OUR PROJECT ANTHEM

The Polish team has prepared an anthem for our project. Please read and learn it by heart so that we could sing it together when we meet soon. The music for the song is being prepared and soon it will be published here, too.

Chorus

We Ethno Treasure Hunters

The beautiful mix of cultures

We are looking for treasures

For us these are pleasures

1.

The whole Europe acts as one

Showing lots of tolerance

We search for friend in everyone

Giving you and me a chance

Chorus

We Ethno Treasure Hunters

The beautiful mix of cultures

We are looking for treasures

For us these are pleasures

2.

We discover traditions

Teaching positive reactions

Experience new sensations

Don’t accept limitations

Chorus

We Ethno Treasure Hunters

The beautiful mix of cultures

We are looking for treasures

For us these are pleasures

Chorus

We Ethno Treasure Hunters

The beautiful mix of cultures

We are looking for treasures

For us these are pleasures

LYRICS:  students - Tomasz Lenczewski, Aleksandra Stasiak, Oliwia Ormaniec,

teachers - Joanna Wilczyńska, Izabela Marczak

MUSIC:  teacher - Monika Rzepecka-Tranda

Mother's Day/ Women's Day

In Romania, the 8th of March represents the celebration of Mother's Day and Women's Day.
On this day, women receive flowers and/or small gifts from their family and friends. It is a day when children celebrate their mothers.  In schools, children prepare small song and poems shows for their mothers and teachers for this day. Of course, they are coordinated by their teachers from school. they make Mother's Day cards, which they offer to their mothers, sisters, other female family members, to their female teachers, to friends.
On this day, women have a short day and they usually have parties with their co-workers, or friends, or with their family members.
So: Happy Women's Day to all our partners: women, girls, as well as to our male friends :d

Mărţişor

Mărţişor (Romanian pronunciation: [mərtsiʃor]) is a traditional celebration of the beginning of Spring, on 1 March. It is a tradition in Romania, Moldova, and all territories inhabited by Romanians and also Aromanians. Almost the same custom can be found in Bulgaria (see Martenitsa) and similar ones in Albania and Italy.

The name Mărţişor is the diminutive of marţ, the old folk name for March (Martie, in modern Romanian), and thus literally means "little" or "dear March". It is also the folk name for this month.

Mărţişor, marţ and mărţiguş are all names for the red and white (or black and white, also blue and white) string, from which usually a small decoration is tied, and which is offered by people on the 1st day of March. Giving this Talisman to other people is an old custom, and it is believed that the one who wears the red and white string will be powerful and healthy for the year to come. It is also a symbol of the coming spring. Usually, women wear it pinned to their blouses for the first 12 days of this month, until other certain spring celebrations, or until the bloom of certain fruit-trees. In some regions, a gold or silver coin is hanged from the string, which they wear it around the neck. After wearing it for a certain period of time, they buy red wine and sweet cheese with the coin, according to the belief that their faces would remain beautiful and white as cheese, and rubicund as the red wine, for the entire year.

In modern times, the Mărţişor lost most of its talisman properties and became more of a symbol of friendship and love, appreciation and respect. The black threads were replaced with red, but the delicate wool ropes are still a ‘cottage industry’ among the country people. They still comb out the wool, dye the floss, and twist it into thousands of tassels. In certain areas the amulets are still made with black and white ropes, for warding off evil.

The Mărţişor is a talisman (amulet) made of knitted threads (wool, cotton, or silk). Nowadays, the most popular version of it is made of red and white threads, but in some regions it is still made of black and white, or even blue and white.

Black and White

Initially, the Mărţişor string used to be called year's rope (‘’funia anului’’, in Daco-Romanian), made by black and white wool threads, representing the 365 days of the year. ‘'The Year's Rope'’ was the link between the winter and the summer, black and white representing the opposition and also the unity of the contraries: dark & light, cold & warmth, death & life. The ‘’Mărţişor’’ is the thread of the days of the year, spinned up by Baba Dochia, likewise the thread of man's life, which is spinned up at birth by the fates (Ursitoare).

White is the symbol of purity, the sum of all the colours, the light, while Black is the colour of origins, of distinction, of fecundation and fertility, a colour of the fruitful soil. White is the sky, the Allfather, while Black is the mother of all, Mother Earth.

Red and White

According to the ancient Rome tradition, the ides of March was the perfect time to begin the war campaigns. Related to this context, it is considered that the red string of Mărţişor signifies the vitality, while the white one is the symbol of victory.

Red is the colour of fire, blood, and the symbol of life, associated with the woman. Meanwhile, White is the colour of the cold snow, foamy waters, the clouds, and also of man's wisdom. So, the thread of the Mărţişor represents the union of the feminine and the masculine principles, the vital forces which give birth to the eternal cycle of the nature.

Red and white are also the complementary colours present in all the key traditions of the Daco-Romanian folklore.

George Coşbuc stated, in a research over the Mărţişor, that it is a symbol of fire and light, a symbol of the Sun. Not only the colours, but also the traditional silver coin hanged up from the thread is associated to the Sun. White, the colour of the silver, is also a symbol of power, force. This is only one of the reasons why the Mărţişor is a sacred amulet. The round form of the coin is associated with the round form of the Sun, while the material of it, silver, is associated with the Moon. This is, again, the unity of the masculine and feminine principles, and the eternal movement of the matter.

In the Daco-Romanian folklore, the seasons are attributed symbolic colours: spring is red, summer is green or yellow, autumn is black, and winter is white. This is why one can also say that the Mărţişor thread, knitted in white and red, is a symbol of passing, from the white winter, to the lively spring, associated with fire and blood.

Relation to the Bulgarian Martenitsa

Some ethnographers, especially Romanian, consider the clearly related Mărţişor and Martenitsa as being of Thracian origin, which they believe is attested by archaeological evidence. They argue that the Bulgarian legend concerning the origin of the Martenitsa is nothing more than a late 19th century Romanticinvention, not rooted in the past. They argue that Martenitsa was the result of Romanian influence on Bulgarian traditional culture (see also Căluşari, Kukeri, etc.)

Theories in Bulgaria

According to one of the several proposed legends about the Martenitsa in Bulgaria, the custom has roots in the late seventh century. This legend, first attested in the 20th century, says that the Bulgar Khan Asparukh wanted to send a message to other Bulgars across the Danube. He tied his letter with a white string to the leg of a white pigeon. The Eastern Romans (i.e. Byzantines) saw the pigeon flying and hurt it with an arrow. It was finally able to deliver the important message but the white string has turned into reddish because of the pigeon's blood. The Bulgars then started to wear this thread.

Another Bulgarian alternative theory completely omits the role of the Bulgars in introducing the Martenitsa into the Balkan folklore, and instead links the custom to the Thracians (but without a Romanian connection)


Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%83r%C5%A3i%C5%9For

Dragobete, the Romanian version of St. Valentine's Day

On February 24, the day when the Orthodox Christian church celebrates The Finding of St. John the Baptist's Head, the Romanian folklore celebrates the day called Dragobete. Dragobete was the god of love in the Romanian pantheon, protector of love and good spirits.

Dragobete, the God of love and cheerfulness in Romania, called also the Hedad of spring or the Head of summer, is the son of Dochia. He is identified with Cupid, the god of love in Roman mithology, and with Eros, the god of love from  the Greek mithology. Locally, he is called the Hothead, handsome young man, who makes girls and young women get infatuated with him. He was transformed by the Virgin Mary into the flower called Heart’s tongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium). Dragobete was celebrated by the young people from the villages until the mid 20^th century on February 24 and 28 or on March 1 and 25. 

In Romania, Dragobete was the day when the girls and boys put on their best clothes and, if the weather was good, they used to go out in the forest singing and looking for the first spring flowers. The girls used to gather snowdrops, violets, and other spring flowers, which they used to put near the religious icons and saved them till the holiday called Sanziene (Bedstraw, on Midsummer Day), when they threw them in the rivers. If they happened to  find wild strawberry flowers (Fragaria vesca), these flowers were gathered in small bouquets and they were put in the girls’ washing water whille they chanted:” Wild flowers of strawberry / Picked on February/ Let all people love me/ Send bad things away from me”.

On the Dragobete morning, the girls and young women used to gather the fresh snow, melt it and use it to wash their face and hair, believing that people would like better their face and hair.

On this day, usually the boys and girls would meet at one house and invoke the Dragobete to bring them their loved ones, and those who had no lovers hoped to find their own lover, so that they would be loved till the next Dragobete holiday. This meeting usually became a big party, with food, drink and dances. Sometimes the boys went to other neighbouring villages to celebrate Dragobete, singing and shouting over the hills, having fun.

People also believed that on Dragobete the birds that did not migrate would gather in great flocks and chirped and chose their mates and started to biuld their nests. The birds that could not find their mates would have no chicks during summer. The old people celebrated Dragobete to protect them against colds and other illnesses.

Romanian version:

La 24 februarie, in ziua cand ortodoxia sarbatoreste Aflarea capului Sf. Ioan Botezatorul, spiritualitatea populara consemneaza ziua lui Dragobete, zeu al tineretii in Panteonul autohton, patron al dragostei si al bunei dispozitii.

Zeul dragostei si bunei dispozitii pe plaiurile carpatice, numit si Cap de Primavara sau Cap de Vara, este Dragobete, fiul Dochiei. El este identificat cu Cupidon, zeul dragostei in mitologia romana, si cu Eros, zeul iubirii in mitologia greaca. Local, este numit Navalnicul, fecior frumos care ia mintile fetelor si nevestelor tinere, metamorfozat de Maica Domnului in floarea cu acelasi nume. Dragobetele a fost sarbatorit de tinerii satelor pana la mijlocul secolului al XX-lea la 24 si 28 februarie sau la 1 si 25 martie. In ziua de Dragobete pasarile nemigratoare se strang in stoluri, ciripesc, se imperecheaza si incep sa-si construiasca cuiburile.

La noi, Dragobete era ziua cand fetele si baietii se imbracau in haine de sarbatoare si, daca timpul era frumos, porneau in grupuri prin lunci si paduri, cantand si cautand primele flori de primavara. Fetele strangeau in aceasta zi ghiocei, viorele si tamaioase, pe care le puneau la icoane, pentru a le pastra pana la Sanziene, cand le aruncau in apele curgatoare. Daca, intamplator, se nimerea sa gaseasca si fragi infloriti, florile acestora erau adunate in buchete ce se puneau, mai apoi, in lautoarea fetelor, in timp ce se rosteau cuvintele: "Floride fraga/Din luna lui Faur/La toata lumea sa fiu draga / Uraciunile sa le desparti". 

In dimineata zilei de Dragobete fetele si femeile tinere strangeau zapada proaspata, o topeau si se spalau cu apa astfel obtinuta pe cap, crezand ca vor avea parul si tenul placute admiratorilor.

 De obicei, tinerii, fete si baieti, se adunau mai multi la o casa, pentru a-si "face de Dragobete", fiind convinsi ca, in felul acesta, vor fi indragostiti intregul an, pana la viitorul Dragobete. Aceasta intalnire se transforma, adesea, intr-o adevarata petrecere, cu mancare si bautura. De multe ori baietii mergeau in satele vecine, chiuind si cantand peste dealuri, pentru a participa acolo la sarbatoarea Dragobetelui.

 Se mai credea ca in ziua de Dragobete pasarile nemigratoare se aduna in stoluri, ciripesc, isi aleg perechea si incep sa-si construiasca cuiburile, pasarile neimperecheate acum ramanand fara pui peste vara. Oamenii batrani tineau aceasta zi pentru friguri si alte boli.

 Dragobetele era sarbatorit in unele locuri si la data de 1 martie, deoarece se considera ca el este fiul Dochiei si primul deschizator de primavara.

 Obiceiurile de Dragobete, zi asteptata candva cu nerabdare de toti tinerii bucovineni, au fost in buna parte uitate, pastrandu-se doar in amintirea batranilor. Iar in ultimii ani, Dragobetele autohton risca sa fie dat cu desavarsire uitarii, el fiind inlocuit de acel Sfant Valentin ce nu are legatura cu spiritualitatea romaneasca.




Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragobete


http://www.e-transport.ro/DRAGOBETE_OBICEIURI_DE_DRAGOBETE_ZIUA_INDRAGOSTI-i41-news25867-p82.html

http://www.studiidecaz.ro/index.php?ifile=text_full&id_text=290&id_text2=10e2407cd8164a94a0b2d7565def0bc9&caption=DRAGOBETE-SARBATOAREA-DRAGOSTEI-LA-ROMANI