Costumul ţărănesc din sud-estul Moldovei. Costumul femeiesc: catrinţa şi pestelca
Romanian folk costume: the skirt and the apron

Summary/Abstract: Ethno cultural research in the south-east of Moldavia has met with many difficulties along the last forty years. And, as we can see in some of the monographies written during the period between the wars by some enlightened village schoolteachers, it was as difficult to get information on this subject even forty years before that.The information about folk costumes was scarce even at the time of the questionnaires initiated by B.P.Hasdeu in the years 1884-1886.Therefore many researchers in this field have been asking themselves since thirty years ago whether this region had its local authentic folk costumes.We have asked ourselves this question from the moment we started our research and especially when we asked villagers questions about this subject and we got confusing or wrong answers. Local research inquiry, whichever the subject was, started with some questions about the folk skirts, shirts, girdles, etc.Gradually some pieces of information came out until one day we found two such folk skirts which constituted a pair and which justified the data obtained in a fragmentary way.Then the aprons, which were simpler in design and seemed to be used only for work, have been re-discovered and given a well-deserved place in the gallery of folk costume items.We discovered then that the aprons were also worn during the holidays and not only by older women but also by the younger ones at folk dances.The simple apron with three stripes is in fact the ancient version of the skirt worn at holidays in this region.In the county of Galati, three such old costumes have been re-assembled till now. The item which gives a specific character to these costumes is the skirt or the apron.

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