Tezaur şi Iconostas al spiritualităţii populare româneşti
Treasure and Iconostasis of Romanian People’s Spirituality

Summary/Abstract: The Romanian village is the matrix where most spiritual, cultural, moral and identity values of the Romanian people have been shaped, preserved and passed down from generation to generation. Together, the constitutive elements of the Romanian rural life testify symbolically and tangibly to the tradition and the physical and spiritual continuity of the Romanian people. The Romanian village has always centered its preoccupations around the Church and around spiritual life. Romanian peasants, hardworking, dignified and endowed by God with natural intelligence, have been constantly attached to the Church, which guided them along the path to salvation. The rural population perceives the Church as the institution that has permanently provided children and youth with support in their intellectual formation, has taught people to offer each other mutual support, and has piously remembered and prayed for the ancestors. „Dimitrie Gusti” National Museum of the Village, established in 1936, offers insights into traditional Romanian rural life, and possesses a unique collection of monuments of architecture. The Romanian village, as presented by the museum, demonstrates skillful, artful use of wood, stone and natural materials in general, which evinces the harmonious relationship between the Romanian craftsmen and the environment, and their awareness of the beauty and worth of God’s creation, which they cultivated with diligence, generosity and gratitude (...). Thanks to the joint efforts undertaken by the Romanian Patriarchate and „Dimitrie Gusti” National Museum of the Village in Bucharest, rural traditions and village spirituality, Romanan folk art, the beauty of the popular costumes as well as folklore at large, were presented to the public, underscoring the need to preserve the legacy of our ancestors and the importance of passing it down to the younger generations (...). Today, 10 May 2021, on the 85th anniversary of „Dimitrie Gusti” National Museum of the Village we acknowledge the vocation, mission and outstanding activity of this museum, which we see as a Treasure and Iconostasis of Romanian People’s Spirituality. In an increasingly secularized world, which tends to replace eternal spiritual values with ephemeral materialistic undertakings, it is our duty to know and foster the perennial values of Romanian culture, identity and spirituality.

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