is achieved by targeting (teleological) of speech, subject and auction parade and regulations of the time, place and actors of the ritual. To distinguish the trivial action (beating with sticks) of the ritual (Bulgarian surovakane). Such attamp is similar aspiration with a clear idea of the addressee for the functional integrity of the ritual and just found a place (e.g. church ) and time to perform the ritual occurs in church worship(p. 469). Since the case has exactly set the place, time and ritual can not be suspected teleologichnostta of the underlying action. For me, more interesting is the fact that organizers by the very act of committing put themselves in the position of priests. More power to this argument gives that particular site is chosen as sacred because it was their favorite cartridge (Peter Dimkov) which they perceive as saint, ie the semantics of the holiday and add an element of pilgrimism. Deserves to be given to the fact that the actual celebration is exported in the mountains as opposed to profane sacred city and the trend to demand a special location away from the everyday world can be observed in almost all of the examples offered in the early2. In traditional society, where social roles are clear determined by gender and age characteristics, is not possible willfully status/ transit. Although some of the holidays have gaming or theatrical motifs and travest, they usually confirm or traditional line or seemingly turned it on to highlight a selected object or individual becomes an object of unusual attention to it but only under the right roleplaying scenario to the end of the performance. Some freedom is only participating in the Kuker bands. And they stage behavior adjacent preliminary given liberties is a limited range, but with the exception of gender restrictions for participation in this group are not known specific requirements about who is Grandma/ Bride, who is Camel, etc. Highlights the gap with current fest Surva in Pernik, when the condition for participation in the Kukers play is only the desire to join. This is a very important feature of the approach to the celebration. Freedom of choice carnival role is medium, brought to extreme in midsummer, at which organizers bless, baptize, knead bear silent water, read lectures and generally do everything they want. Not only the minister about holy spell, bless, but also to proclaim, teach, advertise and play. Mummer of carnival in Lucerne, Switzerland, the traditional Kukaa music is to give way to current hits,
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Based on the concept of Gellner the stages of personal items in the observation This is confirmed by the location of some emblematic monasteries, some pilgrims practice, of the rites of danovist and others and is detailed studied in my dissertation work.

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masks are replaced annually by companies, but subject to the general idea (demons, warriors, cats, harlequins, etc.). Although expensive suits and professional synchronized music meet (obviously cut with rehearsals) participants said that participate for free, but as a character motifs emphasize entertainment and indirect bonuses to promote tourism, and the lust for health and fertility who is sticking to tradition. It is striking how to use the new possibilities offered by current post-industrial era of individualism. Because of their traditional celebrations aimed at socializing the individual and its inclusion in social norms in this give-possobility opposite of the individual to overcome their basic stratification, re-elected him to promote the values with which to comply (material, spiritual consumerism, voluntaristic) which is not simply to obey the mass preferences and tastes, and even to influence them. The position of the participants changed from a passive object of impact, to active, performing a role. The participant who selects the move and change their roles and identities as implement, evaluate and select those which impose its optimum in search of personal fulfillment1. From persona (in the sense of ancient Greec theatar) he becomes a demiurge of himself. Homo Ludens combines Homo Faber. As already noted it is not successful Midsummer be brought into the group of Houmans Invented traditions. It is not propper to talk about revitalization of interest in the holiday because it was maintained and the time of socialism in the column of identity through folk culture clubs (chitalishta). Return to tradition is mechanically explanatory strategy, which covers only the outside of the process without being closer to the actual reasons. As such have been identified: archetypal conditions cognitive approaches (mythological thinking) socio-cultural characteristics new religious movements, combined with a general revitalization of interest in religion traditional continuity with rich history pragmatic change in the place of the individual (traditional, modern and foreign fixed-fluid free choice) entertainment for participants and observers promoting tourism strengthening of local identity The sum of these factors explains cleanly synchronize the actions of policy (mrs. prezident, party), institutions (municipalities, regional museums), private businesses (pharmacies, tour operators, contractors) amateur art activities (schools, community centers), NGOs (NGDK), press, individuals and ordinary people, which may rarely occur in other areas. Amorphous set of implicit features of the festival allows the various actors to highlight those that meet their prior expectations, while its contribution further enriched it, overlays, these new details and meanings as they may deem proper. This perpetual interaction between festival participants and can be called dynamic re- meaning. It precisely meets the vital attitude of modern man. The sum of its multi-faceted celebration specificity allows for expression of regional and supra-regional, national and supra-national, religious and out-religious, ethnic identity and over- ethnicity. Axis preimstvenostta Midsummer is a crossing point between folklore and post- modernistism, religion and commercialism, rural culture and artistic amateur, group identity and individualism. The reporting of these complex correlations gives rise to understand the high interest registered on the day of the summer solstice.
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Process that clothing has long been established. Compare uniform costumes for the diversity of contemporary styles and fabrics. Detailed standardization and synchronization in Toffler:1991:67-84.

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Bibliogaphy Bachinska, K. (ed.), , Sofia, 1998 Benovska-abkova, . , BAN, Sofia, 1992 Benovska-Sabkova, ., , Sofia, 2001 Eliade, ., - , Sofia, 1997 Eliade, ., , Sofia, 2001 Frazer, J., , Sofia, 1984. Freud, S., , Pleven, 1998 Janeva, S., , Sofia, 1989 Jung, C.G., , Sofia, 2002 Jung, C.G., - 1935, Pleven, 1995 Jung, C.G., , Pleven, 1999. Karamichova, M. (ed.), Academica Balkanica 3, , EIM, Sofia, 2007 Krastanova, K., , Plovdiv, 2009 Levi-Strauss, C., , Pleven, 2002 Luleva, ., , Sofia, 2002 Marinov, D., , ., , Sofia, 1985 auss, rcel, , Sofia, 2001 eletinski, ., , Sofia, 1995. Tofler, lvin, , Sofia, 1991 Tolstoy, N., , in , 15, Moskow, 1988 Urry, J., Global Complexity, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2003 Vakarelski, H., , Sofia, 2008. Valchinova, G., - , Sofia, 1999 White, L., The Science Of Culture New York-London, 1949 , no. 2-3, 2003 , no. 5, 1993 , Sofia, 2002 , Sofia, 2005 ,t. , Sofia, BAN, 1985 , no.31 (196), 27.V.2009 www.masaru-emoto.net/ www.mystics.eu/mistika-taini/77-vodata-ima-pamet-masaru-emoto-poslania-na-vodata.htn www.dar-center.com/article/?article=841 http://petardimkov.com/ http://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/ http://peterdimkov.hit.bg/contact.htm www.velikite.bg/index.php?p=4&id=45 http://oikumen.info/?show=article&arc_id=845 http://eniovden-bg.blogspot.com http://cl.bas/kalendar/24-vi-enovden http://news.travel.bg/ www.kn.mikc.bg/node/99 www.visitbulgaria.net/bg/ www.visitbulgaria.net/bg/ www.visitbulgaria.net/bg/ www.segabg.com/online/ www.novinar.net/?act http://tour.starazagora.net http://balhara.selpip.org http://yogakursove.info http://www.vesti.bg/index.phtml?tid=40&oid=478857 http://eniovden-bg.blogspot.com http://oikumen.info/?show=article&arc_id=845 http://www.vesti.bg/?tid=40&oid=2872751

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GABRIELA GEORGESCU

ZIUA MORILOR

The Souls we remember/ Their torment to end/ To us theyll be tender/ When we will be dead.// The night of all souls/ Candles we light/ And silently pray/ That they be redeemed./ As the last candle/ Is flickering out/ The prayer of the Souls/ Will have come about. This is one of the incantations that one might have heard a long, long time ago on the Eve of All Souls Day, in the heart of Europe, in the place we now call The Czech republic. It is a prayer for the souls of the loved ones who have passed away. Despite the fact that the Czechs are probably the most secular nation in Europe, on All Souls Day (Nov. 2nd), people often travel up to hundreds of kilometers to visit the cemeteries and the tombs of their loved ones, to light candles, tend to the graves and pray. The fact is that even if celebrating the dead and praying for their souls is now related to Christians or religious practices, All Souls Day is a celebration that dates back to the pagan times, long before the birth of Christianity and it has the same origins as the famous Halloween. Both the Czech celebration, Duiky, as the locals call it, and the American Halloween are of Celtic origin. The Celts considered the period at the end of October and the beginning of November to be a magical one, similar to the break of dawn, a time when light meets darkness, when the realm of the living merges with the realm of the dead and the spirits in the Purgatory are free to walk the Earth. It is a dangerous time for the living beings, which is why they must take all precautions not to upset the spirits. For example, on the eve of All Souls Day, people bake the so-called soul-cakes, also of Celtic origin (they are mentioned in traditional Irish songs). Some cakes are crumbled and the crumbs are thrown into the fire. It is believed that once they burn out, the bread crumbs reach the hungry souls in the Purgatory, thus allaying their hunger and anger. The other cakes are given to beggars or poor strangers. Another tradition meant to prevent the Souls anger is hanging an oil lamp outside the house. The Spirits are said to use the ointment in the lamps on the burns caused by the fire in the Purgatory, thus relieving their pain. There are many legends related to this time of the year and the 2nd of November is actually just the beginning of a long magical period that encourages communication with the divinity as well as several divination practices. The article describes some of the traditions related to the Czech celebration of the Duiky, presents its origins and some of the legends related to it while trying to explain why it is that this otherwise nonreligious nation considers this day of remembrance so important. Keywords: Czech, tradition, soul, Celt, Duiky, Purgatory, redemption, pagan, Christian, Halloween, cemetery, tomb, grave, candle, dead, legend, cake, deity, oil-lamp, magic, October, November, prayer, light, darkness, Europe, Irish., The Czech republic, All Souls Day.

Este deja un fapt cunoscut c cehii, n pofida catedralelor impresionante care se gsesc pe tot cuprinsul rii, nu sunt un popor foarte religios. De aceea o srbtoare este cinstit de majoritatea populaiei doar dac este foarte important, dac este adnc nrdcinat n contiina popular sau dac a fost foarte mediatizat, ceea ce a dus n cele mai multe cazuri la transformarea ritualurilor simbolice n pretext de petrecere. Printre srbtorile importante se afl Patele, Sf. Nicolae, Crciunul i Ziua tuturor Sfinilor. Pe 1 noiembrie, cehii i catolicii din lumea ntreag srbtoresc Ziua tuturor sfinilor trebuie spus c, ntre cretinii cehi, catolicii dein majoritatea , iar la o zi dup aceasta este Ziua morilor Pamtka vech zemelch sau Duiky (Ziua spiritelor), cum este numit n popor. Srbtoarea continu s fie pstrat att la sate, ct i la orae.

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n ziua de 2 noiembrie, catolicii i protestanii cinstesc amintirea rudelor i a celor dragi trecui n nefiin. n mod tradiional, n aceste dou zile, oamenii merg la mormintele celor dragi, le cur de frunze moarte, le decoreaz cu flori i crengue de brad, simbol al vieii venice, aprind lumnri apoi se roag pentru ispirea pcatelor celui adormit. Se spune c, n aceast zi, rugciunea celor vii este mai puternic i mai uor de auzit, astfel nct poate ndupleca divinitatea ntru iertarea pcatelor celor de pe lumea cealalt. Rugciunea poate suna n orice fel dar n btrni s-a pstrat un fel de incantaie:
Ne amintim de suflete: S le izbvim, De noi i vor aminti Cnd i noi vom dormi. n seara spiritelor Aprindem lumnri, n tcere ne rugm Prin intermediul lor pentru spirite. Deja ultima lumnare Arde nestingherit, Deja de suflet nimeni Nu mai ia aminte1.

n popor se crede c, n noaptea dintre 1 i 2 noiembrie, n biserici spiritele celor mori i oficiaz propria slujb. Accesul muritorilor la aceast slujb este interzis sub pedeaps capital. Lumea spiritelor nu tolereaz curiozitatea excesiv, de aceea, dup lsarea ntunericului, oamenii sunt sftuii s stea n cas. Povestea spune c n aceast noapte, purgatoriul unde sufletele morilor sufer pentru ispirea pcatelor n sperana de a ajunge n rai, i unde se afl cei care nu-i gsesc locul nici n rai, nici n iad, precum cei necai, cei care s-au sinucis, torionarii, clii, ucigaii, vrjitoarele etc., se contopete cu lumea pmnteasc, iar sufletele de acolo au voie s umble nestingherite printre cei vii. De cele mai multe ori acestea trebuie ateptate cu o grij deosebit: li se las ceva de mncare, pomezi pentru a-i unge rnile i se rostesc rugciuni pentru a le curma suferinele. Evident, nu este indicat s fie deranjate. De altfel exist n popor diverse povestioare, sau legende cu rol de avertisment: Se spune c ntr-un an, n noaptea dintre 1 i 2 noiembrie, att de tare strlucea luna, nct prea c se lumineaz de ziu. Astfel c, trezindu-se n toiul nopii, o femeie se sperie c avea s ntarzie la slujba de pomenire a morilor, aa c se mbrc repede i porni spre capela din cimitir. Cnd ajunse, bisericua era plin, iar la altar preotul ncepuse deja slujba, aa c se strecur printre participanii la slujb i se aez repede pe bncu cu privirea n pmnt. Dup cteva clipe, i ridic privirea i se uit n jur. Persoanele i se preau cunoscute, dar nu mai tia exact unde i vzuse, iar, n cele din urm, i ddu seama c sunt, de fapt, vecini care muriser. Imediat lng ea se ivi fosta ei vecin, care decedase de curnd; aceasta o avertiz c se afl la slujba spiritelor, unde nu are ce cuta: aa cum spiritele celor mori nu intervin n viaa celor vii, nici ei nu au voie s perturbe linitea celor mori. O sftui deci s plece degrab din capel, pentru c, o dat slujba terminat, spiritele o vor sfia. O avertiz de asemenea ca nu cumva s se uite napoi. nspimntat, femeia iei din capel, dar, mpins de curiozitate, nainte s ias pe poart, se uit n urm. Spiritele o ajunser i i smulser cojocul, dar femeia scp i fugi ntr-un suflet acas. De diminea, cnd povesti celorlali steni cele ntmplate, acetia o luar i merser cu ea la biseric, unde nu gsir dect bucele din cojoc mprtiate peste mormintele din cimitir semn c spiritele se inuser de cuvnt2. De aceea, de atunci, slujba de pomenire a sufletelor celor mori se face n plin zi, nu dis de diminea, ntruct acestea i-au exprimat dorina de a-i putea ine slujba noaptea, n linite.
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Conform credinei populare, n ajunul zilei morilor, sufletele celor mori ies din purgatoriu unde ard n flcri pentru a-i ispi pcatele. n aceast sear, gospodarii umplu lmpile cu unt n loc de ulei, pentru ca spiritele s-i poat obloji arsurile. Un alt obicei este ca n aceast sear s se arunce n foc diferite buci de mncare, fie pentru ca spiritele s le foloseasc pentru a-i rscumpra pcatele, fie pentru mbunarea acestora. Spiritele bntuie pe pmnt ntreaga noapte ns dimineaa, la primele bti ale clopotului de la biseric, trebuie s se ntoarc n purgatoriu. n ziua tuturor Sfinilor, pe 1 noiembrie, se fac un fel de turte n form de oase aezate n cruce, numite oasele sfinilor (kostki svatch). A doua zi, n locul acestora se coc prjiturele de suflet, duiky. Acestea se fac cu lapte, sunt umplute cu marmelad sau cu mac i sunt druite ceretorilor sau oamenilor sraci de pe lng biserici sau din cimitire. Aceste duiky i iau denumirea de la cei crora le sunt destinate sufletele celor mori. Tradiia este ns mai veche dect cretinismul i nu este de origine slav, ci celtic; de altfel, ntre cntecele tradiionale irlandeze din perioada iernii care s-au pstrat pn n ziua de azi se vorbete despre aa numitele soul cakes. Cehii au asociat aceste spirite cu anumite fenomene ale naturii care au loc la cumpna celor dou luni, octombrie i noiembrie. n Cehia, luna noiembrie este foarte ploioas i foarte ntunecat. Se spune c dac n ziua morilor plou, morii i plng pcatele i se ciesc. De altfel, se pare c exist o legtur strns ntre spiritele moarte i vremea urt care urmeaz de obicei acestei zile. Legenda spune aa: sufletele celor necai, ale spnzurailor i ale sinucigailor sunt osndite s rmn pe aceast lume i s in n brae norii negrii. Cnd norii se mpovreaz de prea mult ap, sufletele celor adormii nu le mai pot ine, i, cu eforturi cumplite, le dau drumul iar pe pmnt ncepe s plou cu gleata. Se spune c ntr-un sat din Cehia, vznd cum se apropie norii negri, un stean care se uita la cer, a leinat iar cnd s-a trezit din lein a povestit c n cer e mare sfad: sufletele nenorociilor care poart norii ip unul la cellalt ndemnnduse s nu dea drumul groaznicei poveri: ine! Nu le da drumul! Iar altul rspunde: Nu mai pot!. O alt povestire1 spune c era o dat ntr-un sat un mo pe nume Hork care avea fel de fel de cri vechi n care se gseau tot soiul de rugciuni, descntece mpotriva bolilor i diverse blesteme. O dat, cnd norii negri se apropiau de sat (era nainte de seceri), iei cu cartea sa n mijlocul satului i alung norii cu blesteme, prelungind astfel agonia celor care i car. n timp ce rostea incantaia ns, n cer o vzu pe fiica lui care se necase de curnd. n acel moment, pe carte au czut trei picturi de snge. Imediat, Horak s-a dus acas, a luat toate crile i le-a aruncat n foc, pentru ca nimeni niciodat s nu-i mai poat chinui pe amrii care trebuie s care norii cu ap. Nu a spus nimnui ce anume a vzut n acea zi pe cer, s-a mulumit s spun c nu ar dori nimnui s vad aa ceva. Spuneam la nceput c cehii nu sunt un popor foarte credincios. Astfel c ar putea prea ciudat c pstreaz n numr impresionant aceast srbtoare. Ziua morilor are ns rdcini mai adnci, care depesc tradiia cretin. Originile srbtorii se regsesc n ritualurile pgne celtice. Ne vom ntreba, n prim instan, de unde i pn unde celi n inima Europei. Ei bine, n secolul al IV-lea .e.n., ei ajung n Europa Ccentral i printre altele, i pe teritoriile Moraviei, Boemiei i Slovaciei de astzi. De aceea regsim unele practici att n Irlanda, ct i pe continentul european. Ziua tuturor morilor are, de altfel, aceleai origini cu deja universala srbtoare Halloween, cu diferena c cehii nu colind i nici nu poart mti, dei unele surse pomenesc i de aceast practic n preajma sfritului lui octombrie i a nceputului lui noiembrie, iar americanii, poate cei mai mari promotori ai Halloween-ului probabil nici nu tiu de ce se costumeaz.
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O alt diferen este c Halloween-ul se serbeaz n noaptea de 31 octombrie, iar noaptea morilor este ntre 1 i 2 noiembrie. n orice caz, ne aflm n aceeai perioad a anului iar izvorul celor dou srbtori se pare c este acelai. Dac ne gndim la perioada n care sunt celebrate, putem observa c nu este una oarecare, ci se afl la cumpna dintre toamn i iarn, ceea ce se reflect chiar i n terminologia ceh, ca o subliniere a ritualului n sine: luna noiembrie se numete, n limba ceh, listopad cderea frunzelor, iar cei care au petrecut acolo lunile octombrie i noiembrie au observant c schimbarea este semnificativ. Luna octombrie e foarte strlucitoare, nsorit, colorat de frunzele ruginii i galbene ale toamnei. n noiembrie ns, cerul se ntunec, plou mai mereu, temperaturile scad, iar pomii golii de frunze par, n ceaa dimineilor de noiembrie, nite schelete. Tabloul este ntr-adevr sinistru, astfel c nu e de mirare faptul c celii atribuiau acestui moment semnificaii magice. Celii asociau iarna cu moartea i aveau convingerea c sufletele nu pier, ci trec dup moarte dintr-un corp n altul1, ceea ce le a curajul nimicind teama de moarte2. Ei credeau c n zilele de 31 octombrie i de 1 noiembrie, ultima zi a perioadei luminoase a anului, respectiv prima zi a perioadei ntunecate, trmul celor mori se ntreptrunde cu trmul viilor, iar sufletele celor adormii sunt libere s colinde pmntul. Prin urmare, este vorba de un moment extrem de important, avnd n vedere cinstirea adus strmoilor, i totodat extrem de periculos, deoarece, dac spiritele nu erau primite cum se cuvine, se puteau mnia i se rzbunau pe muritori. De aceea, li se aduceau jertfe iar astzi se fac turte care se mpart , iar oamenii purtau mti pentru ca spiritele s nu-i recunoasc. Cu trecerea timpului, fiecare popor a adaptat vechiul ritual celtic pstrnd anumite elemente: cehii au pstrat misterul comunicrii cu lumea de dincolo i merg la cimitire, plivesc mormintele, le cura de frunze moarte, le mpodobesc cu flori, aprind lumnri i se roag, deoarece n aceast zi, rugciunile pot fi mai uor auzite. Pe cellalt continent, americanii au pstrat mtile i l-au transformat n Halloween. Denumirea Halloween-ului vine din limba englez, din All Hallows Even3, hallow este cuvntul vechi pentru suflet, iar Even, pentru ajun, ntruct momentul magic are loc, poate datorit unui decalaj ntre timpul mistic i timpul pmntean, ntotdeauna n noaptea dinaintea unei srbtori. Lipsa purgatoriului din tradiia cretin ortodox a dus la importarea Halloween-ului mai mult ca srbtoare artificial, preluat pentru c este un motiv de a petrece. Cu toate acestea, n banat, sub influen catolic, n ziua de 2 noiembrie, cretinii ortodoci merg la cimitir, cur mormintele i aeaz pe ele crengue de brad i frunze de ferig, aprind lumnri i se roag, iar la prnz preoii in o slujb de pomenire.
Bibliografie: Bestajovsk, Martin, Lidov obyeje a npady pro ikovn ruce. Podzim; Computer Press, Praha 2008 Eliade, Mircea, Istoria credinelor i ideilor religioase, Chiinu Universitas, 1994, vol.2 http://www.ceske-tradice.cz/cz/k2,33,164-dusicky/c213-dusicky-zvyky-a-obyceje/ http://www.ceske-tradice.cz/cz/k2,33,164-dusicky/c768-strasidelne-dusickove-historky/ http://www.ceske-tradice.cz/cz/k2,33,164-dusicky/c767-dusicky-nosivaji-sediva-mracna/ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=Halloween&searchmode=none

1 Cezar, De bello Gallico, VI, 13 apud Mircea Eliade, Istoria credinelor i ideilor religioase, Chiinu Universitas, 1994, vol. 2, p. 149. 2 Idem, p.4. 3 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=Halloween&searchmode=none

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ANDRA SORINA BELIU

OBICEIURI DE NUNT LA CROAI

The Croatian people kept almost untouched a large part of its traditions and customs that were inherited from the forefathers. Even if the young people have now a higher liberty when choosing the life partner, the Croatian respect their popular history and its unwritten rules that are passed from one generation to the other. Depending on the geographical region, the wedding traditions have small variations, but the purpose of the ceremony is the same everywhere: to celebrate the new familys entry in the society. Keywords: Croatia, tradition, wedding, church, society

De regul, n zona oraului umberak (Samoborsko gorje), tinerii obinuiau s se ntlneasc la horele organizate n sat, la care bieii veneau singuri, iar fetele nsoite de prini. Bieii vorbeau cu fetele pe care le plceau, dar nu le spuneau nimic referitor la inteniile lor de cstorie, acest lucru nefiind permis s se petreac dect n compania prinilor fetei. Biatul i spunea mai nti mamei sale care este fata care i place i pe care dorete sa o ia de nevast. Aceasta discuta cu soul i alegeau mpreun o rud apropiat sau un prieten care s mearg n casa fetei i s anune c biatul va veni n peit. Dac parinii fetei acceptau, biatul putea veni n peit n orice zi, acetia trebuind s l atepte cu vin i pine. n alte zone ale Croaiei, cum ar fi Meimurje, prinii erau cei care alegeau soul/ soia, iar copiii nu se puteau mpotrivi alegerii acestora. n peit mergeau mama i tatl biatului; dac tatl decedase, atunci mama trebuia sa fie nsoit de cel mai n vrsta brbat din familie, de regul de unchi sau de naul ei de cununie. Peitorii soseau ntotdeauna dimineaa devreme. Aduceau cu ei o traist fcut din ln de oaie n care puneau un mar i un inel. Cnd peitorii intrau n cas, tatl biatului spunea: Noi am venit pe drumul nou, dup legea veche. Dac este dat de la Dumnezeu, atunci voi nu v vei opune. Baiatului nostru i este drag fata voastr. Acum o ntrebm pe ea: l vrea de brbat?. Atunci brbatul punea mrul i inelul pe mas, pe care fata putea s l ia imediat doar dac accepta cererea n cstorie. De asemenea, fata putea alege s se gndeasc opt zile, timp n care pstra mrul, iar, dac refuza cererea biatului, trebuia s trimit mrul napoi. Dac fata accepta imediat cererea n cstorie, pstra mrul timp de una-dou zile, iar apoi o rud apropiat l ducea napoi n casa biatului. Dac, odat cu mrul, fata lua i inelul, atunci tinerii deveneau logodnici. Din acel moment ei le spuneau mam i tat prinilor celuilalt i erau numii fiu si fiic de ctre acetia. Apoi printii fetei puneau masa i discutau despre zestrea pe care urmau s i-o dea fetei. n aceeai zi se hotra i cnd vor veni din nou n vizit n casa fetei mpreun cu biatul, ceea ce se ntmpla de obicei dup dou sptmni zile, vizit cnd trebuia sa aduc vin, pine i carne. Aceasta vizit era foarte ateptat de ctre tinerele fete, deoarece urmau sa i vad viitorul so cu care nu avuseser voie s se ntlneasc n aceast perioad. Biatul sosea n casa fetei dimineaa devreme, mpreun cu prinii. Mncarea pe care o aduceau acetia nu se consuma, ci se pstr pn a doua zi, cnd fata trebuia s o mpart tuturor fetelor nemritate din sat. n timpul acestei vizite se stabilea i ziua nunii.

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Apoi viitorul cuplu mergea la biseric pentru a fi nregistrat. Preotul le nota numele i le spunea cand urmeaza sa fie strigai. De fapt, acest obicei presupunea ca preotul s anune n trei duminici dup slujb c cei doi tineri urmeaz s se cstoreasc. Se spunea c fata trebuie s aud cel puin una dintre strigri, altfel va avea copii surzi. Cu opt zile nainte de cstorie, biatul se ducea n casa fetei i i anuna pe prinii ei ci invitai vor fi la petrecerea de nunt. Familia biatului era cea care alegea i naii, care erau de obicei oameni mai n vrst i mai nstrii, pentru a le putea face tinerilor un dar de nunt bogat. Primul invitat era anunat chiar de na cu privire la data i locul petrecerii de cstorie, iar restul trebuiau anunai direct de biat. De obicei nunile aveau loc lunea. Nuntaii soseau dimineaa devreme n casa biatului. Se obinuia ca baieii tineri s adune pene de pasre pe care i le prindeau la plrie i mpodobeau de asemenea i plria ginerelui. Ginerele trebuia s le spun baieilor ordinea n care s se aeze atunci cnd plecau de acas i cine s stea n fruntea convoiului de nunt. Acesta era un rol foarte rvnit, deoarece biatul care sttea n frunte ducea steagul. Steagul era de fapt un b de care era prins traista de ln cu care se mersese n peit i mrul care i fusese adus fetei cnd fusese cerut n cstorie. De asemenea, ginerele trebuia s aleag trei biei care s i cnte la nunt i care s stea n fruntea convoiului, imediat dup biatul cu steagul. Dup acetia urma naul, apoi veneau rudele i ginerele, iar apoi ceilali nuntai. Cu toii obinuiau s cnte: S-a lsat o cea groas/ n jurul casei mirelui./ Aceasta nu este cea/ este un convoi sfnt/ care merge sa gseasc mireasa1. Mireasa pleca de acas nsoit doar de mtu, care trebuia s fie o femeie mritat din familie, dar tnar, de vrst apropiat cu mireasa. Toi ceilali nuntai rmneau acas, iar mtua trimitea pe cineva s anune cnd pleac alaiul ginerelui, pentru ca i mireas s ajung la timp. Mireasa era mbrcat n haine noi, albe, iar pe cap avea un voal mpodobit cu pene. Tinerii se intlneau la biseric, iar mireasa era condus la altar de ctre mtu, n alte zone ale Croaiei de ctre na. Un obicei croat spunea c, dac ginerele era cunoscut ca fiind ru, fata trebuia s i dea voalul jos de pe cap n biseric, iar mirele s l ridice, astfel devenind bun la suflet. Din biseric, alaiul de nunta ieea avndu-i n frunte pe miri. urmai de mtu i na, iar apoi de restul nuntailor. Cu toii mergeau n casa fetei. Ajuns acolo, fata trebuia s fug i s se ascund n cas, iar tatl fetei i nuntaii si obinuiau s stea n faa intrrii i s nu lase pe nimeni s intre. Acesta ntreba cine sunt cei care doresc s i intre n cas, iar nuntaii rspundeau c nu vor sta mult, ci doar trei ani, dar s nu i fac griji, pentru c acolo unde mnnc apte guri, mai mnnc nc una. Apoi tatl ntreba daca pot s i arate paapoartele, iar nuntaii i artau nite hrtii oarecare, continund s glumeasc astfel ceva timp. Cnd erau n sfrit primii n cas, nuntaii se aezau direct la mas, unde i atepta mncarea, dar n tot acest timp mireasa nu venea la ei. La mas se obinuia s se serveasc sup i carne de vit cu legume. Dupa mas, nuntaii spuneau c doresc s bea slava lui Dumnezeu, dar c lipsete cineva din stnga mirelui i c trebuie sa vin ca sa poat bea. Fraii i surorile mirelui se ridicau i aduceau mai nti o fat costumat ntr-o btrn murdar i cocoat, i i ntreabau pe nuntai dac ea este cea pe care o caut. Acetia rspundeau c nu este cea pe care o caut, c vor o fat frumoas. Apoi aduceau o femeie mai n vrst i mritat, iar nuntaii spuneau c este asemntoare celei pe care o caut ei, dar ca nu este cea adevrat. A treia oar veneau cu mireasa, iar nuntaii confirmau ca ea este cea pe care o vroiau la masa lor. Apoi se bea slava lui Dumnezeu, obicei care
1

irola Boidar, Hrvatski enidbeni obiaji: Stojdraga u umberku, ET ex libris, Zagreb, 1939, p. 194.

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presupunea s se umple un pahar cu vin care sa treac pe la toi nuntaii, fr s se termine, la sfrit trebuind s rmn vin n pahar. Cu vinul care rmnea trebuia stins ultima lumnare din cas. Apoi se aduceau prjiturile, iar cntreii adui de na ncepeau s cnte. Toi nuntaii i mulumeau mai nti socrului mic, iar apoi naului. Petrecerea dura toat noaptea, nuntaii plecnd din casa miresei abia dimineaa, odat cu mireasa, ctre casa ei cea noua. Zestrea acesteia era adus de ctre cineva din familie a doua zi, dup petrecere. n prima duminic dup nunt mireasa i primea n vizit rudele i prietenele n casa cea nou, fiecare aducndu-i cte un cadou. Dou duminici mai trziu, tinerii i ncepeau viaa ca o familie nou, mergnd n vizit la alte cupluri cstorite i intrnd astfel oficial n societate.
Bibliografie Boidar, irola, Hrvatski enidbeni obiaji: Stojdraga u umberku, ET ex libris, Zagreb, 1939 Vitez, Zorica, Hrvatski svadbeni obiaji , Golden marketing - Tehnika knj., Zagreb, 2003

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TNASIE OANA

SRBTOAREA PATELUI N CEHIA

n Cehoslovacia anilor de dinainte de 1989, semnificaia Patelui (Velikonoce) era limitat doar la ntmpinarea primverii. Conotaiile religioase ale acesteia erau nbuite de ctre regimul comunist. n zilele noastre, cehii sunt din nou contieni de puternicul background religios al srbtorii pascale, ns Patele nu a devenit nc o srbtoare religioas complet. n Cehia, Patele reprezint o perioad de distracie; cu toate acestea, multe obiceiuri sunt nc observate i practicate n special la sate. Postul Patelui O vizit n Republica Ceh n perioada srbtorii Patelui, reprezint un moment propice pentru a asista la multitudinea de obiceiuri i pregtiri pentru ntmpinarea srbtorii. n piaa oraului vechi din Praga, pomii sunt decorai cu fundie viu colorate, iar de crengile copacilor atrn ou lucrate manual. La baza acestora se regsesc elemente ce fac referire la aspectul religios al srbtorii, precum i nelipsitul iepura1 nconjurat de ou decorative, totul presrat de sute de fundie colorate. Toate aceste decoraiuni festive sunt completate de cntrei, respectiv muzic
1

Tradiia iepuraului de Pate este un ritual pgn, care nu are nici o legtur cu srbtoarea Morii i nvierii lui Iisus Hristos. n realitate, iepuraul reprezint simbolul fertilitii i al naturii care se trezete la via odat cu venirea primverii. Legenda iepuraului, ca un simbol al Patelui, a fost pentru prima dat menionat n Germania, avndu-i originea probabil n tradiia popular precretin. Primii care au fcut dulciuri n form de iepura au fost germanii, iar primele astfel de dulciuri inventate erau fcute din coc i zahr.

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tradiional. O scen imens este amplasat n mijlocul pieii, pe care dansatori de toate vrstele practic dansuri tradiionale n costume tradiionale. Asemeni tradiiei ortodoxe, Patele catolic reprezint i o perioad pentru curenia de primvar a casei, a pregtirii produselor tradiionale specifice srbtorii ct i a achiziionrii de haine i nclminte nou. n Cehia, postul ncepe o dat cu Miercurea Cenuii (Popelen steda), cu patruzeci de zile nainte de Ziua nvierii. Tradiia spune c aa cum va fi n Miercurea Cenuii, la fel va fi tot postul. Aceast zi este una de cin solemn. Denumirea latin a acesteia, Dies Cinerum, deriv dintr-o tradiie strveche-utilizarea cenuii ca simbol al cinei. n aceast zi, credincioii catolici primesc cenua sfinit obinut prin arderea crenguelor de salcie, sfinite cu un an n urm n Duminica Floriilor. n timpul binecuvntrii cenuii, sunt rostite patru rugciuni strvechi. Cenua este stropit cu ap sfinit. Preotul catolic care celebreaz liturghia, arhiereu sau cardinal, primete, fie n poziie ezut sau n picioare, cenua din mana altui preot, de obicei, cel aflat n cea mai nalt funcie dintre cei prezeni. n trecut, o procesiune de pocain adesea urma ritualul distribuirii cenuii, ns n zilele noastre nu se mai practic. Preotul unge frunile preoilor oficiali, clerului i congregaiei de fa cu cenu n form de cruce. n Biblie, un semn pe frunte reprezint un semn al apartenenei unei persoane. n acest caz semnific faptul c acea persoan aparine lui Iisus, care a murit pe cruce. Acest obicei este de fapt o imitare a nsemnului spiritual aplicat cretinilor la botez. Ritualul ceremonial presupune recitarea asupra capului fiecarei persoane a urmtoarelor cuvinte: Adu-i aminte c din pmnt te-ai nscut i n pmnt te vei ntoarce (Facerea 3:15). Este un fel de a ne aduce aminte de faptul c suntem muritori i c avem nevoie de cin pn la sfritul vieii. Se crede c acest obicei al ungerii frunii cu cenu este mprumutat din religia iudaic. n vremurile biblice, obiceiul se practica cu mult mai mult fast, se purta pnz de sac i se turna praf i cenu n cap. Din secolul al IV-lea pn n secolul al X-lea, arhiereii mprtiau cenua peste capetele pociilor care apreau n faa acestora n vemnt de pnz de sac. Mai trziu, cina, respectiv confesarea au devenit un act voluntar i privat, fapt pstrat pn n zilele noastre, dei nu mai purtm vemintele respective i nici nu ne mai mnjim frunile cu cenu. Celebrarea postului Republica Ceh este, din punctul de vedere al religiei, predominant romano-catolic, astfel c oamenii urmeaz n general tradiia catolic. Regula abstinenei/ cumptrii i oblig pe cei cu vrsta cuprins ntre 14 i 18 s nu mnnce carne. Aceeai regul i oblig pe cei ntre 18 i 59 de ani s se abin de la mncatul ntre mese i s se limiteze la o singur mas plin pe zi. Dou mese mai mici sunt permise pentru a-i menine puterea necesar dup propriile nevoi, ns consumarea de alimente solide ntre mese este strict interzis. Miercurea Cenuii, ct i Vinerea Bun/ Mare sunt zile att de post, ct i de abstinen. Oamenii pot fi scutii de postire i abstinen din motive medicale sau regim alimentar special. Aceia care au permisiune de la Sfntul Scaun s mnnce carne n zilele interzise se pot folosi de aceast concesie n ceea ce privete masa complet att n zilele de abstinen, ct i n cele de post. Atunci cnd vrsta, boala sau munca fizic l mpiedic pe cretin s in postul, acesta are libertatea de a consuma carne ori de cte ori se poate justifica, consumarea crnii fiind permis de ctre o indulgen a Sfntului Scaun. n vremurile de demult, pe teritoriul actualei Republici Cehe existau legi mult mai stricte dect cele de astzi n ceea ce privete postul Patelui. Consumul de carne, brnz sau ou era

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interzis, dar nu se consuma nici lapte, unt sau grsime/ untur ntins pe pine; n schimb era folosit uleiul vegetal. Nu se consuma alcool i nici nu se fuma sau inhala tutun. Era servit o singur mas pe zi, iar aceasta era compus doar din fructe sau legume. Mai trziu, postul a fost mblnzit; n regimul alimentar s-au introdus diverse tipuri de sup, cum ar fi cea de fasole, varz, linte sau chimen. n afar de supe, alte preparate uoare, fr carne erau consumate, cum ar fi: biscuiii din fain de orz sau gru, psat/ terci de mei, glute, cartofi sau pur i simplu pine cu varz acr. Duminicile postului Prima duminic a Postului Mare dup Popelen steda (Miercurea Cenuii) se numete ern nedle (Duminica Neagr), deoarece femeile se mbrac n negru. n unele regiuni, se numete Duminica Vulpilor (Li Nedle). n aceast perioad, se pregtesc covrigi de post presrai cu mac i cu sare. Mamele i pregtesc noaptea, ca s nu-i vad copiii. Mama pregtete attea nuiele de salcie, n funcie de ci copii are, iar pe fiecare nuia pune covrigi, apoi le ag undeva de copacii din curte. Dimineaa, nainte de rsritul soarelui, i trezete pe copii i le spune: Hei, copii, a trecut pe aici vulpea i v-a lsat covrigi n copaci/ Hai, scularea, v splai i v ducei n grdin, facei rugciunea i apoi i mncai. A doua duminic a Postului Mare se numete Pran (prait a prji, a pregti mncarea). Mncarea astfel preparat se numete pramo i const din boabe de cereale sau tiulei de porumb, iar din aceste componente se pregtete o sup, numit praenka. A treia duminic se numete Kchavn (Duminica strnutului), deoarece n evul mediu exista credina c diverse boli, care ncepeau a se manifesta prin strnut, erau mortale; iar vorba suna astfel: cine a strnutat, trebuie s moar. Oamenii, temndu-se de moarte, urau atunci Doamne-ajut sau s-i dea Dumnezeu sntate. Strmoii considerau c e semn de bun cretere s urezi cuiva sntate dup strnut. Pe de alt parte, nu exista credina c strnutul precede o boal grav, ci predomina crezul c, prin strnut, se cur capul i, n acest scop, foloseau diverse plante care s ajute la provocarea strnutului. Credina aceasta se mai ntlnete i azi: de exemplu, putem cumpra tutun de prizat, care produce strnut. Credina era c cineva va tri cel puin atia ani de cte ori a strnutat n Duminica Strnutului. n unele regiuni se spunea c, dac strnutai de trei ori n duminica respectiv, erai sntos tot restul anului. A patra duminic a postului se numete Druebn nedle (Duminica flcilor). n vechime era numit druebadln sau druebadlnice(druba grup, asociaie de flci). n unele localiti, de exemplu, Klen, zona Chodsko, n duminica aceasta exist o petrecere, numit spoutdlo. Fetele au grij s fac rost de un lichior fin, numit rosolka, chifle i aa-numitul plenec (plit a

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arde), mazre preparat i presrat cu zahr i cu piper. Acest plenec cu pine uscat se pregteste nu doar acas, ci i n localuri. Flcii se ngrijesc s fie destul bere cu aceast ocazie. n localitatea Nepomucko, n dup-amiaza acestei duminici se servete pulka (puet a da n bob, a fi n curs de maturizare; despre plante)). Este vorba tot despre mazre pregtit cu unt i presrat cu stafide, dar i cu diverse alte mirodenii. Mncarea se ofer, de regul, tnrului venit la iubit. Mai nti i se d o furculi, cu care ns nu are voie s mnnce, trebuie s atepte o lingur. Dac ncepe s mnnce cu furculia, toat lumea va rde de el. Duminica aceasta se numete uneori stedopostn, adic la jumatea postului, alteori, se numete rebn sau rov, deoarece la Roma se serbeaz trandafirii. Cea de-a cincea duminic a postului este dedicat meditaiei asupra patimilor lui Iisus. Printre popoarele slave, aceasta este numit Duminca tcerii. n Republica Ceh, n ajunul acestei duminici, crucifixele, statuetele i picturile din biserici sunt mpodobite cu veminte purpurii n semn de tristee i doliu. Procesiunea liturgic se bazeaz pe cele ntmplate lui Iisus n ultimele zile de dinaintea morii sale. Textele slujbelor sunt dominate de gndurile catre Iisus, persecutat de dumanii si n timp ce acesta se apropie de sacrificoul suprem pe dealul Golgota. Iarna, anotimpul n care vegetaia este n stare latent, prin ntunericul ce se las devreme, creeaz o atmosfer posomort. nainte de dezvoltarea iluminatului modern, lumnrile reprezentau singura surs de luminare. ranii din Europa credeau c demonii iernii erau peste tot, pndind n umbrele caselor i ale hambarelor, pe cmpuri i n pduri, dar mai ales n locurile ntunecate. Semne i simboluri ai acestor demoni se aflau n atmosfera rece, copacii fr frunze, pmntul arid sau iarba maron. Doar moartea iernii putea dispersa tot acest ntuneric.Tocmai de aceea, n Republica Ceh, moartea simbolic a iernii are loc n Duminica Tcerii sau Duminica Morii (se face referire la moartea iernii), cu paisprezece zile nainte de Duminica nvierii. n zonele pduroase ale Boemiei, exista obiceiul de a confeciona o marionet, pe nume Maena, care reprezint btrna iarn sau chiar moartea. Asemeni iernii, faa marionetei trebuie s fie urt. Aceasta este confecionat din fire de paie, mbrcat n haine albe, dar ponosite, pentru a simboliza zpada, i mpodobit cu un colier din coji de ou. ntregul ceremonial este realizat de tineri mbrcai n costume tradiionale i acompaniat de cntece care celebreaz sosirea primverii i trezirea la via a naturii. Stenii o poart pe Maena peste dealuri, n timp ce tinerii mrluiesc n costume tradiionale fredonnd melodii funerale. Acetia defileaz spre ruri, legnnd-o pe Maena dintr-o parte n alta i fredonnd urmtoarele versuri: Noi ndeprtm iarna i aducem primvara. Dup ce fetele i dau jos hainele, Maena este rupt n buci, firele de paie sunt mprtiate n btaia vntului sau pe o ap curgtoare. n timp ce aceasta plutete pe ru, sunt rostite urmtoarele versuri: Moartea plutete pe ru n jos, iar primvara n curnd va fi aici. Dup ce iarna este ucis, este aruncat n apa curgtoare, viaa (zivot) sau primvara (jaro) sunt aduse n minile stenilor. Acestea sunt reprezentate de crengue de brad decorate cu coji de ou colorate, mere roii i ghirlande de flori sau fundie strlucitoare, asemeni unor pomi de Crciun n miniatur. Acetia se organizeaz n grupuri i merg la colindat din cas n cas, vestind sosirea primverii prin cntece, primind n schimb ingrediente pentru prepararea

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prjiturilor Srbtorii Patelui sau diverse cadouri. Anumite tipuri de prjituri sunt preparate, iar ornamente simbolice sunt pictate pe mii de coji de ou, ca mai apoi s fie vndute de ctre btrnele satelor n toat Boemia i Moravia. Ce-a de-a asea duminic din postul Patelui este denumit simbolic Duminica Florilor/ a Palmierului (Floriile). n mod tradiional, aceast zi este una de bucurie, deoarece celebreaz intrarea triumfal a Mntuitorului n Ierusalim. Intrarea acestuia este ca o ndeplinire a profeiilor mesianice despre regele care va intra n oraul sfnt pentru a pune bazele unui regat. Duminica florilor marcheaz nceputul Sptmnii Patimilor. n marea majoritate a rilor europene, palmierul folosit n aceast duminic este de fapt o crengu de salcie. n Cehia, preoii sfinesc slciile, pdurile i apa. Dup slujba de diminea, fermierii flutur crenguele sfinite peste cmpurile cu grne, n sperana unei recolte bogate i protejat de grindin i furtuni violente. Dup ce fermierii viziteaz fiecare teren n parte, acetia fredoneaz cntece religioase, lsnd totodat bucele din crenguele de salcie. La fel se procedeaz i cu hambarele i anexele fermelor. Toatea acestea se realizeaz cu scopul de a binecuvnta att animalele, ct i grnele. n Cehia, puterea salciei sfinite se presupune a fi att de mare, nct oamenii adesea consum crenguele de salcie, n credina c astfel vor fi protejai de boli pe durata ntregului an. n aceast zi, coacerea este interzis, deoarece se crede c mugurii pomilor ar putea lua foc. Sptmna Sfnt/Mare n primele dou zile ale sptmnii, buctriile freamt. Trebuie realizate o mulime de preparate coapte sau fierte pentru sfnta srbtoare. De altfel, acestea reprezint singurele zile n care femeile au timp s se ocupe de pregtirile culinare i asta din cauza nenumratelor slujbe la care trebuie s participe n zilele urmtoare. Astfel c n aceste zile se gtete intensiv, se prepar trudele, jidaky1 pentru a fi servite n Joia Mare, pinici rotunde pentru Vinerea Mare, buchty umplute cu prune sau semine de mac, housky i kolaky. n timp ce mamele sunt extreme de ocupate n buctrii, copiii se distreaz mpodobind casa cu diverse motive pascale, de exemplu, cu ou confecionate i pictate manual, flori din hrtie colorat i fundie viu colorate. Cehii numesc miercurea din Sptmna Mare kareda Steda (Miercurea urt). O alt denumire pentru aceasta zi este Miercurea Trdrii, n semn de amintire oamenilor c n aceast zi Iuda l-a trdat pe Iisus. Unul dintre motivele datorit cruia gtitul trebuie terminat pn n aceast zi este acela c tot ce este n cas trebuie scos afar, deoarece courile sobelor trebuie curate de funingine, astfel c plitele, sobele, cuptoarele trebuie s fie reci. Nu se pierde timpul prin buctrii, gustrile sunt foarte simple i uoare. Carpetele, covoarele, canapelele, fotoliile i saltele sunt scoase n aer liber pentru a se scoate praful din ele. Femeile lustruiesc podelele i mobilierul, schimb perdelele, spal geamurile, casa zumzie de activitate. Dup ce interiorul caselor este complet curat, se ncepe curarea la exterior. Toate acestea trebuie s se realizeze n timp rapid, deoarece totul trebuie s fie la loc pn la sfritul zilei. Copiii termin coala n Miercurea Urt, deoarece ei trebuie s ajute la curenie i mpodobire. Exist o superstiie conform creia oricine mnnc miere n aceast zi nu va fi mucat de arpe. n unele locuri, unii mnnc pine uns cu miere dac au fost mucai de arpe. Dac stm s ne gndim, acest obicei ar avea conotaii biblice puternice, cci
1

Pinici mpletite, rsucite asemeni unui treang care fac referire la soarta lui Iuda Iscarioteanul care s-a spnzurat din cauza remucrilor avute dup dezvluirea identitii lui Iisus n faa dumanilor si.

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la un moment dat, apar n Psalmul 119 urmtoarele cuvinte: Ct de plcut este cuvntul tu cerului gurii mele, mai dulce dect mierea. Aadar, nu sunt oare cuvintele Domnului protecia mpotriva Diavolului, care este adesea comparat n Biblie cu un arpe? n alte locuri, se arunc pine uns cu unt i miere n conductele cu ap pentru a avea ap n ele tot restul anului. Miercurea Urt este ultima miercuri de dinaintea Patelui. n aceast zi oameni trebuie s-i zmbeasc reciproc, iar daca nu o fac, tot restul anului va fi unul trist. Se spune c oamenii nu ar trebui s se ncrunte n aceast zi, de team c se vor ncrunta n fiecare zi de miercuri pn la sfritul anului. Zeleny tvrtek (Joia Mare) comemoreaz ultima cin a lui Iisus cu apostolii sai. Joia Sfnt, alturi de Vinerea Mare i Smbta Alb sunt cele mai importante zile din calendarul bisericesc. Aceste sfinte zile reprezentau o perioad de obligaie bisericeasc pe toat durata evului mediu. Cretinii erau cu toii prezeni la ceremoniile impresionante din aceste zile, ns din anul 1642 (Papa Urban al VIII-lea) ultimele trei zile ale Sptmnii Sfinte au devenit zile lucrtoare, n ciuda importanei sacre. Zeleny tvrtek (Joia verde) este denumirea dat att de cehii din Boemia, ct i de cei din Moravia. O explicaie ar fi aceea c n multe locuri, nainte de secolul al XIII-lea, erau purtate la slujba din aceast zi veminte verzi. O a doua explicaie ar fi aceea c se face referire la Cei Verzi, pociii reacceptai n snul Bisericii care trebuiau s poarte pe cap coronie din ierburi verzi pentru a-i exprima bucuria. O a treia explicaie ar fi aceea c, din cauza postului, mncarea este fr carne, astfel c se consum numai legume i fructe. Consumul de legume verzi se practic n foarte multe pri din Europa, extinzndu-se pn n Statele Unite ale Americii. Cehii consum o sup din ierburi verzi, urmat de o salat verde. O ultim explicaie ar fi aceea c Iisus s-a rugat pe o pajite verde n Grdina Getsimani. n Joia Verde, n Republica Ceh, copiii trebuie s ias afar dimineaa devreme i s fac baie dezbrcai ntr-un ru. Se presupune c acesta este un leac mpotriva lenei. Iar cnd se ntorc n cas, tremurnd i plngndu-se c au fost pui s fac ceva pentru care la var vor fi pedepsii, dar care pe deasupra le va face plcere, li se servesc jidaky mpreuna cu miere la micul dejun. Un alt obicei este acela de a cura podelele i aternuturile cu o crengu de salcie sfinit n Duminica Floriilor. De asemenea, casa trebuie s fie stropit cu ap sfinit dintr-o gleat nou cu ajutorul unui smoc de paie. Pe durata acestei zile, femeile spal att tbliele de lemn pe care vor face tiei, ct i fcleele pentru aluat i imensa lingur de lemn pentru amestecat aluatul pentru pine i plcint (kolae). n seara Joii Verzi, n Republica Ceh, bieii de la sate ii confecionau o pritoare din lemn; se adunau n grupuri i cutreierau satul, vjind pritoarele cu putere astfel ca sunetul s poat fi auzit ct mai n deprtare. Semnificaia vjitului ar putea fi hituirea lui Iuda. Aceeai procedur se repeta att n Vinerea, ct i n Smbta Alb, cnd baieii se opreau de aceast dat la fiecare cas n parte, dar nu se opreau din vjit pn cnd nu primeau bani pe care i mpreau ntre ei. Acest obicei a ncetat s mai existe la nceputul secolului trecut. Zarva pe care acetia o creau era o substituire a clopotelor din biseric care nu aveau cum s rsune, deoarece se presupunea au zburat la Roma n Joia Mare pentru a face un pelerinaj la mormintele apostolilor sau s-l viziteze pe episcopul Romei

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pentru a fi binecuvntate de acesta. Clopotele se odihneau pe acoperiul Catedralei Sfantului Petru pn n dimineaa Duminicii Patelui, cnd se ntoarceau cu veti bune i ou colorate. Se spune c gherghinul plnge n aceast zi. Conform tradiiei, acesta este pomul din care s-a confecionat coroana de spini de pe capul Mntuitorului. Pe ct de nflorite sunt crenguele sale albe primvara, pe att de ascuii sunt spini si lungi, abia vizibili cu ochiul liber, ns capabili de a cauza rni dureroase. Brbaii de la sate se trezesc la miezul nopii n Joia Mare i se duc la cel mai apropiat pru pentru a se spla. Din vremurile de demult,Velky Ptek (Vinerea Mare) a fost considerat de cretinii din toat lumea ca fiind cea mai solemn zi de post a anului, o zi a doliului i rugciunilor, iar moartea Domnului este amintit n numeroase biserici prin procesiuni de gratitudine i recunotin. Vinerea Mare a fost dintotdeauna considerat de ctre Biserica Romano-Catolic ca fiind ziua suprem de doliu a bisericii. Este singura zi din an cnd nu se ine nici o slujb niciunde n lume. Toate ornamentele din altar sunt ndeprtate, nu sunt aprinse lumini iar crucile sunt acoperite cu un voal negru. n Cehia, este zi de post i nu se mnnc carne pn smbt noaptea cnd rsun clopotele bisericilor, anunnd legendara ntoarcere de la Roma. n aceast zi se prepar o prjitur specific srbtorii care nu poate fi ns tiat sau mncat pn cnd preotul nu va zice Kristus vstal z mrtvych! (Christos a nviat din mori) n Duminica Patelui. Este un obicei universal s crestezi o bucic nou de pine cu semnul crucii nainte s-o tai, n semn de recunotiin lui Dumnezeu. n ocazii speciale, semnul crucii este crestat pe pine nainte de a fi coapta. Pinea coapt n Vinerea Mare poate fi pstrat tot anul, avnd totodat darul de a proteja casa de foc. Femeile i scot adesea cuverturile la aer pentru a ndeprta bolile din cas. Unii sunt de prere c apa fiart nainte de rsritul soarelui, fr a scoate un cuvnt are puteri tmduitoare i va rmne pur pe tot parcursul anului. Oamenii se trezesc dimineaa devreme n aceast zi i se reped spre un rau unde se spal cu apa rece a acestuia dup care traverseaz prul cu picioarele goale pentru a fi sntoi tot restul anului. De asemenea, fiicele sunt aduse s se spele la izvor pentru a fi frumoase i bine vzute n sat. Se crede de asemenea c spiriduii apelor ies la iveal pe solurile uscate/ crpate n aceast zi. n Vinerea Mare nu se efectueaz munci agricole, fie din respect pentru semnificaia religioas, fie din superstiie c va aduce ghinion. Conform unui proverb ceh vechi, se spune c Na Velky ptek, zemi nehybey (n Vinerea Mare nu micai pmntul.) Vremea pentru ntregul an poate fi prezis dupa vremea din Vinerea Mare. De exemplu, dac plou, tot restul anului va fi uscat, secetos. Se mai spune de asemenea c cel ce se uit la soare n aceast zi nu va fi orbit de razele sale. n tradiia popular, aceast zi este strns legat de credina n puterile magice ale pmntului. Muli cred c n aceast zi, pmntul i scoate la iveal comorile nainte de rsritul soarelui. Se crede c Blanik, un cavaler vestit, mpreun cu armata sa, st adormit n interiorul unui munte, ateptnd s sar n ajutorul poporului aflat n pericol mare. O balad de demult ne spune povestea unei femei care, naintea rsritului din Vinerea Mare, a mers spre un versant

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de munte. Pietrele s-au deschis n faa acesteia, lsnd s se zreasc grmezi de aur strlucitor. Fr s se gndeasc, i-a lsat copilul jos, i-a ncrcat orul cu aur, dup care a fugit spre cas pentru a face rost de un vas mai mare pentru a cra mai mult aur. Pn s se ntoarc, soarele era deja sus pe cer, iar copilul rmsese nchis n munte. Un an mai trziu, femeia s-a ntors n acelai loc, muntele s-a deschis, aceasta gsindu-i copilul teafar i nevtmat. O alta legend ne spune faptul c sus de tot, pe crestele munilor, exist o figurin din piatr cu chipul unei fecioare. Aceasta se afl n poziie eznd i ine pe genunchi o cma neterminat, de asemenea de piatr. n fiecare an, n Vinerea Mare, la orele patimilor lui Iisus, aceasta mai coase nc un rnd, povestea repetndu-se an de an. Cnd cmaa va fi terminat, lumea se va sfri. n vremurile de demult, Bla Sobota (Smbta Alb) era ziua n care se botezau adulii care vroiau s se converteasc la cretinism, n aceeai zi primind i prima comuniune. n interiorul bisericii, femeile erau aezate ntr-o parte iar brbaii n cealalt. Dup anumite instruciuni precise ale arhiereului, preoii practicau aceleai ritualuri prezente i n zilele noastre la botezul copiilor i adulilor. La finalul ceremoniei de botezare, fiecare citea Crezul cu voce tare n faa ntregii adunri dup care cu toii erau trimii s-i petreac urmtoarele ore n rugciune. Ajunul Patelui reprezenta o noapte ntreag de rugciune, bisericile erau ntotdeauna aglomerate n acea noapte, iar cei care nu prindeau loc nauntru, se aezau rnduri, rnduri n faa bisericii. Pentru cei care aveau noroc s prind loc n interior, ceremonia era una de neuitat: lumina imensei lumnri pascale, sfinirea apei din cristelnia de botez, dup care se ncepea botezarea propriu-zis cu ap sfinit, ncepnd cu brbaii, apoi femeile, iar, la final, copiii. n acele zile, cei care erau botezai, erau totodat uni cu mir sfinit, dup care mbrcau robele albe. n Cehia, Smbta Alb deriva tocmai de la aceste robe purtate de noii cretini. i n zilele noastre s-a pstrat acest obicei al rugciunii i slujbei ntreaga noapte. Cretinii in n mini lumnri aprinse ntreaga noapte pentru ca razele acestora s se ntreptrund cu soarele de diminea. La sate, mai este numit i Noaptea Luminii, iar toate activitile din aceast zi i cea anterioar sunt dedicate currii sufletului, trupului i casei pentru ca totul s fie curat i ordonat. Se spune de asemenea c dac n Smbta Alb va ploua, aa va fi tot restul anului. Datorit credinei Fecioarei Maria n promisiunea Mntuitorului c va nvia din mori, aceast zi este consacrat acesteia. Duminica Patelui n Ceh, Velikonoce se refer la noaptea cea mare, n timpul creia Iisus a nviat din mori. Noaptea dintre Smbta Alb i Duminica Patelui a fost considerat nc din vremurile de demult ca fiind cea mai mare din calendarul bisericesc. n aceast zi, clopotele se ntorc de la Roma i anun sfritul postului. Oamenii sting toate focurile din cas i duc la biseric o bucic de lemn de foc, o aprind de la lumina sfnt, dup care o aduc acas pentru a aprinde focurile din nou. n aceast zi nu se ine nici o slujb, iar orice munc este fcut abia dup apusul soarelui sau dup miezul nopii, dac mai este nevoie.

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n Duminica sau n Lunea Patelui, flcii colind cu un snop de crengue de salcie cu care le lovesc simbolic pe fete peste picioare; obiceiul se numete pomlzka (pomltit, mltit a lovi, a biciui) i este facut de ctre un flcu fetei cu care dorete s se cstoreasc i creia i face curte. n trecut, baieii obinuiau s-i confecioneze singuri pomlzka (cu ct mai multe crengue, cu att mai greu era s o lege), ns aceast tradiie i ndemnare a ncetat, acestea putnd fi achiziionate din magazine sau de la tarabe. Unii brbai nici nu se mai obosesc i folosesc o singur crengu sau chiar o lingur de lemn. n vechime, aceast pomlzka era folosit de ctre soiile fermierilor pentru a lovi uor att animalele din gospodrie, ct i pe membrii familiei, incluznd copiii. Oule pictate manual reprezint cel mai cunoscut simbol al Patelui. Fetele decoreaz oule pentru a le drui baieilor n Lunea Patelui. Exista multe tehnici de ncondeiere a oulor, iar cele mai elaborate necesita un nivel de pricepere avansat. Se folosesc diverse materiale cum ar fi: ceara, frunzele de ceap sau abibildurile cu motive pascale. Att n Praga, ct i n alte orae, au loc anual concursuri naionale de ncondeiere a oulor. Culoarea roie este cea mai ntlnit, aceasta simboliznd sntate, veselie, fericire i via nou. Conform tradiiei, n Duminica Patelui se consum friptur de miel, ns, n ultimul timp, acesta a fost nlocuit cu turta dulce n form de miel.

Bibliografie: http://www.ceske-tradice.cz/cz/k2,31,40-postni-doba/ http://zlin.cz/index.php?ID=43072 http://www.myczechrepublic.com/czech_culture/czech_holidays/easter/czech-easter-history.html http://blog.alimentatiecopii.ro/de-unde-vine-iepurasului-de-paste/

Recenzii / Reviews

ANTOANETA OLTEANU O NOU PTRUNDERE N CULTURA TRADIIONAL A ROMNILOR DIN UCRAINA Antonie Moisei. Obiceiuri i datini agrare n calendarul popular al populaiei romanice de rsrit din Bucovina. Cernui: SRL Druk-Art, 2010. 304 p.: 36 il. Lucrarea lui Antonie Moisei ne permite s rsfoim o nou fil din cartea culturii noastre tradiionale. Autorul ne propune s o facem n cadrul zonei etnografice bucovinene, fiindc este ferm convins c att regiunea Cernui a Ucrainei, ct i judeul Suceava din Romnia alctuiesc o zon identic din punct de vedere etnologic. Ideea este susinut de analiza trecutului istoric, cnd Bucovina era ncorporat n cadrul unuia i aceluiai stat, faptul contribuind la apariia pe parcurs de secole a unor trsturi specifice n cultura tradiional, a anumitor stereotipuri n gndire, norme morale i etice de comportare etc. Bucovina este o zon limitrof prin care trece fia de contact dintre dou civilizaii cea romanic i cea slav. Anumite condiii istorice au fcut ca, timp ndelungat, aici s decurg un proces de aculturaie continu ntre reprezentanii a dou popoare autohtone romni i ucraineni. Studierea unor astfel de fenomene este actual i n vederea analizei n genere a situaiei la frontierele etnice din Europa. Cazurile de ignorare a factorului etnic n croirea hotarelor politice amplific i mai mult necesitatea cercetrilor n acest domeniu. Antonie Moisei, doctor n filozofie, etnolog, docent la catedra de etnologie a Universitii Naionale Iuri Fedkovici din Cernui, membru al Asociaiei de tiine Etnologice din Romnia (ASER), autor a trei monografii i a peste 110 articole tiinifice nu scap din vedere analiza comparativ a acestor dou culturi pe parcursul activitii sale de cercetare. Motivul amintit trece ca un fir rou prin monografiile sale precedente: Simion Florea Marian etnograf al Bucovinei (2003), Cultura tradiional a populaiei din Bucovina n operele tiinifice ale cercettorilor romni n cea de a doua jumtate a secolului al XIX-lea nceputul secolului al XX-lea (2005), Magie i mantic n calendarul popular al populaiei romanice de rsrit din Bucovina (2008; toate n limba ucrainean). n ele tematica calendarului popular este privit prin prisma analizei comparative, prin studierea atent a procesului de aculturaie, a amalgamului cultural specific zonei etnografice amintite. Actualitatea temei studiate este confirmat i de faptul c Antonie Moisei, pentru studiul Influene reciproce n cultura tradiional a populaiei ucrainene i romanice de rsrit din Bucovina (exemplificate prin calendarul popular), a ctigat grantul oferit de Consiliul American al Societilor tiinifice ACLS din New-York, cu susinerea cruia a i fost editat cartea. Subliniem de asemenea continuitatea cercetrilor referitoare la calendarul popular n ultimele dou monografii ale lui Antonie Moisei. Dac n cartea Magie i mantic n calendarul popular al populaiei romanice de rsrit din Bucovina au fost analizate obiceiurile i datinele magice i mantice din calendarul popular al romnilor bucovineni (practica pluvial cotidian, vrjile matrimoniale), atunci n cartea recenzat cititorul ia cunotin de o caracteristic detaliat a proceselor sociale i etnoculturale din regiune n secolele al XIX-lea nceputul secolului al XXI-lea. n capitolul dedicat reglamentrii timpului i structurii calendarului popular sunt cercetate minuios tema imaginaiilor spaiale i temporale n concepia tradiional despre lume (prile componente ale zilei, sptmnii, anului), ciclul anual a srbtorilor calendaristice i descrierea celor mai importante dintre ele, elemente de structur (obiceiuri n care se foloseau apa, focul, plantele, reminiscene ale iniierii tineretului etc.). Considernd calendarul pstoresc o parte component a celui popular, autorul descrie ciclul celor mai importante srbtori, analizeaz cultul ocrotitorilor animalelor slbatice i erpilor. Calendarul agrar este prezentat prin complexul obiceiurilor agrare din secolele al XIX-lea nceputul secolului al XXI-lea, legate de nceputul lucrrilor de cmp (prima ieire cu plugul n cmp), semnatul, sfritul seceriului i strngerii roadelor, cele orientate spre asigurarea ocrotirii roadei de diferite duntori, de psri, spre asigurarea fertilitii copacilor sterpi, conjurarea roadei (colindatul) etc. Printre concluziile ce reies din lucrare este i afirmaia c Bucovina, ca zon etnografic, posed un nalt nivel de pstrare a tradiiilor populare. Constatarea se rspndete i asupra conservrii anumitor tradiii precretine. Printre ele se evideniaz complexul srbtorilor lupului, orientate spre aprarea de rpitori, avnd n arsenalul su practica afumrii ocrotitoare, desenarea crucilor, descntece de sperietur, diverse tabuuri. S-au pstrat

110 rmiele obiceiurilor legate de ciclul srbtorilor pastorale: stropirea cu agheasm stnei, trecerea oilor prin fumul focului viu, ritul ciobnesc al ofrandei de brnz i altele. N-au disprut complet unele obiceiuri vechi din ciclul agrar: calendarul de timp din ceap, datini legate de copacii sterpi etc. Se mai aprind ruguri rituale, nu i-au pierdut actualitatea obiceiurile i datinele referitoare la sufletele rudelor rposate, mai ntlnim cazuri de iniiere a tineretului. Primesc un nou suflu colindatul, datinele teatralizate de iarn. Procesul de studiere a calendarului popular al populaiei romanice de rsrit din Bucovina i-a permis autorului s fac unele constatri. Analiza comparativ a obiceiurilor calendaristice la populaia romanic de rsrit i vecinii si, ucrainenii, prezint un numr considerabil de trsturi comune n procesul practicrii ritualului primei ieiri cu plugul n cmp, a aciunilor n jurul pomului sterp, primei scoateri a animalelor domestice la pune la Sf. Gheorghe. Obiceiuri comune se observ n celebrarea Crciunului, analogic sunt lsate resturi de hran pentru sufletele rposailor; multe elemente comune exist n obiceiul colindatului, umblatului cu steaua, Irozilor, hiturii, semnatului, tradiiilor de carnaval (capra, ursul, Malanca). Este necesar s menionm soliditatea bazei de izvoare a monografiei: materiale de muzeu i arhive, antologii etnografice, rspunsuri la chestionare etnografice, materialele cercetrilor de teren din ultimii zece ani, monografii de sate, zone etnografice etc. Faptul a permis autorului s cuprind n cadrul investigaiilor circa 60 % dintre satele cu populaie romneasc din regiune, s posede o baz larg de informaii n vederea tipologizrii unui cerc bine determinat de fenomene etnografice. Identic este reprezentat i informaia din satele ucrainene din regiunea Cernui i judeul Suceava. Aceste circumstane au creat condiii prielnice pentru cartografierea celor mai importante obiceiuri i datine calendaristice care, la rndul su, a permis detalizarea i localizarea obiceiurilor prin prism comparativ. n atenia cititorului, n cele dou monografii ale lui Antonie Moisei sunt prezentate 21 de hri etnografice care au contribuit la clasificarea obiceiurilor calendaristice a romanicilor de rsrit n limitele zonei etnografice, la descrierea fenomenelor cu caracter local, au permis s fie analizat dependena lor de amplasarea n spaiu, de condiiile geografice i climaterice etc. Strnesc un interes indiscutabil textele colindelor, a obiceiurilor dramatizate de iarn etc., amplasate n anexele crii. Materialul ilustrativ al crii este de o calitate nalt, e selectat reuit i corespunde textului lucrrii. Autorul menioneaz faptul c patrimoniul spiritual i cultural existent al populaiei romanice de rsrit din Bucovina referitor la calendarul popular pstreaz n sine un puternic potenial aplicativ. El poate fi folosit n domeniul cercetrii culturii populare tradiionale, ca contribuie semnificativ la dezvoltarea turismului din regiune, constituie un argument n vederea amplificrii laturii investiionale a economiei inutului. Problema aceasta ns cere eforturi financiare i de cercetare considerabile pentru crearea unei baze teoretice a dezvoltrii turismului etnografic, n vederea perfecionrii fundamentelor tiinifice i metodologice, a literaturii de promovare, alctuirea noilor itinerare turistice n baza obiectelor i aciunilor etnografice, crerii unui centru coordonator, a instruirii cadrelor. Realizarea recomandrilor expuse ar putea amplifica potenialul de concuren a zonei etnografice bucovinene pe arena internaional. n acest context nu putem nega posibilitatea folosirii factorului transfrontalier al zonei, implicarea proiectelor Comisiei Europene pentru dezvoltarea turismului etnografic (istorico-etnografic) n Euroregiunea Prutul de Sus. Materialul etnografic colectat de autor prezint interes n procesul alctuiri Atlasului Etnografic Romn. Dorim autorului succes n realizarea acestei ntreprinderi de cercetare. Am dori ca lucrarea de fa s ajung i la specialitii i cititorii romni, prin traducere, deoarece ea prezint un interes indiscutabil pentru etnografia Romniei.

Autori / Authors

Andra Sorina Beliu (b. 1987) MA in Slavic Cultural Studies and Translations at Bucharest University, Department of Croatian (andrabesliu@yahoo.com) Gabriela Georgescu MA in Slavic Cultural Studies and Translations at Bucharest University, Department of Czech (gabriela.gescu@gmail.com) Urszula Lehr Docent Dr. Hab., Institute of Archeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Science, Cracow, Poland. (ulehr@gazeta.pl) Petra Novak MA in Folklore, at the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology of University in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Researches in Folklore, education on Gypsies in Slovenia and on cultural legacies of Decembers festivities. Articles on Christian stories, reflection of economy in Christian stories (petra.trojar@guest.arnes.si) Antoaneta Olteanu (b. 1968) full Professor of Russian Culture and Civilization at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Bucharest University. Ph.D. in Comparative Mythology. Fields of interest: Comparative Ethnology, Anthropology, Imagology, Contemporary Russian Literature, Russian Civilization. Thirteen monographs in the field (in Romanian): Comparative Mythology (1998), Hypostases of Evil in Magic Medicine (1998), Metamorphoses of the Sacred. A Dictionary of Folk Mythology (1998), School of Solomon. Divination and Witchcraft in Comparative Context (1999), Romanian Folk Calendars (2001), Homo balcanicus. Some features of Balkan Mentality (2004), Dictionary of Mythology. Demons, Genies, Spirits (2004), The Myths of Classical Russia (2004), Days and Demons. Russian Folk Calendar and Mythology (2008), Days and Demons. Bulgarian Folk Calendar and Mythology (2008), Space Representations in Romanian Folk Beliefs (2009), Russian Contemporary Novel (2005, 2008). (antoaneta_o@yahoo.com) pela Pahor Ethnologist, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (spela.pahor@guest.arnes.si). Oana Tnasie MA in Slavic Cultural Studies and Translations at Bucharest University, Department of Croatian (oana.tanasie@yahoo.com) Alexandra Ttran Ph.D. in Anthropology-Ethnology, Faculty of European Studies, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. (alexandra_tataran@yahoo.co.uk) Petru Ursache (n. 1931) full Profesor of Comparative Literature, Esthetics, Ethnology and Folklore at Al. I. Cuza University in Iasi, Romania. Author of important monographs in the field (in Romanian): Folk Poetics (1976), Prolegomene towards an Esthethics of Folklore (1980), Ethnoesthetics (1998), The Mary Case or about Beauty in Oral Culture (2001), Ethnosophy (2008), Samb Room: An Introduction to Mircea Eliades Work (2008), Short Tractatus on Theological Esthetics (2009). Ura Vali (b. 1982) young researcher and assistant at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. She is working on a PhD thesis Latin sisters: uses of Latin discourses in the formation of Romanian national identity and consciousness in the light of Romanian-Italian international relationship. She was and still is doing field research in Romania and Italy. (Ursa.Valic@ff.uni-lj.si) Stanislav Inchovsky-Tarnin (b. 1975) Ph.D. student in Contemporary Ethnology at Bulgarian Academy of Science (Mountain tourism in Bugaria). (Research areas: Ethnnology, Psychology, Religion, Sociology, Contemporary Urban studies. (stanis.slav@abv.bg)