One of the special aspects of Romanian culture is its close ties with folklore and has such created some of the countries most vital and time honoured traditions. Their folklore is not restricted to just stories and music however, it also penetrates other customs such as art. Traditional Romanian folk art can include a number of mediums such as ceramics, wood carving and weaving.
For a long time wood was the material of choice not only for carving and decoration but for construction too, so in many older homes you are likely to find beautiful ornate wooden decorations. In some areas they made massive structures such as Church’s and gates and even windmills. Hardwood was used in the mountain ranges as the roofing of choice due to its longevity and ability to cope with extreme changes in temperature.
Another popular form of folk art is embroidery with regional motifs; although the designs vary from region to region the main coloured used throughout Romanian is black. The favour material in the region is linen for the warmer months and wool for winter.
The most vibrant of all the folklore traditions is their music and dance, there are many different styles of music but the most valued is their sentimental music which is usually a sad song in the form of a ballad. When it comes to the party their music has two distinct influences, Balkan and Hungarian. Romanian folk dance is practiced by a wide range of people from armatures to professionals and the national desire to keep this tradition alive is deeply rooted. Hora is Romania’s most famous dance of all, while the men’s dance căluşari is an extremely complex routine which takes year to master. It is however such a beautiful dance that UNESCO has named it a “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritages of Humanity”.
Mioriţa is one of Romania’s most valued peices of folklore; the word means the little ewe. The story is about three shepherds and their flocks of sheep. One of the shepherds, a Moldovian, has a magic ewe and she tells her master that the other two shepherds are plotting to kill him and take all that he owns. The shepherd advises the ewe that if this in indeed the case he should be buried by the sheep’s pen, and that his killers are to be advised that he married a princess and all of nature joined in with the wedding, but in the end the star fell.
If however the ewe was to ever met his mother she should only mention the part about him marrying a princess.
There are also a number of Romanian myths that have since travelled the world and given rise to one of today’s most popular entertainment genres. The vampire idea has most likely risen from two places, firstly and well known is Vlad the Implaer who was Bram Stokers inspiration for Count Dracula and the Romania myth of Strigoi. The tale of the strigoi tells that they are distressed souls of the dead who return from the grave, in some cases they can even be living people with magical powers. Their powers can include transformation into animal form, invisibility and most importantly to the vampire myth the ability to drain the living of blood. Romanians believe there are a few ways in which a recently dead person can become a strigoi, firstly if they die before they are married they are at risk of becoming one.
Bizarrely though in most cases where this happens the corpse is married to someone of similar age to prevent them from returning. If this fails and the deceased does return they will visit their new spouse to have sex and then attack the remaining family members. The only way to stop the strigoi at this point, and another important fact of modern vampire lore, is the corpse must be stabbed through the heart with a sickle or similar object. Another way to become a strigoi after death is if a cat walks over the grave. To stop the recently dead from rising lore states that a bottle of wine should be buried by the grave and left there for six weeks, after such time the bottle should be dug up and the contents drunk amongst the deceased’s family.
There is also the mythology of the werewolf, a sobolan which is a huge rat creature and solomonar which is roughly translated into wizard. It also has a number of interesting fairytales such as ‘The 12 sisters and the demon bride’ and’ Let thee be marked in magic’. There are many characters in their folk literature and even some heroes.