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Vasile Alecsandri, one of the great patriots with substantial contributions to the creation of modern Romania, stands out for the significant part played in the development of our national literature. Excelling in most literary genres, from poetry to theatre and prose, Vasile Alecsandri also kept music and Romanian folklore close to his heart. As one of the key figures of the cultural life of Iași, he often collaborated with famous musicians as Alexandru Flechtenmacher, who set to music some of his most appreciated works (Coana Chirița sau Două fete și-o neneacă, Întoarcerea Chiriței sau Chirița în provincie, Cinel-cinel, Barbu Lăutarul) or Eduard Hübsch. His constant interest in both folk literature and music led to the editing of various volumes of Romanian literary folklore, of great importance for the second half of the 19th century: Balade (Cântece bătrânești), vol. I-II (1852-1853), Doine și lăcrimioare (1853) and Poesii populare ale românilor (1866).
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The present paper aims to identify and analyze the common influences in the works of the two great Romantic composers – Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) and Edvard Grieg (1843-1907). The juxtaposition of the two composers reveals the parallelism of their musical trajectory and points out the folkloric musical elements, specific to the natal birthplace that they managed to integrate not only in the history of the European arts and music but also in the history of universal music. This article will underline similarities of style in the works of the two composers, as the dominance of the minor, short forms with repetitions, harmonic aspects, and folkloric influences.
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The Lipovan Russians have been settling on Dobrogea for more than three hundred years, especially in the villages of the Danube Delta. Due to the isolation provided by the surrounding waters, they have managed to preserve and transmit language, religion, culture, and way of life from generation to generation. The existing musical repertoire in community practice is rich and varied. The traditional creations that are found in most musical genres belong to both the old and the new layer of creation. The present study aims to highlight the morpho-functional elements of a miniature genre - Chastushki - which can be performed exclusively vocally or with instrumental accompaniment. Chastushki, a musical genre based on improvisation, is specific to traditional Russian culture and was brought from the territories of origin by Lipovan Russians from Dobrogea. This genus is currently threatened with extinction.
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This work critically examines the ethnographic narratives concerning Scanderbeg. While pondering on the position attributed to this historical figure on the formation and articulation of collective meanings - the "self", the "other", law, and justice. Our analysis will specifically focus in comparing the ethnographic data that are embedded and amplified within the monumental history of Scanderbeg, Albania's national history with the ethnographic narratives deemed as minor or classified as inferior data to tell the hero's history. At the end, this work should be read as an invitation to re-examine a number of purposefully forgotten ethnographic territories as a mean to articulate a broader anthropological understanding on the national hero.
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In the article, the authors analyze the historical and recent trends in the use of the decorative and applied artifacts as didactic tools in the development of fine arts teachers and education in general and summarize the data received for reforming the musical and pedagogical education in Ukraine. The general purpose of the study is to generalize historical, multiregional, typological approaches to the role of the decorative and applied heritage in the contemporary pedagogical education, to define its constructive and conservative role. All results were formulated in the form of brief conclusion abstracts, which are called the frame public and educational regularities related to the subject being studied. As a result of the study of the methodological literature, the educational policy documents and the fine arts teacher training traditions allowed us to outline two substantial lines for the use of tradition of the applied folk art in the development of the fine arts teachers. The first one is to form values: the awareness of the spiritual, aesthetic, accumulating, nation-building, identification, culture-preservation role of the applied folk art. The second one is to acquire practical competencies of fabrication of artifacts with one’s own hands following the traditional artistic models, or fabrication of elements of such artifacts, variations thereof, etc. The international importance of the article is determined by numerous regions, traditions, approaches and contradictions analyzed within the subject of research. This can be of interest for educational typologists, methodologists who develop new methods of interdisciplinary, cultural and artistic aspects of the future teacher development.
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Bulgarian men go “On the trails of Zographou saints“, uniting Bulgarian saints who at some point lived in the Bulgarian monastery on Mount Athos. With Stara Zagora as a town of departure and Zographou as a destination this trail is chosen as a research object. Having in mind the memory sites and saints included in the trail, it is studied from the perspective of commemoration, cultural heritage preservation, national identity and national memory construction but also regarding its center and periphery.Bulgarian men go “On the trails of Zographou saints“, uniting Bulgarian saints who at some point lived in the Bulgarian monastery on Mount Athos. With Stara Zagora as a town of departure and Zographou as a destination this trail is chosen as a research object. Having in mind the memory sites and saints included in the trail, it is studied from the perspective of commemoration, cultural heritage preservation, national identity and national memory construction but also regarding its center and periphery.
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Church situations and clergy throughout history have been closely linked to current political developments and to secular authority, so items used by priests very often, besides spiritual ones, carried a great deal of information of everyday occurrences. Privately preserved collections and archives offer an interesting source of information about a particular settlement. The author of the article gives a hypothetical image of a segment of daily life in Kochani from 1900 onwards, using materials from one clerical family from Kochani as a source of information. This article is mostly based on handwritten notes and records by the oldest priests in the Popovtsi family: Gyorgi Kotsev Stojanov and his son Dimitar Pop Gyorgiev. Although the family is known in the city as “Popovtsi” to this day, some of the family members carry the surname Kochevi and the others Pop Gyorgievi. 199 The objects that are preserved as an inheritance in the Popovtsi family from their ancestral priests are selected in several categories: 1. Items used for the service (table crosses, church vessels); 2. Liturgical books; 3. Records and photographs, and 4. Personal items (counters, clocks), as a symbol of certain social status in society. On this occasion, we publicly thank the great-grandson named after his grandfather Dimitar Pop Gyorgiev and his wife Daniela Pop Gyorgieva for the opportunity to have an insight in the personal belongings of their ancestors.
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Some of the most striking and interesting moments in the traditional Bulgarian calendar are the masquerade games. In the different villages of the Pleven region they are performed on Ivanovden (old and new style), imbued with spells for fertility and health. They are related to agriculture and animal husbandry, which are the main livelihoods here. Masked troops circling the village and bless all the houses they visit. The purpose of the message is to introduce the general public to a little known local custom, which is performed on Ivanovden (07.01) in the town of Trastenik, know in the past as the village of Marashki Trаstenik. The custom named „Kiorava kobila“. There are different legends of the observance, which told in the years that continue to those days. According one of them, the owner called Ivan and that’s the name was memorialize in this custom. 270 So from time immemorial, on the Ivanovden team of horses circling the house for health and the farmers donate them with money, food, pretzel and different presents. Following the all-Bulgarian tradition, also in Trastenik, the games in the observance “Kiorava kobila” are organized around two main moments: walking around the villages and final actions on the square in the village. The observance “Kiorava kobila” is a holiday, saved until this day. There is a growing interest in masquerade games and the growing participation of the youngest generation.Some of the most striking and interesting moments in the traditional Bulgarian calendar are the masquerade games. In the different villages of the Pleven region they are performed on Ivanovden (old and new style), imbued with spells for fertility and health. They are related to agriculture and animal husbandry, which are the main livelihoods here. Masked troops circling the village and bless all the houses they visit. The purpose of the message is to introduce the general public to a little known local custom, which is performed on Ivanovden (07.01) in the town of Trastenik, know in the past as the village of Marashki Trаstenik. The custom named „Kiorava kobila“. There are different legends of the observance, which told in the years that continue to those days. According one of them, the owner called Ivan and that’s the name was memorialize in this custom. 270 So from time immemorial, on the Ivanovden team of horses circling the house for health and the farmers donate them with money, food, pretzel and different presents. Following the all-Bulgarian tradition, also in Trastenik, the games in the observance “Kiorava kobila” are organized around two main moments: walking around the villages and final actions on the square in the village. The observance “Kiorava kobila” is a holiday, saved until this day. There is a growing interest in masquerade games and the growing participation of the youngest generation.
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The object of this research will be the legend from Samokov, about the tomb of the “last” Bulgarian ruler, Tsar Ivan Shishman, for whom, the regional memory assigns post mortem cohabitation in a sepulcher with the unknown Kasăm Baba. At the local level it “produces” traditions and cults of Christians and Muslims, which activate the myth of “kidnapped faith”.
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Macedonian traditional folk tales and legends have a significant role in the overall heritage of our oral literature. Each area has preserved at least one, and sometimes more than one legend or folk tale. Certain folk tales that share the same central motif can be found in several different versions. What this work discusses are the folk tales and legends or myths that have been registered in the region of Kochani based on different motifs and categories: folk tales about historical figures, places, events, or supernatural beings. These literary pieces have been preserved until this day. The focus will primarily be directed towards folk tales related to the rice, as an important agricultural crop on which the economic and social life of the population depended.
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Once again, the text draws attention to toponymic legends, which embody and explore this famous epic folklore motif. On this occasion, the author analyses narratives from settlements located along the locus “Vratsa – Oryahovo – Vidin”. The outlined research examines the hypothesis of the existing connection between the spread of the motif and the road communication in the region during the Middle Ages. Particular attention is paid to the mythogeographic topos “The Danube River”.
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Along with the water and milk, wine is the main liquid substance in the traditional folk culture of the Bulgarians and all peoples of the vineyard area. As a result of human activity it fits into the cultural gains. Wine takes an active part in the awareness of cosmic, natural and human life. Wine participates in the movement of the celestial bodies, af¬ 148 fects the flora and fauna, as well as agricultural and pastoral life. It marks the life and calendar cycle and regulars the social structures. It also controls time, marks the constant and transient cycles in the calendar and life. The attached data speak of the powerful potential of the wine substance, which is not only a drink, but also a cosmic, sacred, mysterious and socializing liquid, that overcomes chaos and marks order and structure. Wine is powerful catalyst and regulator in the natural and human universe.
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The arguments in this paper support the claim that the Balkan traditional culture’s ploughing implements – ard and plough – were considered as a substitute of a holy tree in which a supreme male solar deity lives. It is, above all, indicated by the same ritual context (objects, actions, verbal formulas) both of the the first ploughing and sowing custom when ard or plough are used and of some annual and living cycle customs in which the cult of a holy tree is undisputed. It is also indicated by the appearance of the ploughing implements’ parts in the customs of annual and living cycles as well as the appearance of the elements of these customs in the custom of the first ploughing and sowing. In the paper, the idea that the ploughing and sowing were considered as a sexual act between a male heavenly principle and the Earth as a female divine principle is supported. However, it is suggested that the male deity is in a ploughing implement while its phallus is the very plowshare. The fact that ploughing belongs to the domain of divine is also confirmed by the elements of folklore, first and foremost by the ritual song “A ploughman is ploughing an even field” that is sung to a ploughman (typical of the Shops area).
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The article examines the invariant ideas of the song in the context of the mythological relations between the Sun and the Moon and the calendar coordination of their cycles before and after the adoption of Christianity (and the forming of the Bulgarian folklore). The short version covers the period from the beginning of the Great Indiction in 876 to 895 AD. The extended version covers the period from 972 to 991 (includes episodes from the short version) and up until 1000 AD (an unsuccessful attempt by the Sun to marry a new wife, then returns to the first).
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The article is based on an oral history project carried out in 2002–2003. The results were published in the volume “Voices of Their Own: Oral History Interviews of Women”. The text analyzes four life stories from Gotse Delchev region: from the villages Luzhnitsa (three) and Kornitsa (one). It follows the life trajectory of women, who have made the difficult choice to be different in a community in which girls usually seldom leave their birth places and do not have chance to get higher education. The double standards, gender hierarchy and asymmetry in the local attitude towards girls and boys in the isolated village, personal disappointments and/or satisfaction are told through the stories of Feride Zarbasheva, Feride Kissio, Fama Byalova and Naila.
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The text traces knowledge, skills and cultural practices related to the local fishing community in the village of Varvara, in the southern part of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Their activities in the local community are described – as organizers of festivals, as participants in tourist accommodation, hunters in winter, fishermen most of the time. The local community recognizes fishing as part of a livelihood – a job that requires hard work and a regular presence at sea to succeed. At present, the cultural heritage of the fishing community is not perceived as a cultural value to be considered in terms of local wealth based on knowledge and skills. In other words, fishing is seen as a business, not a sparing form of relationship with natural resources. That is why the local cultural heritage needs protection and systematic monitoring, as the dynamics of interaction are strong, the conditions of fishing, the emergence of fish and its demand are changing, and the possibilities for heritage as a living practice are questioned.
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Mythology and fantasy, the elements of the time very long ago, have been interwoven with the contemporary language in oral literatur forms and onomastics. These elements of the past, although supposedly left very far behind, keep appearing in some new forms in surnames. This approach attempts to identify the characteristics of surnames in semantic, etymology and some other branches of linguistics. Mythological motifs are no longer used for surname formation since that category disappeared long time ago. Still, these surnames are worth the scientific exploration and corpus positioning. So, originally cited and described and analyzed examples in this paper represent a substantial philological, ethnological and anthropological treasure.
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Rituals are most apparent and most manifested elements of any culture. Customs and rituals are all around us and we observe them in manners of addressing God, in communication with others and in the manners of having food or drinking water even. As far as we can see back in human history we will find, more or less, development of some form of rituals. The word ritual itself connotes some kind of repetitiveness, even banality. However, in the world of constant changes, rituals have a role to preserve some secure spot, to be the axes of balance. This article presents a theoretical analysis of the significance and the role of rituals in religious and cultural milieu and it also shows how rituals have a crucial function therein. We here show evidence that rituals are a practical expression of every religion. Surely the main feature of any religion is its worldview and its system of values as these are also primary contents of every culture. However, rituals serve to bring these abstract teachings expressed in theoretical formulations into real life and to disseminate the same into wider community. Thus, rituals are also the most general form of mnemotechnic and culture of memory through which memories of one community circulate and are transferred from generation to generation. Rituals are congested form of symbols and therefore valid decoding and understanding of these symbols is of crucial significance for an adequate practice of rituals. Thus, in some elements, rituals are very similar to arts, in a sense that arts as well uses symbols to deliver certain messages which are otherwise difficult to comprehend.
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This paper observes the origin, development process, and influence of zadarski tanac [the dance of Zadar], the only dance that the local community considers specifically its own. It belongs to the field of so-called “cultural-artistic amateurism,” and is approached first from the perspective of dance, and then from that of music. The choreography emerged in 1997 and soon after disappeared from the scene, only to resurface in 2013. It is performed by two folklore societies currently active in Zadar, whose recent emergence is closely linked to the recognition of this dance as their own tradition. Apart from the music and dance, the paper deals with the lack of folklore amateurism in Zadar for almost two decades. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the genesis of zadarski tanac, legitimately recognized as Zadar’s heritage (primarily thanks to the activities of two Zadar folklore societies), and thus contend with numerous ideas about the origin of zadarski tanac.
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