Câteva observaţii asupra semnificaţiilor magico-religioase ale graffiti-lor din Europa creştină

Author(s): Arcadie Bodale / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 14/2014

Across the European area, graffiti have magical and religious meanings with certain pagan origins, overlapping slowly and deeply the Christian teaching. For example, graffiti representing animals, horseshoes, pruning, grills, ships or anchors can be seen inside and outside the Western Europe houses and churches. These designs were made in order to obtain the Divine protection and they had an ex-voto function. Instead, graffiti representing the cross, religious objects, the Calvary (Crucifixion) of Jesus Christ, the popular figurations of the Holy and the tools of Calvary, the dove as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, the images with the Virgin Mary, the scenes of Judgment, the monograms of Christ or Virgin, are the application of health and happiness and illustrate the fervor of Christians and their hope for Salvation. On the other hand, along with crosses, on the painted monasteries of Bucovina there are a lot of pine trees drawings, which are the Funeral tree, meaning that these prayers have been made for those dead before marriage. At the same time, in the Western Europe prevail graffiti representing images, or, on the walls of the medieval Romanian churches, the majority is formed by written messages. Even though they are only some simple Christian names, they are praying for health, divine help and Salvation of those called like that. Instead, the existence of a written graffito on a church semantron was a form of curse, meant to call the divine punishment upon the sinners

Interferenţe arhitecturale creştino-iudaice. Sinagoga din lemn Baal Şem Tov din Piatra-Neamţ

Author(s): Florentina Buzenschi / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 14/2014

The oldest wooden synagogue (1766) in Central and Orientale Europe is the one of Piatra-Neamt. It is named Baal Shem Tov, according to the name of the founder of Hassidism (1700-1760). The restoration works were carried out in 2007-2009 and revealed important details regarding the history and architecture of the monument. The geotechnical surveys revealed the existence of the first foundation and showed that the original plan of the edifice was ship-shaped, on the east-west axis. The scraping of the roofing showed how the beams were assembled in the shape of «dove tails» and under the cover layer the shingle of the hipped roof became visible, which was changed when the “Pulish” (brick vestibule) was added. The existence of a polygonal dome, above the “Bima”, concluded with a keystone, completes the resemblance of the synagogue with the 18th century wooden churches of Neamţ.The conclusion is that this building was built by the same artisans which built the modest wooden churches. Especially that a contemporary census recorded the existence of only 20 families of Jews in Piatra-Neamţ and its surroundings, so, a very limited number for building a synagogue.

Salutul în practica etichetei tradiţionale. Formularea problemelor

Author(s): Varvara Buzilă / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

The author analyses the greeting from a semiotic perspective, interpreting it as an act of communication, of great complexity. The greeting is presented as a part of the traditional etiquette, taking the form of a dialogue or a rite and implies several languages of communication. She argues that the verbal greeting is correlated both to the cosmic time and to the specific of the actions performed by the persons that are involved in the communication relationship. The greeting through gestures is correlated to space criteria and takes into consideration both the entire body of the person and distinct parts of it. The diverse forms of kissing: the hands, the lips, the forehead or the crown, are related to social statutes, group relationships and life situations, developing various functions. The greeting, in general, updates social relationships, enhances the social cohesion and asserts the system of values of that community. The study brings into the scientific environment various categories of sources, formulates certain research topics that can be further investigated.

Ex-libris-ul cu blestem din Ţara Moldovei

Author(s): Elena Chiaburu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

The curse containing bookplates (ex-libris) of the Country of Moldavia are related to a cult, their source is biblical, Christian theology, and they were inspired by the materials read by the writers and other readers. As only the church had the right to curse, we have discovered among the books with curses of the Country of Moldavia, only one secular curse until 1780. Owning books was the most frequent reason entitling authors to add at the general imprecation their own cursing. The analysis of the curses written on old books and their contents shows that the invoked threats and punishments are mainly spiritual (poena spiritualis) and less physical or earthly. The rhetoric follows an upward scale of gravity and it consists of anathemas and curses of the divine power (God, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, Virgin Mary, different Saints and martyrs and priests from the Christian Pantheon) and it comes from the common sanction of the ecumenical synod and the patriarchy papers from the first millennium of the Church. The Judgment Day was often invoked in the ex-libris curses; the notes sometimes described the principles of Divine justice. As some characters in the history of the Church carried a curse, the writers threatened the possible wrong-doers with a similar fate to the one of the cursed biblical characters: Cain, Datan, Aviron, Judas, who sold Jesus and Aria who was excommunicated from the Synod of Nicaea. A punishment coming from the pagan times was the eternal rest of those who did not rot, who could not return to eternal Nature. Repeating the curse increased the imagined torments of the one who was guilty of any offence brought to the book. As the purpose of the church punishments was not death but the correction of the sinner, in case someone brought back a stolen book, the curse was removed. At the end of the curse there was even mentioned a reward for bringing back the book or even mentioning the guilty person. All these features make the difference between the bookplate curses and the verbal, secular curses.

Doliul: categorii, forme de manifestare, vechime, semnificaţii

Author(s): Ion H. Ciubotaru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

L’étude met en discussion une dimension essentielle des rites funèbres, à savoir le deuil. Connu par tous les peuples du monde et pratiqué depuis toujours jusqu’à nos jours, ce phénomène ethnopsychologique enregistre des formes variées de manifestation, sur lesquelles l’auteur s’arrête avec attention, en les considérant d’une vaste perspective comparativiste. Les catégories de deuil analysées (blanc, noir, jaune, rouge) mettent en évidence les états d’âme de personnes affectées par l’événement funeste. Il s’agit de gestes et reversements mélodiques du chagrin (surpris par la poésie des chants funèbres), puis de la tenue et des vêtements des parents proches, des signes qui marquent la maison et la cour du défunt et, non dernièrement, l’endeuillement de tout le cortège funèbre. La peur du défunt, qui génère initialement toutes les étapes du deuil, se transforme graduellement dans un sentiment de regret pour la personne disparue, que la famille place dans le panthéon des grands-parents et des ancêtres, à côté des autres esprits protecteurs

Reprezentări mitologice ale românilor din Oltenia (pe baza cercetărilor de teren efectuate în judeţele Vâlcea, Gorj şi Mehedinţi)

Author(s): Natalia G. Golant / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

This paper is meant to provide a summary of the information regarding some legends, related to the folklore mythology, which was gathered during the field trips carried out in 2006-2010 on the territory of the region of Oltenia. The Romanians have a very developed concept of «living deadmen», or «vampires», widespread in the Carpathian-Balkan region. «Walking deadman» can be referred to as strigói or morói (murói). The term strigói is a derivative from strígă „witch”, „unclean spirit” and likely to be of Latin origin – from lat. strīga, -ae [strix] „old sorceress, witch”. On the territory of the Carpathian-Balkan region related terms can be heard from the Albanians (štrigё „witch”) and the Slovenes (štriga, štrigno). The term murói (morói) has counterparts in a number of Slavic languages (cf. Serb., Croat., Slov., Pol. mora, Alb. morё, modern Greek. µόρα). In all explored communities we recorded notions of beings, devouring the Moon, that are named vârcoláci (sg. vârcolác). Vârcolác is a term of Slavic origin, that was initially related to the word «wolf» and that seems to have entered Romanian language from Bulgarian (cf. Bulg. върколак, Serb.-Croat. вукодлак, Czech vlkodlak, Pol. wiłkolak, Ukr. вовкулак, Belorus. воўколак, Rus. волколак). Among the Balkan peoples the given term is also used by the Greeks (βρυκόλακας) and the Albanians (vurvolak). Beings, similar to fairies, are also referred to «throughout the Balkans» as mythological characters. In the explored communities we also found such designations of these beings, as iéle(le), or éle(le), а́le sfínte verbally „the saint ones” , céle sfínte „the saint ones” or sfínte(le) „saints”, ale frumoáse „the beautiful ones”. All other mentioned designations are euphemisms and always used in plural (cf. Rom. names from other parts of Romania – dấnsele „they” (f. pl.), doámne(le) „dames”, Bulg. живи-здрави „safe-sound”, сладки-медени „sweet-honied” and others). The origin of such tabooistic designations is likely to be related to the effort to insinuate these demonic creatures. There are also demons of destiny amongst the «panto-Balkan» mythological characters, notions which we managed to register in the explored community. The Romans, and, in particular, inhabitants of the explored communities, name ursitoáre(le), ursătóri(le), ursitóri(le), ursătoáre(le); céle tréi ursătóri „those three ursătóri”, ăle sfínte. There is a relation between the term ursitoare and the modern Greek ορίσω „to define, to confine”. Such characters – demons of destiny, mostly represented as three women, are also typical for the mythology of Balkan Slavs – the Bulgarians, the Macedonians, the Serbians, the Montenegrins, the Croatians. Most of these beings' names in cultures of the south Slavs, as well as of the Romans, are derivatives from lexemes with the common semantics „to sentence, to name, to designate” (орисници, урисници, наречници, реченици, суђеници and others). According to the records of the municipality Mălaia (Vâlcea), one female of the demons of destiny is Romanian [româncă], another one – Hungarian [unguroáică] or, according to another version, Jewish [jidáncă], and the third one – Gypsy [ţigáncă]. «Romanian» is believed to be the kindest, and «Gypsy» – the most malicious of the three soothsayers. As a remote analogy it is appropriate to mention the fact, that the Bulgarians from the South Bulgaria, Dobruja and South Bessarabia use such names for demons, in which souls of dead parturient and pregnant women embody as «Armenian females» (Bulg. арменки, ерменки, ерменлийки) or «Armenians» (арменци, ерменци). There are other mythological creatures, also related to maternity ceremonies, băbíţe or băbíţi (pl. f.) – demons, which can do harm to newly-born one. The given term, which we manage to register in Mălaia (Vâlcea) and Polovragi (Gorj), is indubitably of Slavic origin. Thus, similar mythological characters are designated with the term бабице in cultures of Serbians from eastern parts of Serbia and Kosovo. In the municipality Ponoarele (Mehedinţi) we registered the euphemistic term máicile „mothers”, which designates any illnesses. It was not found in any other explored communities (cf. the term майки, use with the same meaning by the Bulgarians in Rodopi). The idea of plague's [ciúmă,-a] personification as an old woman was found in Ponoarele (Mehedinţi). There is a legend about «plague's shirt» [cămaşa ciúmii] in the municipality Ponoarele. The notion of the «plague's shirt» [cămaşa ciumii, ia ciumii] exists in many regions of Romania, in particular, in Muntenia, Oltenia, Transylvania, Maramuresh, Bukovina. Such a shirt was associated to the most spread magic wand, which was considered to be able to stop the pestilence. All the actions to produce a shirt (spinning, weaving, cutting and sewing) were supposed to be carried out within twenty-four hours or for one night. The custom of making a shirt for one day in case of plague is also found in cultures of Bulgarians, Hungarian and Transylvanian Germans (Saxons). The Serbians from the vicinity of Pieroth (the eastern Serbia) have the custom to make the «for one day-shirt» (кошуља jедноданка) in the situations, when it is obvious, that the war is coming, and all the men, going to war, got through this shirt – it was supposed to save them from death. The Bulgarians in the Pirin region and the Macedonians in the western Macedonia used to have a custom to make linen for one night in order to survive during the plague (Maced. чумино платно), then all the inhabitants of the village passed under this linen. The Belorussians considered the «for one day-towel» to be the best means for pestilence, then all the inhabitants of the village passed under this towel, and eventually it was burnt down. This report is dedicated to the analysis of topics which, in our opinion, are «ethnographic» and lexical at the same time. Ascertaining the distribution of the discussed facts and vocabulary, designating them, is the task of the further researches.

Viitorul nou-născutului. Practici şi superstiţii păstrate în mediul urban

Author(s): Adina Hulubaş / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

The study presents some of the conclusions reached within a postdoctoral project financed by the Romanian National Research Council. After having investigated childbirth beliefs and practices in villages of Moldavia, the author continues on the same topic, but she interviews urbanites this time. The fact that they left their rural homes almost 50 years ago to live in cities did not change the traditional behaviour when it comes to rituals and life crises. The study reveals how the generally human need to influence positively the future preserves magic gestures and superstitions regarding the new-born.

Repere ale gândirii mitice în eshatologia populară românească

Author(s): Andrei Prohin / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

The folkloric beliefs concerning the end of the world provide a reflection on the human existence throughout time. The catastrophes expected lately point out the main values that have assured the stability and the continuity of the traditional community. Within the eschatological scenarios, one can find several items related to the mythical thinking: the numerical symbolism, the repetition of sacred archetypes, the antithetic symmetries and oppositions. These dark predictions display several motifs used also in the folkloric poetry, legends, customs and the rural way of life. The eschatological discourse represented a way of enforcing the spiritual fundaments of the society in order to provide its continuity.

Rituri de întemeiere a fântânilor în Moldova

Author(s): Ioana Repciuc / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

The paper explores the mechanism of discovering a source and building a rural well in traditional communities of Moldavia. The mystical explanation informing on ritual sacrifices, symbolic gifts, protective gestures, divinatory practices is related to archaic ideas about the existence of a maleficent supernatural place owner, established where the water should be found. The analysis also follows the connection with rituals involved in the process of building a house, the ones by which a priest blesses the fields or expels evil spirits from a human territory. Being both a ritual and social place, and a natural resource, the well is always surrounded by care and reverence from the moment of choosing its place to the special Christian service performed at the end, when the community acknowledges its sacred nature.

Gospodării şi acareturi – statutul proprietăţii şi imaginarul curţii ţărăneşti

Author(s): Gabriela Boangiu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

The symbolical representation of property is a very important research no matter if it is about the village or the city, from the perspective of laws, measure techniques or the survival of an archaic language. There are many documents that speak about different types of property which left traces in the peasant’s mentality. The study aims to point out the multitude of relations that can be identified between memory and space, between mentality and ethnographical survivals within the peasants’ farmyard, between tradition and contemporary life.

Mărturii etnografice despre Dimitrie Gusti şi Şcoala Sociologică de la Bucureşti (Vrancea, 2002)

Author(s): Marin Constantin / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

The paper refers to the memories of Toma Rapa and Ion Cuchiur, two peasants from Năruja and Nerej villages, respectively, in Vrancea County, Romania. Toma Rapa and Ion Cuchiur were interviewed in 2002, given their presence within the research campaigns of the Sociological School that Professor Dimitrie Gusti had coordinated in interwar Romania. Important information is thus offered on D. Gusti’s personality among Romanian peasants, as well as on what could be called the „civilizing work” that the Romanian school of rural sociology developed in the 1930s Vrancea. Alongside D. Gusti, the names of two other great Romanian scholars – sociologist Henri H. Stahl and physical anthropologist Francisc J. Rainer – are also evoked in the accounts of T. Rapa and I. Cuchiur.

Comuniunea viilor şi morţilor în satul Somuşca – Bacău. Cântecele de priveghi

Author(s): Anton Coşa / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

Cette étude représente le résultat d’une recherche de terrain réalisée par l’auteur au sein de la communauté catholique de Somuşca (le département de Bacău). A Somuşca, parmi les traditions des funérailles, une place importante revient aux „chansons de veillée” („les chansons des morts” ou „les chansons de mort”), interprétées pendant les nuits de veillée au chevet du mort. Les variantes recueillies à Somuşca sont d’une authenticité et d’une force de suggestion remarquable par les motifs transmis. Elles étaient chantées selon un rituel strict. L’une des femmes qui composaient le group des chanteuses (qui pouvait inclure aussi des hommes) donnait le ton en récitant (pas en chantant) le premier vers. Immédiatement suivait l’écoulement mélodique du même vers par l’interprétation de tout le group présent, en continuant de la sorte jusqu’à la fin de la chanson. La coexistence de ces „chansons de veillée” avec „les vers funèbres” (des créations du milieu ecclésiastique assimilées au répertoire folklorique), le fait que certains motifs se rencontrent aussi dans les lamentations appelées chez les Roumains de quelques régions de Transylvanie „cantique au mort” ou „cantique de mort”, la ligne mélodique et leur continuation par l’intermédiaire de quelques cahiers mettent en évidence des similitudes visibles avec l’espaces de Transylvanie.

Sarea în lumea satului tradiţional – între practică şi simbol

Author(s): Roxana Diaconu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

The author intends to present some of the uses of salt and/or of the salted water from an ethnographical point of view. The starting point of this study consists of a series of information/data from villages in the Neamţ County, showing analogies in other regions of Moldavia.The content of the article is structured according to the different ways of using salt, as resulting from information provided by ethnographical researches. The study discusses the symbolical value of this mineral especially in the rites of passage (such as birth), weather predictions but also recalls the practical uses: halotherapy, crafts and occupations. The text is important because it tries to emphasize practices and beliefs that are unique or less known to the modern people. The conclusion points out the fact that the ethnographic information concerning salt and salted water use is extremely different and requires a correct registration and a complex analysis.

Câteva documente din Arhivele Naţionale Iaşi privitoare la folclorul urban din a doua jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea

Author(s): Arcadie Bodale / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

The urban folklore is not so appreciated and studied in comparison to the rural folklore. More than that, it had to face the hostility of authorities, which hardly can accept its bawdy language and the lack of morality. So, in 1864, the authorities of Iasi city forbade its representations, considering them being scandalous. It is, above all, the prohibition of the popular theatre named Irozii, which was played by Romanians, Jews, Greeks and Armenians. In reality, Irozii influenced the Purim plays of the Romanian Jews. We also found several acts about the license given by the Iasi Hall to Ion Hangan, to organize a puppet carnival, on the condition of not exceeding a certain common sense and of paying the due taxes.

Catagrafiile unor case răzăşeşti din secolul al XIX-lea

Author(s): Lucian-Valeriu Lefter / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2013

Spread in the old county of Vaslui already in the 17th century, the heirs of the Motăş family can still be traced nowadays. Towards mid-19th century, some of the members of this family, living in Oşeşti village in the county of Vaslui, Ştefan Motăş and Maxim Motăş died while still young and powerful, in 1844 and 1846, leaving their children orphans, and the guardianship created with the occasion had to inventory all the fortune left behind by the two deceased members for a good administration, until the young children would come to the due age. Lists with the inventory of their fortune represent a very important ethnographic documentary source for the reconstitution of the daily life of rural farmyards, and this is also the reason why we hereby publish it.

O influenţă românească asupra limbilor slovacă şi cehă

Author(s): Petru Caraman / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 12/2012

Agârbiceanu şi folclorul. Despre elementul fabulos din structura universului realist

Author(s): Mircea Păduraru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 12/2012

The starting point of this article is the following curiosity: how comes a writer like Ion Agârbiceanu, whose entire work is an apologia for Realism, benefit from a book about the demons in his work (Cornel Regman, Agârbiceanu şi demonii)? Even if C. Regman does not refer to the Devil himself, but to the diabolic man, the manner chosen by the critic for seeing things and the conceptual metaphors employed in his discourse belong to the language of Demonology. Far from being a caprice or a stylistic whim, we believe that the simple fact of talking about „realistic phenomena”, while using a terminology of the supernatural and the expressivity of a fabulous metaphoric field, betrays the profound intuition of a non-realistic dimension in the very structure of the realist universe.

Revelaţii dinaintea morţii, conform tradiţiei creştin-ortodoxe

Author(s): Andrei Prohin / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 12/2012

Byzantines believed that at the end of their lives, righteous Christians could predict the day of their own departure or other person’s death. The belief has been shared until present days, being identified in different Christian testimonies. Hagiographical sources pointed out that such foreknowledge would be due to divine revelations sent to saints, acknowledging thus their high moral virtues. Ancient authors and several Byzantine writers considered that, while entering eternity, souls could see things that were hidden to the rest of the mortals. Learning about the moment of their death, saints keenly prepared themselves to pass to another world, the gift of prophecy being a token of the divine care, a spiritual guide for the living ones and an insight into the mysteries of Providence.

Spaţiu şi timp mitic în „Mioriţa”

Author(s): Tadeusz Rostworowski,Ecaterina Hanganu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 12/2012

„Mioriţa”, either as a ballad or a funeral chant, should be considered in the larger context of the Romanian history and spirituality. The paper presents the following sections: 1. Sacred geography in „Mioriţa”, where the symbolism of landscape and its implications during the unfolding of the narration are discussed in detail; 2. The home-like archetypal structure of the ballad, where „Mioriţa” itself is compared with and described as a traditional country house with all its magical elements; as a peculiarity, the ballad may be supposed to have three concentric axis mundi having space, time and narrative elements organized according to and surrounding them; 3. Mythical time in „Mioriţa”; 4. Considerations on some variants of „Mioriţa” as occurring at present throughout the territories inhabited once by the Thracians. According to the spatial and temporal specificity of „Mioriţa”, it can be considered as a Pythagoreic Tetractys. In „Mioriţa”, both mythical space and time can be associated with the Pythagoreic Tetractys: the comparison is sustained by the figures of pyramids/tetractys discovered in some ancient Dacian tumuli considered to be the graves of messengers sent to Zamolxis; one of them (from Fântânele-Zimnicea-Teleorman) is presented in the paper. The symbolism of the three concentrically „axis mundi” mentioned above is associated with the tetractys in a spatio-temporal continuum, which generate the complex and antagonistic unity of the universe. A 4th section reveals the extent in space and time of the mythical pattern of „Mioriţa”, from the Dacian-Getic remote antiquity until modern times. The communion between man and this alive and loving universe is considered as an eternal wedding. As reflected not only in „Mioriţa”, but also in other ancient folkloric creations which are in fact meditations on life and death, the Romanians transformed death into an eternal and bright life. The courage to fight for life and not to fear death is characteristic for the Romanians throughout the entire history. And this attitude results from the Romanians’ consciousness of their permanency on these territories which guarantees the immortality of man on the „other” realm, too. This is the imperial effigy of the Romanian spirituality: fear neither life, nor death because we live forever here, in a loving and alive universe.

Costumul femeiesc din ţinuturile mureşene

Author(s): Maria Borzan,Roxana-Maria MAN / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 12/2012

The folk costume, valuable artistic, social and historical document, carrying throughout ages the message of an authentic artistic creation, is considered to be one of the most important components of a nation’s cultural identity. It is one of the most important elements in a nation’s material culture, reflecting its concern with the material needs and also the concerns of spiritual nature. The women’s costume of Mures villages is of the most known type, the skirt being spread from Maramures to River Danube. Its main features are the unity in structure, with the following components: the skirt, girded with a belt, from the waist down, the rectangular skirts, broad or narrow, named ‘zadii’, the same way of wearing or the absence of any headkerchief of any kind, and the same type of shoes.