Moldovan traditions (part 4 - Funeral customs)

In addition to the focus on ceremonies, the popular faith encompasses a belief that for each man, there exists a star and a tree. The falling of the star marks the death of a person. The fir, the tree of life, is placed at the head on the grave of a deceased person. The fir is brought from the forest by a group of young men. They are met at the entrance of the village by a group of women. The women sing a song about the link of the man with the tree of life. The song talks about the grief of the fir as it becomes obliged to dry and to rot near its brother, the deceased person.

Another funeral custom is the dawn song, or the Great Song (bocetul). It is sung by a group of appointed old women at the dawn of the two days between a death and a funeral.This song advises the dead person and describes the journey that he or she will make into the land of the dead ancestors. It is a song of a poetic metaphor of the myth of the great transition.

Also expressed is a wish for the sun to rise later in the day, so that the family of the deceased have more time to prepare for the ceremonies. The preparation of the funeral consists of greeting the relatives, making the funeral objects, such as the coffin, the vial that will cover the body, the funeral candle and the carriage with bulls, as well as the preparation of the food to be served to relatives and friends during the meal after the funeral. During all of the funeral proceedings, there is a wake organized for the deceased. A body is never left alone, and those present at the wake tell stories about the deceased. A group o old women mourn the body as well.

Moldavian wedding dance

If you are going to attend moldavian weddind, be prepared to dance. To dance the whole night long. To dance even if you can not move anymore.

Shantel DISKO PARTIZANI

Balkan music, suitable for moldovan wedding.



Music makes a big part of moldovan wedding traditions.

Customs of Moldova (Part 2 - From death till birth)

Customs of Moldova can be divided generally into: family customs, calendar-based customs and religious customs. They represent a "triptych" marked by the three major life changes: birth, marriage and death.

Customarily, death represents the transition from the material life to the spiritual life of one's ancestors. Marriage is considered mainly as the transition from youth to adulthood. Birth signifies the establishment of a new biological life. A birth signifies its own customs, related to the mother and to the baby. During a pregnancy, a prospective mother must observe some interdictions that will protect the baby from supposed evil spirits. The birth itself represents the transition from the unknown to the known world--or from the "blackness" to the "whiteness."

The ceremony of the "first bath" is one of the most important Moldovan rituals. Only the women can assist in the bathing of the newborn child, and the oldest woman related to the father of the baby is in charge of the event. Fresh, clean water enriched with flowers, money, honey and milk are thought to purify and join the newborn to the family. The elder woman gives the cleansed baby to the mother with wishes for the child's moral, spiritual and physical integrity. She wishes for the child to marry, to be good-looking and healthy, to be respectful of his or her parents and to be a patient person. She wishes that the child thrives, grows to maturity, becomes hardworking and experiences good luck in life.

The second important moment related to birth is the Christening of the child, a ceremony in which the child is named. In the Eastern Orthodox church, the spiritual, or "God-parents" of the child have an important ceremonial function. Usually, the child will be named after the God-father, or after a close family member. Later, the God-parents will play an important role in the wedding ceremony of the child.

Short fight on wedding ceremony

Traditions in Moldova (part 1)

Many wedding traditions in the Republic of Moldova are common with those in Romania. The Moldovan folklore developed within the borders of the two great regions of European civilization--the west and the southeast. Over the centuries, the Moldovan people crystallized their own popular culture. This culture expresses the need for communication between man and nature, between man and man, and among different human groups. The customs have also been an instrument in the exchange of goods, services and information. Matrimonial ceremonies exemplify the customs in a specific way.

The Romanian practice of faith and spirituality have been in synchrony and in harmony with aspects of popular trades and facets of regional geography. Therefore, Moldovan holidays, while diversified by regional traditions, have common threads running through them. The same unity can be found in the traditions and customs throughout the country. They include Christian and non-Christian holidays, which can ba traced back to a pre-Christian period of history. Since Moldovan is mainly and Eastern Orthodox country, this form of Christianity permeates the spirit of the holidays, with other themes such as the seasons or common trades being blended within religious themes.

Two main groups of people appear in the expression of popular customs: those who are living and the ancestors who receded them. Moldova culture carefully preserves the memory of ancestral peoples. The focus of the popular spirituality is found in each village. The trades of the villages were mainly agricultural. Moldovans traditionally were farmers who worked the land, kept vineyards, raised cattle or lived as shepherds.

Spring and summer were known as the time to work the land. Autumn represented the harvest and winter was dedicated to the formation of artistic creativity or spiritual growth. Delicate, graceful and sober--the popular art of Moldova was preserved by the village. Village leaders assumed the tasks of guarding the originality, individuality and permanency of artisans' work. The nature of the village was driven to be in strict harmony with the natural environment of the entire country. Today, traveling throughout Moldova and the neigboring Romania, one can be pleasantly surprised when observing the extent to which one village differs from another village in terms of their general outlook. These differences underscore not only the cultural influences of a location, but also the specific details of the land surrounding a village...

to be continued in the next post

New "Prodigy"